Featured comment:
“Saw this recipe on twitter on Wednesday and made it yesterday. Awesome! Thanks for such a unique recipe!” ~Patsy
The first time I saw dill pickle soup it was on Pinterest, and I filed it away in my mind as something I *might* want to try sometime. Just like a lot of you, I’m sure, it’s not something I’d ever had before and it seemed a bit, well… odd. But somewhere in the back of my mind I was intrigued by the combination of creamy soup and tart, vinegar-y dill pickles and it nagged at me until I finally got around to trying it for myself. This dill pickle and brat soup is a winner (I think it has a lot to do with the smokey brats!)
Turns out I LOVE dill pickle soup ~ especially with the brats I added to give it a more satisfying substance and balance out the briney pickle flavor. I give this two thumbs up and hope you try it. We actually made 3 batches of this soup over the course of a few weeks and everybody went wild for it. It’s a great conversation piece for parties, and a lot more delicious than you might imagine. If you love this idea, you’re definitely going to want to check out my Dill Pickle Potato Salad Recipe, it’s always a huge hit!
Dill pickle and brat soup is quick and easy to make ~ after you’ve sautéed the onions and carrots, almost everything else just gets dumped right in. You can do it on the stove or in the crock pot, and either way you’ll add the sour cream at the end.
The flavor of the brats infuses beautifully into the soup, so I highly recommend using them. You could also substitute sausage, ham, hot dogs, or maybe even bacon, although I haven’t tried that.
TIP: Grilling the brats first gives an extra layer of smokey flavor that really works in this soup. Crank up the grill pan nice and hot for some good color.
*This soup was inspired by my friend Cathy of Noble Pig, her soup went viral and was even featured on The Chew! My recipe was adapted from the Polish dill pickle and smoked ham soup on Salt and Lavender.
Dill Pickle and Brat Soup
Equipment
- slow cooker (optional)
Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 cup finely chopped dill pickles
- 3 large red potatoes, skins on, cut in 1/2 inch dice
- 32 ounce carton chicken broth
- 1/2 cup pickle juice
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
- 3 cooked brats, grilled and sliced (you may want to cut each slice in half, for smaller pieces)
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 3 tablespoons flour
- Salt & pepper, to taste
garnish
- fresh dill
- thinly sliced pickles
Instructions
- Coat the bottom of a heavy pan with olive oil and saute the onion and carrot for about 5 minutes, or until the onion has softened.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, up to but not including the sour cream, and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender but not mushy.
- Mix the flour and sour cream together until completely combined, and stir in to the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and cook for a further few minutes.
- Serve garnished with sprigs of dill and thinly sliced pickles.
- CROCK POT METHOD: Put everything in the crock pot up to, but not including the sour cream, etc. Let it cook on low for 4 hours. Stir in the sour cream and flour mixture, and cook for another hour until smooth and slightly thickened.
Notes
- Use any type of brats for this, but cooked ones are easiest. If yours are raw, cook them up before adding to the soup. Mine were actually bacon and cheddar brats from Neuskes, which I had in the freezer from Christmas. They come already cooked, so I just popped them in a grill pan to give them a little color, and sliced them up. They gave the soup an extra flavor boost.
- For a variation you might try adding some shredded sharp cheddar cheese at the very end, just before serving.
Nutrition
I’m planning on making this for a girls weekend and there are 6 of us which is the number of servings your recipes says it makes How big of serving per person would you say this makes?
I always look at the liquid content when I’m trying to figure out how much a soup or stew makes, and this uses 32 ounces of stock. I would say that’s fine for 6, but if you wanted it to be the main course, I’d allow 8 ounces of liquid per person, so you could just augment the recipe with a little more stock and sour cream and you should be fine.
can this dill pickle and brats soup be caned in a jar. i do allot of canning .
Gosh Ann, I’ve never canned soup, so you are probably much more knowledgable than me about this one since you do a lot of canning.
Saw this recipe on twitter on Wednesday and made it yesterday. Awesome! Thanks for such a unique recipe!
Thanks Patsy, I always feel like twitter is a waste, but I guess not ~ I’m glad you found me!
First time making it. A friend that just moved from Maui to Wisconsin told me about it. His husband made it for him. It sounded fantastic and I haven’t been able to think of anything else.
The flour made lumps in the soup. ?
I mixed it well with the sour cream what went wrong?
Could it be the sour cream that curdled slightly in your soup? That might look like flour lumps. Sour cream is notorious for curdling in hot liquids, but mixing it with the flour should have prevented that.
I actually simmered it longer and the lumps dissolved. Thanks for your reply. It’s a hit with my family.
Oh good, thanks so much for coming back to let me know 🙂
Hi!
This sounds really nice. I just want to know what “brat” is? A kind of saussage?
It’s a type of German sausage, Maritha. You could use any type of sausage you like in this soup.
this isn’t low carb
No, I don’t claim that it is particularly low carb, I’m not sure where you read that Liz?
Because this recipe is listed under 20 crockpot keto recipes…
Oh, not sure how that happened…my recipes wind up in all sorts of places!
I substituted radishes for potatoes and xanthan gum for flour to make it low carb. Xanthan gum thickened it but it also didn’t dissolve so it looked kind of weird but it tasted really good!
Looks delicious! Love those toast recipes, might have to try some of them, I am always so boring with the toast I serve with soup!
My Polish Grandmother always used to make Ogorki soup like this… I think it is about time I tried to make some of her recipes myself – this looks like a nice easy place to start 🙂
Let me know how you like it!
Hi Sue, really appreciate the shout out, and I think your version looks amazing!! 🙂
Pinned–this would be perfect for my husband! On a similar note, I have a pickle juice bread recipe on my list 😉
Oh I need that recipe, Inger!!