Name: Barszcz biały: Polish white borscht with sausage and egg
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 5 servings
Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients: 500 ml ready-to-use wheat sourdough starter for barszcz biały, well mixed; 400 g fully cooked Polish white pork sausage, refrigerated until use; 500 g potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 cm pieces; 100 g carrot, finely grated; 50 g cultured sour cream, 18% fat; 1 L water, divided; 4 g fine salt, divided; 4 g dried marjoram; 1 g ground black pepper; 5 l arge eggs; 10 g flat-leaf parsley, chopped

A wide view of „Barszcz biały: Polish white borscht with sausage and egg“ arranged on a table for serving.

Yield 5 servings

Serving size about 500 ml soup with 1 hard-boiled egg

Difficulty easy

Category Polish fermented-grain soup; contains wheat, egg and milk

Ingredients ↓

At a glance

Barszcz biały: Polish white borscht with sausage and egg

This tangy Polish soup combines fermented wheat starter, white pork sausage, potatoes and carrot, finished with marjoram, cultured cream and a hard-boiled egg.

Barszcz biały is a gently sour soup built around a fermented grain starter. This version uses ready-to-use wheat starter, fully cooked white sausage, potatoes and carrot; a small amount of sour cream softens the sharpness without hiding it. Simmering the starter briefly with the vegetables and sausage brings the broth together while keeping the soup light rather than heavily thickened.

The name overlaps with żur in Polish culinary history, and the distinction is not uniform across regions. Wheat starter is a common modern way to distinguish barszcz biały from rye-based żur, but official regional records also document white barszcz made with rye starter. This recipe chooses a wheat-based version and is not presented as an exact reproduction of any one listed regional product.

Serve each bowl hot with one hard-boiled egg and a little parsley. The fermented starter gives the broth its sour note, while the sausage and potatoes make it filling enough for a main course. The recipe yields five bowls of about 500 ml each, with one egg per serving.

Ingredients

Soup

500 ml ready-to-use wheat sourdough starter for barszcz biały, well mixed
400 g fully cooked Polish white pork sausage, refrigerated until use
500 g potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 cm pieces
100 g carrot, finely grated
50 g cultured sour cream, 18% fat
1 L water, divided
4 g fine salt, divided
4 g dried marjoram
1 g ground black pepper

To serve

5 l arge eggs
10 g flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Method

Directions

Hard-boil the eggsPlace the eggs in the small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then cook for 10–12 minutes, until both the yolks and whites are firm. Cool, peel and set aside one egg per serving.
Cook the potatoesPut the potatoes in the medium saucepan with 500 ml water and 2 g salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10–15 minutes, until nearly tender. Keep all of the cooking water with the potatoes.
Heat the sausage and carrotWhile the eggs and potatoes cook, put the fully cooked sausage and grated carrot in the soup pot with the remaining 500 ml water. Cover and simmer gently for 8–10 minutes, until the carrot is soft and the sausage is steaming hot throughout.
Add the starter and potatoesStir the wheat starter thoroughly to redistribute any settled flour. Add it to the soup pot with the potatoes and all of their cooking water. Stir in the remaining 2 g salt, marjoram and black pepper.
Simmer the soupBring the soup back to a gentle simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, without letting it boil hard. Remove the pot from the heat.
Temper the cream and serveIn a small bowl, stir several spoonfuls of hot soup into the sour cream. Pour the tempered cream into the pot and stir. Ladle into five bowls, add one hard-boiled egg to each, sprinkle with parsley and serve hot.

Nutrition per serving

Serving sizeabout 500 ml soup with one egg
Caloriesabout 475 kcal
Carbohydratesabout 26 g
Proteinabout 24 g
Fatabout 30 g
Fibreabout 3 g
Sugarsabout 3 g

Approximate estimate for one bowl with one hard-boiled egg and parsley. Values vary with the white sausage, starter’s flour concentration and the cultured cream brand. The estimate assumes a generic pork sausage and about 50 g flour in the 500 ml starter.

Allergens and food safety

Serving, storage, reheating and make-ahead: Serve barszcz biały as a main-course soup with one hard-boiled egg in each bowl. The chopped parsley adds a fresh finish. The fermented starter and sausage are the defining ingredients in this version; bread is not included in the measured recipe.

Serving, storage, reheating and make-ahead: Cool leftover soup in shallow containers and refrigerate within two hours. Keep it at or below 4 °C and use within 3–4 days. Reheat until steaming hot throughout; 74 °C is a conservative target. Store any hard-boiled eggs separately from the soup and refrigerate them promptly. Do not boil the soup hard after adding the cultured cream. The starter is prepared ahead or purchased ready to use; this recipe does not include instructions for fermenting it from scratch or freezing the finished soup.

Contains wheat/gluten, egg and milk. Keep the fully cooked sausage and cultured cream refrigerated until use; heat the sausage until steaming hot throughout. Cool leftover soup in shallow containers and refrigerate within two hours. Keep it at or below 4 °C and use within 3–4 days. Reheat until steaming hot throughout; 74 °C is a conservative target. Refrigerate any extra hard-boiled eggs promptly and store them separately from the soup.

Stir the wheat starter thoroughly before pouring it in so its settled flour reaches the soup.

Cook the potatoes in half of the water and add all of their cooking liquid to the pot.

Barszcz biały: Polish white borscht with sausage and egg

Ingredients

Soup

To serve

Method

Nutrition per serving

Allergens and food safety

Polish National Dishes

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