Comfort Food in a bowl

This Polish Vegetable Soup is just comfort in a bowl. My grandmother was from a small village in what is now Belarus. Her family had a lot of cultural Polish roots, as the area was sometimes Polish and sometimes Russian controlled. The food I remember from her house had a frequently Polish-Jewish heritage to it.

This recipe originally came from a cookbook called “Healthy Jewish Cooking” by Steven Raichlen. I have had this cookbook for a long time. Prior to our celiac diagnosis and changing our diet to be gluten-free, I made many recipes out of this cookbook. When we had to switch our diet, I missed some of our favorite recipes from this cookbook.

Making the original recipe gluten-free and easily dairy-free

I was able to make some changes to the recipe and adapt it for our Gluten-free and dairy-free needs. If you need it to be completely dairy-free, just use olive oil for the butter (or your preference of dairy-free fats). If you can’t have coconut milk (what I use for a sour cream alternative), you can use any dairy-free milk alternative.

The dumpling dough is easy to make Gluten-free by using an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend. I do find it takes a bit more water than the original recipe called for and a bit longer cooking time for the dumplings. I used my Gluten-free flour blend and added a bit of xanthan gum.

The video below shows exactly how I make it and I discuss the ingredients and method. I did make a 1.5 times batch in the video, but I discuss what amounts the original recipe called for. If you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments.

I want people to realize you can still have many of your favorite foods, just have to develop a way to make them Gluten-free, or dairy-free, etc. It isn’t really difficult once you realize what the ingredients accomplish in a recipe and how you can substitute something else that will do the same.