Nothing pleases more than homemade beef noodle soup on cold days! In this recipe, you will find tender beef, lots of vegetables, and thin egg noodles. The soup is cooked with homemade beef broth and tastes simply delicious.
➜ What is Czech beef soup with noodles
The beef soup belongs to Czech comfort food that Bohemian grannies made on weekends or when someone had to recover from an illness.
I prepare the soup in a large pot, letting it low simmer for three to four hours. The soup gains a strong taste and there will be no need to season it with any artificial flavorings.
Here you find a great recipe for fresh noodles. You will have plenty of time to prepare them before the soup is finished. In my opinion, homemade noodles are the best part of beef soup!
Instead of wheat noodles, celestine noodles, egg dumplings, or liver dumplings can be inserted into the soup.
➜ Pronunciation
For those who are curious: In the Czech, this beef noodle soup recipe is called "hovězí polévka s nudlemi".
If you're wondering how to pronounce the Czech name of the recipe "hovězí nudlová polévka," I've recorded a short audio clip for you. I am a native speaker, so you will hear the authentic Czech language!
MY TIP: Want more hearty meals? Try this Czech potato soup (it tastes fantastic!)
➜ Ingredients
To make beef soup with noodles, you will need:
- Bone-in beef short ribs; or beef shank. Thanks to the bones in the meat, the soup gets a stronger taste.
- Spices: bay leaves, allspice, peppercorn
- Vegetables: carrot, celeriac, parsley root, onion, garlic, leek - for the traditional version of Czech beef soup. I know that celeriac and parsley may not be available in every store. In that case, you can omit one or the other vegetable and use turnips. This is a white vegetable that you can find at the market all year round.
- Salt and ground black pepper
- Green parsley, to garnish the soup
- Water
✅ You'll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.
➜ Instructions with photos
STEP 1: Pour cold water into a large soup pot, put in the meat, and peeled halved onion. Bring to a boil. Before the soup starts to boil, turn down the heat. Use a slotted spoon to collect the foam that forms on the surface.
STEP 2: Add the spices, salt the soup slightly, and cover with a lid so that there is a hole on one side of about half a centimeter. Steam will escape through this. Let it bubble for 3 hours to get a delicious broth and flavorful soup base.
STEP 3: Clean the vegetables and cut them in half. Add it to the broth and let it cook for another 30 minutes. In that time the vegetables should soften just enough to bite.
STEP 4: Next time, carefully remove the vegetables and beef and allow them to cool. Meanwhile, strain the broth into a clean pot through a fine-mesh strainer. Any impurities and cooked spices will remain trapped in the strainer.
STEP 5: Cut the meat and vegetables into cubes about 1 cm large. Add the vegetable and beef cubes back to the broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
STEP 5: Serve the beef soup hot in a large bowl with homemade noodles, sprinkled with chopped parsley.
➜ Storage
Once the soup has cooled, refrigerate it so that it does not spoil. It will keep for 3-4 days in the fridge.
If you want to freeze the soup, it's a good idea to put up to two portions in an airtight container and store them in the freezer. Beef soup will keep here for about 3 months.
➜ Useful tips
- Add the spices to the soup only when you have skimmed the foam from the surface. If you added the spices right at the beginning, they would remain hidden in the foam and you would scoop it out (and throw it away) with the foam.
- The soup must be cooked at a gentle boil only. If you boil it sharply, it would boil off unnecessary liquids, and the soup could be muddy and not clear. You want to have enough water in your soup!
- Pro tip: A perfect way for the whole family to enjoy the soup is to serve it as the first course at a weekend lunch together.
More Czech soup recipes:
- Clear garlic soup - česnečka
- Leek potato soup - pórková polévka
- Kulajda mushroom soup
Or try these beef roll ups, called Ptacky!
Tried this recipe?
Leave a review down in the comments! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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📖 Recipe
Bohemian Beef Noodle Soup
Tap or hover to scale
Ingredients
- 1 pound bone-in beef short ribs (or beef shank)
- 1 medium onion
- 2 pieces bay leaves
- 5 pieces allspice
- 10 pieces peppercorn
- 2 medium carrots
- 5 ounces celeriac can be omited
- 3 ounces parsley root can be omitted or substituted; see notes
- 4 inches leek cleaned
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 6 cups water cold
Instructions
- Pour 6 cups water, cold, into a large soup pot. Add 1 pound bone-in beef short ribs and a peeled, halved 1 medium onion. Bring to a boil. Just before boiling, reduce the heat and use a slotted spoon to skim off the foam that forms on the surface.
- Add the spices: 2 pieces bay leaves, 5 pieces allspice, 10 pieces peppercorn and a little salt to the soup. Cover with a lid, leaving a small gap of about half a centimeter for steam to escape. Let it simmer gently for 3 hours to develop a delicious broth and flavorful soup base.
