Kyselo (Czech Sourdough Mushroom Soup)
Serves 5 Time 1 hour Difficulty 2/5 Ingredients 11 Steps 9
Kyselo or krkonošské kyselo is a traditional Bohemian sour soup featuring mushrooms and sourdough. It originates from the Krkonoše mountain region in northern Bohemia. Kyselo is a nutritious food, so it is often served as a main course, but in small quantities it could also be served as a soup course.
Ingredients
- Potatoes
- 100 g sourdough starter, ideally made with rye flour
- 15 g dried porcini mushrooms, preferably Central European
- 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
- 1250 ml water
- 1 onion, chopped
- 20 g butter
- 3 chicken eggs
- Salt
- Vinegar
- Chopped green herbs, such as parsley or scallion
Steps
- Boil potatoes in their skins. Peel, chop into small pieces and roast in a dry pan.
- Stir the sourdough starter into 250 ml tepid water in a bowl. Cover with a clean cloth. Rest at room temperature, 30 minutes to 3 hours.
- Put 1000 ml water in a stockpot. Add the dried mushrooms and caraway. Boil at least 15 minutes to make a strong broth.
- Add the sourdough mixture to the broth, stirring well, so it does not shrink into small dumplings.
- Boil, stirring, until the sourdough thickens the soup, about 10 minutes.
- Sauté the chopped onion in butter. Stir into the soup.
- Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt. Scramble in an ungreased pan. Stir into the soup.
- Season with salt and vinegar. Soup should be mildly sour, flavored mainly by the mushrooms and sourdough.
- Serve hot, garnished with the chopped herbs, with the potatoes on the side. Add more vinegar and salt to taste.
Notes from the original
- The eggs can also be be hard-boiled and chopped instead of scrambled.
- Sometimes kyselo is made softer by adding cream.
- 150 g fresh mushrooms may be used instead of the dried ones.
- The potatoes are sometimes boiled directly in the water: added at beginning into the stockpot and then logically not roasted. But, roasted potatoes are crispy and more delicious. There are also variants without potatoes.
- Do not the potatoes to the soup; potatoes should be served separately and added by consumer itself just before eating. It preserves the crispness of the potatoes.
- Sometimes other sour, mushroom-based Czech soups are mistakenly referred to as kyselo. The difference is that kulajda and other such similar soups use sour cream or milk and vinegar instead of sourdough. To avoid confusion, kyselo is often called Krkonošské kyselo, meaning "kyselo from the Krkonoše region".
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Kyselo (Czech Sourdough Mushroom Soup)” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2026-01-03, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Krkonošské kyselo.jpg by Krakonoš, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.