Next time you want a comforting bowl of soup, try making a hearty bean and sour turnips soup Jota. Jota is a real winter dish, made of seasonal ingredients, such as turnips, carrots and potatoes, with a smoked pork meat add-on. Also, it’s healthy, delicious, budget-friendly and really easy to make.
Jota is a traditional thick soup, mostly known in the Primorska region in the Western part of Slovenia. You can find it on the menus of local restaurants along the coast and all the way up the border to Italy. In fact, it has also spread over the border. Not only is it served in restaurants but also in most mountain taverns and cottages.
Furthermore, I like this soup a lot. It was one of my favourite dishes already in kindergarten and school. Yeah, the food in school was just amazing. In fact, as you can see, they served us a national dish as well. Wink. Therefore, I wanted to cook it for my boyfriend. Since I can’t find the key ingredient (sour turnips) here in Hamburg, my mother had to send it from Slovenia.
Sour turnip as the main ingredient
Sour turnip is a wonderful product. As I mentioned before, it’s delicious and healthy. For instance, it’s high in vitamins A and C, calcium and lutein (protects your eye from sunlight damage). Also, it’s very versatile. In fact, the sour turnip is a part of many popular traditional Slovenian dishes.
I’ve always thought and I still think Jota tastes better with sour turnips than sour cabbage. Sour turnip comes already in big jars or packages. And it’s not a whole turnip as you may think. The turnip is grated. In fact, it looks like a thick crisp square spaghetti. Wink. Which practically makes it a slurpy soup, too.
Smoked pork makes a difference
In some recipes, smoked meat is added. And I just love the addition of smoked pork collar, spareribs or a sausage. Yummy! My mother also puts chunks of prosciutto in it. However, the smoked pork collar is added at the beginning while the spareribs later on, when the soup is cooking. On the other hand, the sausages should be first cooked separately (in water and wine) and then added to bean and sour turnips soup Jota at the very end.
Moreover, Jota is, just like Jecmenka (another Slovenian dish), a wonderful fulfilling soup that can be made in advance. Actually, it tastes way better the next day. For instance, if you make a lot of it, keep some for the next day and freeze the rest (so I’ve heard). Still, I’ve never done that. There was simply nothing left. Wink.
Why I diced one potato and halved the other one? The reason is, that I mashed one potato after it was tender and to do that I had to “catch” it first. Therefore, I left two bigger pieces. Consequently, the mashed potato helps to thicken the soup.
In case, you are interested in more Slovenian dishes, you are welcome to check these out: a wonderful baked milk rice pudding, a famous Bled cream cake in a glass, a vegetarian frtalja, a hearty segeding goulash or a classic egg stuffed meatloaf. In the future, I am going to add more Slovenian recipes. It’s a promise.
Ingredients for about 4 portions of bean and sour turnips soup Jota:
- 500 g sour turnips (or sour cabbage/sauerkraut)
- olive oil
- 200 g smoked pork neck/collar (cubed; or smoked spareribs or whole sausages)
- 1 Tbsp flour
- 1 carrot (diced)
- 3 garlic cloves ( sliced)
- 2 potatoes (peeled, one diced, one halved)
- 2 stems of parsley (chopped)
- 200 g of kidney beans (originally cranberry beans)
- 3 bay leaves
- salt and pepper
Start with peeling, slicing, dicing and chopping the vegetables. Once everything is prepared, drizzle some olive oil in a deep pot and when it gets hot, add the smoked meat cubes. If you decided on sausage, you should cook it separately in a mixture of water and wine and then add it to the soup, when It’s almost done.
Furthermore, stir-fry the meat for a couple of minutes and then, sprinkle some flour on top of it. Stir well in order to prevent it from burning. After it turns golden-brown and you see some kind of foaming, remove the pot from the heat and add the sour turnip.
Just before adding the rest of the soup’s ingredients, stir well, to combine. Now add the potatoes, carrots, garlic, parsley, beans and the bay leaves. Last but not least, return the pot on the heat and pour in hot water until it’s 2 cm above the ingredients.
One-pot Slovenian soup in less than an hour
Season with some salt and pepper and bring to boil. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover with a lid and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. After half an hour, take out the potato halves, mash them using a spoon and then return them to the pot. At this point, if you are making Jota with sausages, it’s a good time to add them to the pot, too.
Furthermore, let it cook for another couple of minutes, then remove from the heat and let it rest (covered) for 10 minutes. If you are making it ahead (which I recommend), let it cool down completely and then store it in the fridge overnight. The next day, you simply heat it up and enjoy.
Finally, divide the steaming hot bean and sour turnips soup Jota between the bowls and serve it with some slices of bread. Or what I really love, serve it with some delicious either salty or cheese breadsticks. This thick soup will really warm you up on a cold day and bring some colour to your cheeks. Wink.
Enjoy!
PS
If you like the recipe, if you make the recipe or if you have any new ideas how to improve or change it, let me know in the comments section below or alternatively share your photos and reactions with me on Instagram (@Passionspoon), Facebook or Twitter (@PassionSpoon1). Simply use the hashtag #passionspoonrecipes in your posts. I would love to see them! (wink)
