Czech Bread Soup (Chlebová polévka)

A sourish soup with the smell of caraway and garlic, made from leftover bread you almost threw away: that is Czech bread soup, or chlebová polévka. It is one of the oldest, most frugal dishes in our country. So do not toss out that stale loaf. Let me show you how our grandmas turned it into something worth sitting down for.

Jump to

• ➜ What is Czech bread soup?
• ➜ Czech pronunciation
• ➜ Ingredients
• ➜ Detailed instructions with photos
• ➜ Serving suggestions
• ➜ Bread soup as a quick video
• ➜ How to store
• ➜ Bread soup cousins and alternatives
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

➜ What is Czech bread soup?

Bread soup is exactly what the name suggests: a soup built on older bread simmered until soft in liquid.

Back then, in its plainest form, that liquid was nothing more than water. Cooks would add garlic and caraway seeds, and sometimes a fried onion. When eggs were on hand, they would thicken the soup with one or two beaten eggs, and to make it more filling, they simmered barley or buckwheat right in the pot.

Bread soup belongs to the old Czech co dům dá category, meaning "whatever the house gives," a dish made from whatever the pantry has to offer.

As with many dishes of this kind, there is no single authentic recipe. Across the Czech and Moravian regions, families made bread soup a little differently. Some cooks used broth or, in Valašsko (Wallachia), sauerkraut juice instead of water. Others fried or baked the bread cubes for a crunchier bite, while a few stirred in a splash of cream.

In my recipe, I will show you a modern version of bread soup, one that holds its own on flavor even in today's world.

Victoria, one of my readers, told me her grandmother even dried the rye bread in the oven and then grated it into the soup. I thought that was a lovely old touch worth mentioning.

FUN FACT: Czech bread soup has a few interesting nicknames: žebrácká or žebračka (beggar's soup), or, in the Hlučín area, brotka. The "beggar's soup" name speaks to its humble roots: cheap, frugal food the poorest could make from little more than stale bread and water.

➜ Ingredients

You likely have nearly everything you need already, but a few choices are worth a friendly word.

• Stale bread, the heart of the soup. Sourdough bread is the best choice, because it gives the soup that gentle sour note of the old-world kitchen. Rye bread, or a yeast-raised wheat-rye loaf, works well too. Soft white sandwich bread is not the best choice: it turns mushy and misses that "right" sourdough flavor. Cut your bread into pieces about ½ inch (1.25 cm).
• Broth, which carries the whole soup. The original was made with plain water, but water alone would struggle today, when so many bold flavors compete for our attention, so I use broth instead. Chicken broth is delicious here. For a meatless soup suitable for Lent, use vegetable broth.
• Garlic, peeled and mashed. In the Czech Republic we buy fresh garlic, peel the cloves, and crush or press them, which draws out the most flavor.
• Caraway seeds (kmín), a signature Czech seasoning. I used crushed seeds, but whole caraway works too. Read how to grind spices by hand. Do not confuse caraway with cumin, which is a different spice.
• Eggs, whisked in near the end. They thicken the soup gently and add another layer of flavor and nourishment.
• Butter, unsalted and cold, dropped into the hot soup at the very end and left to melt. This last touch softens and rounds out the soup.
• Fresh parsley, chopped, to scatter over the top for color.

New to cups, deciliters, and grams in one recipe? My U.S.-to-metric conversion chart (confirm) has you covered.

➜ Detailed instructions with photos

STEP 1. Pour the broth into a pot and bring it to a boil. Add the bread cubes.

STEP 2. Lower the heat. Stir in the salt, the caraway seeds, and the mashed garlic. Cover with a lid and let the soup simmer gently for 20 minutes, until the bread has softened into the broth.

By now the bread will have mostly broken down and thickened the soup to a loose, rustic, slightly porridge-like consistency, with a few soft pieces still floating. Stir more for a smoother soup, or leave it be for a chunkier one.

STEP 3. Crack the eggs into a cup and whisk them with a fork. Pour the beaten eggs into the hot soup in a thin stream while you whisk constantly. Let it cook for about one minute.

STEP 4. Drop in the cold butter and let it melt into the hot soup, stirring gently.

STEP 5. Taste the soup and add more salt if it needs it.

Tip: If you like a bolder bowl, add a little freshly ground black pepper at the end.

➜ Serving suggestions

In the past, bread soup was usually eaten for breakfast, and on Lenten days it came to the table for lunch or dinner too. It was served with boiled potatoes or a slice of bread on the side, and a scattering of chopped parsley or lovage finished the bowl.

Today, I would serve this bread soup either as a starter, the first course before the main dish, or on its own as a light meal.

➜ Bread soup as a quick video

I recorded a short video of serving the soup, so you can see its consistency. Watch in on my YouTube channel.

Dobrou chuť! (Enjoy your meal!)

➜ How to store

Keep cooled bread soup in the refrigerator and use it within 2 to 3 days. The bread will keep drinking up the liquid as it sits, so the soup thickens overnight. Simply stir in a splash of broth or water as you reheat it gently on the stove, and it will come back to the right consistency.

I do not recommend freezing it, since the bread and egg can turn the texture grainy once thawed.

➜ Bread soup cousins and alternatives

Czech cooking offers a huge variety of soups, and many of them can blur together because they share similar ingredients or a similar preparation. Here I have lined up four soups that might make you think they are one and the same. See how bread soup differs from the rest:

• Bread soup (chlebová polévka) is built on stale bread simmered in liquid, usually seasoned with garlic and caraway, and thickened with egg.
• Caraway soup (kmínová polévka) is the close cousin, but it is thickened with a jíška (roux), the browned flour-and-fat thickening old Czech cooks also called a zápražka.
• Sourdough soup (kyselo) comes from the Krkonoše Mountains in northern Bohemia and is made from a sourdough starter rather than from bread.
• Garlic soup (česnečka) is the best-known modern relative: a clear garlic soup served with toasted bread cubes, often with little squares of cheese or ham. You will still find it on Czech restaurant menus today.

Whichever one you try, I hope you will come to love all of these Czech soups! Including my old-fashioned beer soup (pivní polévka), another frugal favorite with deep roots.

📖 Recipe