Chunky Potato Soup Recipe with Cabbage, Smoky Pork Sausage, Butter Beans and Sour Cream

My chunky potato soup recipe makes a hearty, creamy potato soup with sautéed cabbage, smoky pork sausage and butter beans that’s garnished with fresh fragrant dill and a dollop of sour cream. It’s a deliciously filling soup that’s more like a stew and perfect for an easy mid-week meal or lazy weekend when you’re in the mood for staying in and hugging a comforting bowl of broth.

This chunky potato soup recipe makes one of our best potato soup recipes, a creamy potato soup made with fried cabbage, smoky pork sausage and butter beans, to which I add fresh dill and finely chopped parsley, and a dollop of sour cream, which I stir through just before eating.

It’s in the style of an Eastern European soup that you’ll often see called a white borscht recipe, but it’s partly inspired by my baboushka’s recipe for a Russian cabbage soup called shchi. I leave out the dried spices, flavouring the broth with garlic, bay leaves and fresh herbs, and seasoning simply with salt and white pepper, so it’s more family-friendly.

But before I tell you more about my chunky potato soup recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying something on Amazon, such as these classic cookbooks for serious cooks or cookbooks for culinary travellers. Now let’s tell you all about this chunky potato soup recipe.

Chunky Potato Soup Recipe with Cabbage, Pork Sausage, Butter Beans and Sour Cream

Perhaps because we’ve spent so long in mainland Southeast Asia, where the soups are typically light and clear and the toppings restrained – the easiest way to identify a soup made in the diaspora is that it’s so abundant with ingredients, it could feed two! – when the sky is grey and the temperature drops a few degrees I’m craving dense broths like my baboushka made.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore Southeast Asian soups such as nom banh chok and kuy teav. The broths may be thin but thanks to the fresh noodles, fragrant herbs and aromatic spices they’re full of flavour. I just sometimes yearn for the hearty home-style soups of my childhood and perhaps that’s nostalgia more than anything.

This chunky potato soup recipe makes a soup that’s partly inspired by the white borscht recipes found in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and neighbouring countries, and the beloved Russian soup called shchi – for which I also have a recipe (link above), which makes an incredibly delicious soup.

As you can see from that recipe, they’re a bit ‘same same but different’, as we say here in Southeast Asia, but obviously Eastern European in style and flavours.

My chunky potato soup could be from anywhere but is from nowhere in particular, however, for me it’s the boiled potatoes, fried cabbage, pork sausage, fresh dill, and sour cream that make it distinctly Eastern European and Russian-Ukrainian for me.

Tips to Making this Chunky Potato Soup Recipe with Cabbage, Sausage, Butter Beans and Sour Cream

I only have few tips to share with you for making my chunky potato soup recipe as it’s really a cinch. This recipe calls for chicken stock and pork sausage, but for a vegetarian version you can use vegetable stock instead, or even water and bump up the seasoning and herbs.

We always have homemade chicken stock in the fridge, which we make when we poach chicken breasts using this super simple method I explained in this chicken and potato soup recipe.

My Russian-Ukrainian grandmother used a kind of soft smoky pork kielbasa or Polish sausage in her soups, which were easy to get in local delis, and added loads of flavour. We can’t get them here, so I’ve used a British smoky pork sausage.

While this chunky potato soup recipe is easy to make and comes together in 40 minutes or so, you can certainly leave it to simmer longer and the potato will break down even more, creating an even denser soup.

If you want the soup creamier, add the sour cream just before serving and stir it through the soup. If you prefer a thinner soup, simply add more stock or water, but don’t forget to adjust the seasoning and herbs.

As far as herbs go, I love adding fresh dill and fresh parsley – but Terence tells me not everybody is as smitten with dill as I am, so you could use a combination of fresh parsley and celery leaves or whatever you prefer.

Chunky Potato Soup Recipe with Cabbage, Pork Sausage, Butter Beans and Sour Cream

Chunky Potato Soup Recipe with Cabbage, Pork Sausage, Butter Beans and Sour Cream

AuthorLara Dunston

This chunky potato soup recipe makes a hearty and creamy potato soup with sautéed cabbage, pork sausage and butter beans that’s garnished with fresh fragrant dill and a dollop of sour cream. It’s a deliciously filling broth that’s perfect for an easy mid-week meal or lazy weekend when you’re in the mood for staying in and hugging a comforting bowl of soup.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 40 minutes mins

Course Soup

Cuisine Eastern European, Russian

Servings made with recipeServings 2

Calories 1096 kcal

Equipment

Soup Pot

Carbon Steel Wok

Fine Mesh Strainer

Ceramic Soup Bowls

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

• 220 g potatoes - peeled and diced
• ½ tsp salt
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 100 g onion - diced
• 2 garlic cloves - minced
• 1 litre chicken stock - or water if making a vegetarian version
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp sea salt or to taste
• 1 tsp white pepper or to taste
• 1 tsp sugar – optional
• ½ head white cabbage - shredded
• 2 pork sausages - sliced – emit for a vegetarian version
• 240 g butter beans - drained
• 2 tbsp dill - fresh, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp curly-leaf parsley - fresh, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• Cracked black pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• In a pot of salted water, boil the diced potatoes for around 15 minutes until they’re just starting to soften.
• Meanwhile, in a wok, fry pan or skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until shimmering, then fry the onions for 3-5 minutes until soft, add the finely chopped garlic and fry for a minute until fragrant, taking care not to burn the garlic. Add a splash of hot water, stir, and transfer the onion and garlic to a big soup pot.
• To the soup pot, add a litre of chicken stock – or water if making a vegetarian version – and bay leaves, sea salt, white pepper, and sugar (optional) and turn onto high.
• To the same wok, fry pan or skillet, heat another 2 tablespoons of olive oil until shimmering, then slide in the shredded cabbage, turning so it’s covered in olive oil, and fry over high heat for about 8 minutes until soft and brown, then transfer to the soup pot.
• Drain the potatoes and transfer them to the soup pot, along with the drained butter beans and sliced pork sausage. When the soup comes to a boil, turn down to medium to simmer for 15 minutes or so until the potato breaks down more and it’s thick and chunky.
• Taste the soup, season with additional salt and pepper if needed, add half the fresh dill and parsley, stirring well so the herbs don’t clump together.
• When you’re ready to serve, ladle the soup into bowls and drizzle on extra virgin olive oil, plop a dollop of sour cream onto each bowl, and sprinkle on the remaining dill and parsley and cracked black pepper.
• Serve immediately with crusty bread or toast and additional bowls of sour cream and fresh herbs.

Nutrition

Calories: 1096kcalCarbohydrates: 65gProtein: 43gFat: 75gSaturated Fat: 18gPolyunsaturated Fat: 9gMonounsaturated Fat: 43gTrans Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 104mgSodium: 3266mgPotassium: 1936mgFiber: 15gSugar: 23gVitamin A: 779IUVitamin C: 96mgCalcium: 177mgIron: 7mg

Please do let us know in the comments below if you make this chunky potato soup recipe for a hearty potato soup with cabbage, pork and butter beans, as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.