- Clean 2 medium carrots, 5 ounces celeriac, 3 ounces parsley root, 4 inches leek, 2 cloves garlic and cut them in half. Add the vegetables to the broth and let the soup cook for another 30 minutes, until the veggies are tender but still slightly firm to the bite.
- After that, carefully remove the vegetables and beef, allowing them to cool. Meanwhile, strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean pot. This will trap any impurities and cooked spices.
- Cut the meat and vegetables into cubes about 1 cm in size. Add these cubes back into the broth. Season with 2 teaspoons salt and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper (or more) to taste.
- Serve the beef soup hot in a large bowl with homemade noodles, garnished with chopped parsley.
Notes
- The basic recipe makes about 6 portions.
- I understand that celeriac and parsley may not be available in every store. If needed, you can omit one or both of these vegetables and use turnips instead.
- Add the spices to the soup only after you have skimmed the foam from the surface. If you add the spices at the beginning, they will get trapped in the foam, and you will discard them when you skim the foam off.
- The soup must be cooked at a gentle boil. If it boils too vigorously, it will lose unnecessary liquids and may become cloudy instead of clear.
Melissa says
I really miss eating Czech food is there a recipe book you would recommend if so where could I purchase it please as im from England
Petra Kupská says
Ahoj Melissa, thank you for your comment! Try the Czech cookbook written by Kristyna Koutná, I am sure she is selling her cookbook via Amazon, also in your country. Best wishes, Petra
Marilyn says
For those of you not familiar with Bohemian or Czech cooking, this recipe is the real deal.
Having been raised on European soups with broths carefully spiced and seasoned, American canned soup just does not measure up. This soup took me back to my "Babi's" kitchen, where she would use allspice berries, garlic, fresh dill, bay leaf and marjoram regularly to flavor family meals..
Celeriac wasn't available at that time, so we just used celery.
Instead of chopping the meat and vegetables after cooking the soup, she would serve the vegetables whole and meat in larger pieces. Next, she would add noodles to each bowl, which had been cooked separately so they could be used for future serving, and the hot broth was poured over it.
We would eat the meat and vegetables first, like a meal, cutting ingredients with our spoon, because they were so tender.. Then we would eat the noodles and finally drink the last of the broth from the bowl. Every drop was preciously delicious.
Sometimes, she would remove the beef short ribs after making the soup and add them to barbecued beans, making yet another family meal for later. However, the soup was still delicious because of the flavorful broth.
Thanks for a great recipe and a great memory, Petra. I can't wait to make this.
Anicka Cooklikeczechs.com says
Thank you for your comment, Marilyn. I am so happy that the recipe brought back memories of your grandmother´s cooking. I hope you will enjoy cooking the soup and it will be to your liking.
Janet says
Hi Petra, Thank you for this recipe! It sounds just like my mother's. Can't wait to try it. My mom also used a beef broth for serving liver dumpling soup. Is this the recipe you would use for that? Are Czech liver dumplings ever made with beef liver rather than chicken livers? I am trying to replicate my mom's recipes! Thank you so much for your website (I am a subscriber).
Petra Kupská | Cook Like Czechs says
Hi Janet, thank you so much for your kind words, and for subscribing! That really means a lot to me. 😊
You can definitely use this recipe as a base for liver dumpling soup. When it comes to the type of liver: if you're making the soup with chicken broth, I'd stick with chicken liver. But if you're using beef broth, chicken liver might clash a bit with the flavor.
Beef liver has a very strong, distinct taste, so if you're trying this for the first time, I’d actually recommend using pork liver instead, it’s a bit milder and more balanced.
Good luck recreating your mom’s recipe, what a special project!
Bob says
We have used this recipe for decades, as did my mom and grandma. Liver dumplings were often the added treat. Many times making this they used oxtail or neckbone, always using all cuts of meat available.
Petra Kupská says
I love how this recipe has travelled through generations in your family. Using oxtail, neckbone, and all the available cuts is true traditional cooking.
Happy cooking.
Petra
Paul:-) says
Hi Petra,
We had this lovely broth this evening, alas with dried egg tagliatelle as I don’t have a rolling pin to roll the noodle dough for homemade.
It involved a last minute dash to our nearest Eastern European grocery for some Parsley Root. The fattest and longest I’ve ever seen in the UK! It really does make a difference to the real flavour. Whilst I’m no expert in Czech cookery I am fortunate enough to be able to find Parsley Root locally and have become to love its flavour.
The full 3.5 hours of gentle simmering made a really tasty broth. Well worth the wait!
Thank you again for a lovely meal,
Paul:-)
Petra Kupská says
Hi Paul,
thank you so much for this wonderful message—it truly made me smile. 😊 Dried tagliatelle sound like a good stand-in, and honestly, the heart of this broth is the long, gentle simmer—you clearly gave it the time it deserves. I am so glad it was worth the wait and that you enjoyed the meal.
Thank you again for cooking from the recipe and for sharing your experience—it means a great deal.
Warm wishes,
Petra