Sauerkraut Chowder

"Perfect comfort food on a snowy or cold night. this is the most amazing soup I have ever had and it gets even better reheated the next day! Not only that but anyone I have made it for has become addicted even if they do not like sauerkraut. It is my mother's recipe and I was easily able to make it vegetarian. It can also be made low fat. I have listed both options for meat eaters and vegetarians. It can be made vegan if vegan ingredients are substituted for the dairy ones but I have not tried that yet. It is best with buttery crackers but it is plenty a meal by itself. Note: I am not sure of can and package sizes so they are estimates, but I think that I am pretty close, this is a hard recipe to ruin."
 
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photo by alenafoodphoto photo by alenafoodphoto
photo by alenafoodphoto
photo by alenafoodphoto photo by alenafoodphoto
photo by alenafoodphoto photo by alenafoodphoto
photo by Mika G. photo by Mika G.
photo by pamela t. photo by pamela t.
Ready In:
45mins
Ingredients:
8
Serves:
6
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ingredients

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directions

  • Cut potatoes into bite size pieces (you can peel them if you would like, I leave the skin for extra nutrients) place in a dutch-oven or soup pot, cover with water, add onions and boil until cooked through and fork tender.
  • When potatoes are done add sauerkraut, evaporated milk and cream cheese; stir until cream cheese is completely blended.
  • At this time if you wish to add the kielbasa do so.
  • Add salt and pepper to taste (don't let the sauerkraut fool you, the potatoes take away most of the tartness so you will need more salt than you think so make sure to taste).
  • Cover and cook at a low simmer for 30 minutes.

Questions & Replies

  1. Is the cooking water for the potatoes drained before adding the other ingredients?
     
  2. Can this soup be made ahead and frozen?
     
  3. Asking if Potatoes are necessary for thickening the soup.? Husband cannot have any starch. Also No green veggies ( Vit K ) . Thought tho peeled Zuch and shredded maybe carrots too?? might use to add bulk to the soup along with the Kraut. thanks.
     
  4. Did anyone ever answer the question if you drain the potatoes or not? I had the same question when reading the directions.
     
  5. Do you drain the water from the potatoes?
     
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Reviews

  1. This is a family recipe submitted by my daughter. It is interesting to see how people "tweak" it for their own preference. It definitely is better the next day. Some said it was too thin. That may be due to the amount of water you use. I only use enough to just cover my diced potatoes. It will also thicken if allow to cook onn a low heat longer. My sister adds a stick of butter to hers but we usually leave that out or just add a small amount. I am really glad to see that people are still enjoying this recipe!
     
  2. I've made this soup multiple times and really liked it as-is. Warm and comfy for an early spring day. But faced with a glut of cooked corned beef left over from St. Patrick's Day, I chopped up a bunch in lieu of sausage. Very good. Also tossed in a small palm of dill weed. Yum.
     
  3. Wow!!! I had one of my kids that kept asking when we could eat because it smelled so good. I DOUBLED this in my crock pot. First I put in 1 1/4 cup of presoaked small white beans that I had sprouted the day before. I used the last of my russet potatoes then used red potatoes also. I used two smoked kielbasa that were 12 oz. each an I quartered them lengthwise then cut them every half inch. I cut my onion in half and sliced it by the quarter inch, then I browned it in butter before adding it to the crock on top of the potatoes. I buy my kraut in bulk, so used 4 cups for the doubled recipe. I did not drain the kraut, so some of that liquid was used in place of the water. I only added enough water to cover the potatoes. Cooked on high for 5 hours then I put one 8 oz. brick of cream cheese on top and 8 oz. of sour cream on top of that. Twenty minutes later I came back to stir it all in. It wasn't as thick as I wanted so I added another 8 oz brick of cream cheese.<br/><br/>My mom who doesn't care for kraut loved this and most of my kids liked it too. <br/>Next time I will try to do it "correctly" , but this was still yummy.. And bonus, I had enough for my son and I to have for lunch the next day.<br/><br/>So I layered this in my crockpot as follows:<br/>Beans, potatoes, onions, kraut and kielbasa then black pepper.
     
  4. I never understood why sauerkraut exists. Now I know.
     
  5. As a "dad" who doesn't cook much (short of grilling steaks), I treated the family to this dish tonight. I made the polish kielbasa version of this, and grilled the kielbasa before adding, and also used the fat free versions of cream cheese and evaporated milk. <br/><br/>Despite the fact that I don't cook in the kitchen all that much, I nonetheless found this dish extremely easy to prepare. The best part was that the meal was a BIG HIT, and everyone thought it was delicious. I got a lot of praise for my efforts, and the family was surprised that dad could deliver such a tasty dish to the table. THANK YOU for sharing your mom's recipe with us. I hope you don't mind, but I believe that in the future, my girls will be referring to "your mom's recipe" to "One of our Dad's Awesome Recipes"... LOL
     
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Tweaks

  1. This was absolutely FABULOUS!! My whole family loved eating this delicious chowder. We had a friend Polish friend over the night I made it and he raved about it all through dinner! We're vegetarian so I used Tofurkey Kielbasa which was delicious:-). I only made 3 other modifications to my personal taste. I used baby red potatoes instead of russets as I prefer their flavor, I added a 3 cloves of garlic and at the end, just before serving about 1/3 cup minced flat leaf parsley.
     
  2. This soup really is amazing. It's my new favorite! I used smoked turkey sausage instead of kielbasa and it didn't need any extra salt. Thanks for sharing your mom's recipe! NOTE: I just made this for the second time. I used a very mild kraut and no meat and it had no flavor whatsoever. You definitely have to use a strong tasting sauerkraut and using a smoked sausage or kielbasa gives it alot of extra flavor.
     

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