Meerrettichsuppe (horseradish soup)
A potato-thickened cream soup finished with a generous amount of freshly grated horseradish stirred in right at the end, off the heat, since prolonged cooking drives off the sharpness that is the entire reason to make this soup. Freshly grated horseradish is markedly hotter than the jarred kind, which loses most of its bite in the jar within weeks.
Prep20 min
Cook25 min
Servings4
Christoph's horseradish soup, the horseradish stirred in off the heat at the very end so the sharpness survives the pot.
Ingredients
Written for a 3 L pot
Units
Temperature
Servings
Soup
- 400 g floury potatoes, peeled, in chunks rounded
- 100 g onion, finely chopped rounded
- 30 g butter rounded
- 900 ml vegetable broth rounded
- 60 g fresh horseradish root, peeled, finely grated, added at the end rounded
- 150 ml cream rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
- to taste freshly grated nutmeg rounded
- 10 g chives, sliced, for the top (optional) rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Sweat the onion with a pinch of salt for 5 minutes, until translucent.
- Add the potatoes and broth. Bring to a simmer and cook 20 minutes, until the potatoes are fully soft.
- Blend the soup completely smooth, either with a stick blender in the pot or in batches in a stand blender.
- Take the pot off the heat. Stir in the cream, then the freshly grated horseradish; adding the horseradish off the heat is what keeps its sharpness, since simmering it drives that off within minutes.
- Season with salt and nutmeg. Taste and add more horseradish if you want more bite; it varies enormously by root, so this is not a step to trust blindly to the written weight. Scatter with chives before serving.
Method in the Thermomix
Written for a TM5 or TM6, 2.2 litre bowl.
- Onion into the dry bowl. Chop 3 sec / speed 5. Add the butter. Sauté 4 min / 100°C / speed 1, measuring cup off.
- Add the potatoes and broth. Cook 20 min / 100°C / speed 1.
- Blend the soup smooth, 1 min / speed 8, ramping up gradually.
- Let cool for 3 minutes off the heat setting, still running the blades if you like, then add the peeled horseradish chunk and cream. Blend 10 sec / speed 6, just to grate and fold the horseradish through without cooking it further.
- Season with salt and nutmeg, taste, and adjust.
Notes
- Always add the horseradish off the heat, at the very end. Cooked, even briefly, it loses most of its sharpness and the soup ends up tasting merely of potato and cream.
- Fresh horseradish varies enormously in strength root to root and by season. Start with less than you think you want, taste, and add more; there is no reliable way to know the heat until you taste it.
- Grate horseradish in a well-ventilated kitchen, or turn your face away from the grater. Its fumes are genuinely sharp enough to sting the eyes, much like a strong raw onion.
- It does not keep especially well. The horseradish mellows noticeably by the next day; make just enough to eat within a day if you want the full sharpness.
Ingredient substitutions
- Fresh horseradish is worth seeking out specifically. Jarred, pre-grated horseradish has usually lost most of its punch in preservation and gives a noticeably milder soup.
- Cream can be swapped for crème fraîche for a slight tang alongside the heat.
- A poached egg or a few croutons are traditional garnishes alongside the chives.
From Christoph Mayer