Romanian Chicken Tomato Vegetable Soup
This hearty, cozy, nutritious and full of color chicken sour soup is packed with vitamins and full of flavor and goodness. It’s one of the most cooked and loved Romanian soups, enjoyed year-round not just in colder seasons.
Kids are also loving it and I recommend you to cook this nutritious soup to your kids. It can really be considered a meal as it is, for lunch or a easy dinner – or just a part of a more diversified menu.
Here is a lovely chef’s opinion about Romanian sour soups that I really enjoyed reading and hopefully they will get more famous all around with help from my posted recipes too. 🙂
Like this meatball soup, this chicken soup uses about the same vegetables but there are some minor differences in the preparation process.
That being said, let’s see what ingredients we need.
🍗 Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients I used. Keep in mind that if you don’t have one or other vegetable is not a big deal. Those are what I regularly use in my soups, but there was times when I did not have any parsley root or parsnips in my pantry.
Nevertheless, you’ll still get an amazing soup that will warm and delight you on the inside. Yaaay!!
- Chicken – I used chicken wings, but you can use whatever parts you have (except chicken breast that has less flavor and is not so good for soups)
- Veggies – onions, red pepper, carrots, parsley root, parsnip, celery root, potatoes
- Tomatoes – canned or fresh in season
- Homemade noodles (optional) – I like to put them in soups often
- Souring agent – borscht or vinegar / lemon juice
- Fresh parsley (and lovage if available)
- Salt to season
🍲 How To Make This Chicken Soup
Let’s get cooking, shall we? Follow the steps below to make this delicious soup and you’ll see that is really easy to make.
1. Prepare the meat
Rinse the chicken wings and cut them in 2. Take a large enough pot (1.5 gallons) and place the meat in. Cover the wings with cold water (fill the pot halfway).
Place the pot on medium low heat and place a lid on top, but let some space so the steam can evaporate. Let the meat cook slowly.
Stir from time to time and remove the foam several times until it’s not forming anymore (approx. 15 minutes).
Meanwhile, get working on the vegetables.
2. Prep the veggies
Clean, peel and wash the vegetables. Dice the onions and the red pepper. Grate the carrots, celery root, parsnip and the parsley root.
Note*: depending on how much dense we like our soup to be, we can keep parts of the vegetables as big chunks, cook them for flavor and remove them later on from the soup.
I grated just 2/3 of them, I used the remaining parts just to enrich the tastefulness of the soup. You can grate less or more, depending on your personal taste.
After we got rid of the foam and is not forming anymore, we can add the vegetables to the pot to simmer together with the meat. Stir and add 1 tsp of salt. Add more hot water so all vegetables have enough liquid to cook in.
Let them cook another 10 minutes. Meantime, peel and cut potatoes in small cubes. Add them to the soup. Let potatoes simmer for about 5 minutes before add tomatoes in.
3. Add tomatoes
Remove the vegetable chunks from the soup. Open up the tomatoes can and add it to the soup. I use the entire can because I like tomatoes, the tastiness, color and savor that brigs to any meal.
But if you prefer a less colored soup you can use half of that can. Let tomatoes cook for another 10 minutes and add in some noodles if you like. Let noodles cook for another 5-7 minutes.
Note*: If you have borscht (search for it in Hungarian or Polish stores) let it simmer in a small saucepan for 10 minutes and use it to finish the soup. If you don’t, you can use vinegar to sour the soup when finished.
Have a taste and if everything is OK – the meat is done, the potatoes and noodles also cooked, no more salt needed – turn off the heat.
Add the boiled borscht or 4-5 tbsp white vinegar / lemon juice. Stir. More vinegar can be added upon serving, according to personal taste.
Finely chop the fresh parsley and sprinkle on top. Serve.
🍽️ Serving Romanian Chicken Vegetable Soup
Serve this chicken soup in individual bawls with more fresh parsley and lovage if have some. It brings another level of tastiness.
Pair with your favorite bread and some chili peppers (optional). Enjoy this amazing chicken veggie soup packed with so much flavor and nutrients!
Check out these other delicious Romanian dishes:
- Romanian Meatball Soup (a staple Romanian dish)
- Romanian Sour Cream Garlic Chicken Soup (silky, flavorful comfort soup)
- Romanian Cabbage Rolls (pork stuffed cabbage rolls)
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Romanian Chicken Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 8-10 chicken wings
- 3 medium size onions
- 3 carrots
- 1 piece celery root
- 1 parsnip
- 1 parsley root
- 1 small red pepper
- 3 medium size potatoes
- 1 handful homemade noodles (optional)
- 1 bunch fresh parsley
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 tbsp salt (to taste)
- 4-5 tbsp vinegar (lemon juice) or 2 cups borscht (+ more to taste)
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken wings and cut them in 2. Place them in a large pot and cover with cold water halfway. Place on medium low heat and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring and removing foam as it forms.
- Clean, peel and wash the vegetables. Dice the onions and red pepper. Grate 2/3 of the parsnip, celery and parsley root. Keep the rest as big chunks to use for flavor. Add them to the pot and let them cook together 10 minutes. Add salt and more hot water to have sufficient liquid for vegetables to cook. Peel and cut the potatoes in small cubes. Add them to the soup. Let them simmer together another 5 minutes.
- Remove the vegetable chunks. Add tomatoes and cook 10 minutes. Add noodles and let them cook through for another 5-7 minutes. Taste and adjust saltiness if necessary. If the meat is done, turn off the heat and add the vinegar or lemon juice. Finish adding freshly chopped parsley on top. Serve with favorite bread and chili peppers (optional).
