Gulyásleves
Hungarian Goulash Soup- Yield
- Serves 4 to 6
- Active
- 40 minutes
- Total
- 2 hours 45 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
The story
Gulyás comes from the Hungarian word for a cattle herder, and the soup grew out of the beef that herdsmen cooked outdoors in an iron kettle called a bogrács. The earliest versions had no paprika, which reached Europe only in the 16th century. In the 19th century the herdsmen's dish was taken up by common people and aristocrats alike, and during the Hungarian national awakening the elite adopted it as a statement against Austrian cultural dominance. A 2026 review of old cookbooks by the Budapest news site Telex traced the earliest known printed recipe to Rézi néni's Szegedi szakácskönyv of 1876, where it appears as gulyáshús, to be cooked in a bogrács. Telex found the version closest to today's soup in Ágnes Zilahy's 1892 Valódi magyar szakácskönyv: 1 kilogram of beef simmered in 2 liters of water with root vegetables and a little potato. Today gulyás is built on beef, onion, paprika, caraway, potatoes and carrots, with csipetke, fingernail-sized bits of egg dough pinched straight into the pot. Plan on about two and a half hours of mostly hands-off simmering, and serve it as a full meal with crusty bread and a small dish of hot paprika on the table.
Ingredients
- For the soup:
- 2 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil
- 2 medium yellow onions (about 12 oz), finely chopped
- 1 1/2 lb boneless beef shank or chuck, trimmed and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon caraway seeds, lightly crushed
- 2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 7 cups water, divided
- 2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 small celery root or parsley root (about 6 oz), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 Hungarian wax pepper or Italian frying pepper, seeded and diced
- 1 medium tomato, diced
- 1 lb waxy potatoes (such as Yukon Gold), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
- For the csipetke:
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- For serving:
- Hot paprika or sliced fresh hot peppers (optional)
- Crusty bread
Sold in Eastern European delis and some farmers' markets; celery root (celeriac), stocked by most supermarkets, works in the same amount.
Italian frying pepper, Anaheim pepper or half a green bell pepper.
Method
- Heat the lard in a heavy 5- to 6-quart pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring often, until soft and translucent but not browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Add the beef, garlic and caraway and cook, stirring, until the meat loses its raw red color, 4 to 5 minutes; it does not need to brown.
- Take the pot off the heat and stir in the paprika (it scorches quickly over direct heat), then the salt, pepper and 1/2 cup of the water. Return to low heat, cover and stew gently for 45 minutes, stirring now and then and adding a splash of water if the meat starts to catch on the bottom.
- Add the remaining 6 1/2 cups water, bring to a simmer, partly cover and simmer gently for 45 minutes.
- Add the carrots, celery root, wax pepper and tomato and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the potatoes and simmer until the potatoes are tender and the beef is fork-tender, 20 to 25 minutes more.
- While the soup simmers, make the csipetke: mix the flour and salt in a small bowl, add the egg and knead into a firm, smooth dough, 1 to 2 minutes, adding a few drops of water only if it will not come together. Cover and rest for 15 minutes.
- Flatten the dough between your palms to about 1/8 inch thick and tear off fingernail-sized pieces directly into the simmering soup. Simmer until the csipetke float and are cooked through, 5 to 8 minutes.
- Taste and adjust the salt. Ladle into deep bowls and serve hot with crusty bread and, if you like, hot paprika or sliced hot peppers at the table.
Note: In Hungary gulyás is a soup; the thick beef stew Americans call goulash is pörkölt (see the Beef Pörkölt with Nokedli in this edition). The soup keeps 3 days in the refrigerator; if you plan to reheat it, cook the csipetke only in the portion you serve right away.