Hurry up to the table everyone, I will serve the Czech lentil soup any minute! We call it čočková polévka in the Czech Republic, and this soup tastes amazingly delicious.
What Is Czech Lentil Soup
Czechs make their traditional lentil soup from green lentils. Other essential ingredients are fried smoked sausage, garlic, onions, and sometimes carrot or potatoes. The soup includes marjoram, a typical Czech spice.
We call this soup "čočková polévka" or for short "čočkovka."
Tip: If you like legume soups, be sure to try Frozen pea soup (in Czech "hrášková polévka").
Ingredients
You'll need only a few simple ingredients to cook this texture-rich soup, full of earthy flavors.
- Lentils; in the Czech, we use the green-brown lentils, which are commonly available in all stores
- Smoked sausage; this kind in the picture is a Czech style "ostravská klobása", or "polish kielbasa". Optionally, use any heavenly smelling smoked meat.
- Onions; classic yellow onions
- Cloves of garlic
- Salt and ground pepper
- Dried marjoram; a crucial spice in many Czech soups
- Lard; or vegetable oil (sunflower- or canola oil)
- Beef broth; for a rich flavor of the soup
Instructions with Photos
STEP 1: First, cook the lentils according to the producer's instructions. The fastest and easiest way to get the lentil soup ready is to get pre-cooked lentils.
STEP 2: Peel garlic, onions, and carrots. Slice garlic into thin pieces, chop onions roughly. Cut carrots lengthwise and slice into half-circles. Dice smoked sausage into 1/2-inch pieces.
STEP 3: In a pot with a thicker bottom, melt lard over medium heat until shimmering. Start frying the prepared ingredients in this order:
- Add carrots, fry while stirring for about 5 minutes (photo 1). Throw in smoked sausage. Fry for another 3-5 minutes (photo 2).
- Add onions, sauté for 1 minute until translucent (photo 3). As the last step, add sliced garlic and fry for 1 minute, but not longer, else garlic gets brown and will taste bitter (photo 4).
STEP 4: Add 2/3 of cooked lentils. Reserve 1 cup of broth, pour the rest in the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a minimum, let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.
STEP 5: Meantime, mix the 1/3 of remaining lentils with 1 cup of broth with an immerse mixer. Add in the pot.
Add dried marjoram (always at the end of cooking), stir well, and you're done!
Serving
Serve this lentil soup warm. Top the soup with chopped green parsley leaves while serving.
According to this recipe, lentil soup is light and not too filling, take a slice of bread if you are hungry or if this soup is supposed to be the main course.
Cook's Tips
- Especially in winter months, Czechs thicken their "čočková polévka" with a roux. It's made from flour fried with butter in the same ratio. I will post a lentil soup recipe thickened with a roux here soon.
- Creamy or chunky? Make a chunky or creamy soup simply by pureeing all the lentils or only a portion, as I described in this recipe.
Fun Fact
Czechs eat lentil soup on the first day of the new year. They believe that the amount of lentils in the soup is equal to the money they'll have in the new year.
More Czech soups:
- Kulajda – a famous Czech mushroom soup
- Cauliflover soup – easy soup made from cauliflower (květáková polévka)
- Česnečka – clear garlic soup
Czech Lentil Soup
Ingredients
- 1 and ¼ cups (250 g) dried lentils green / brown
- 5 oz (140 g) smoked sausage
- 1 carrot mid-sized
- 1 onion large, or 2 small
- 2 cloves of garlic
- salt
- pepper ground
- 1 tsp dried marjroram
- 6 cups (1.44 l) beef broth
Instructions
- First, cook the lentils according to the producer's instructions. The fastest and easiest way to get the lentil soup ready is to get pre-cooked lentils.
- Peel garlic, onions, and carrots. Slice garlic into thin pieces, chop onions roughly. Cut carrots lengthwise and slice into half-circles. Dice smoked sausage into ½-inch pieces.
- In a pot with a thicker bottom, melt lard over medium heat until shimmering. Start frying the prepared ingredients in this order:
- Add carrots, fry while stirring for about 5 minutes.
- Throw in smoked sausage. Fry for another 3-5 minutes.
- Add onions, sauté for 1 minute until translucent.
- As the last step, add sliced garlic and fry for 1 minute, but not longer, else garlic gets brown and will taste bitter.
- Add ⅔ of cooked lentils. Reserve 1 cup of broth, pour the rest in the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a minimum, let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Meantime, mix the ⅓ of remaining lentils with 1 cup of broth with an immerse mixer. Add in the pot.
- Add dried marjoram (always at the end of cooking), stir well, and you're done!
Notes
- Makes 5-6 yields.
- Serve this lentil soup warm. Top the soup with chopped green parsley leaves while serving.
- According to this recipe, lentil soup is light and not too filling, take a slice of bread if you are hungry or if this soup is supposed as a lunch.
- The time necessary for cooking lentils is not in Total Time included. Every kind of lentils needs a different amount of time to be done.
- Especially in winter months, Czech thickens their "čočková polévka" with a roux. It's made from flour fried with butter in the same ratio.
- Czechs eat lentil soups on the first day of the new year. They believe, how many grains of lentils are in the soup, that's how much money they'll have in the new year.
DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:
Conversion chart Nutrition Disclosure
Melody
One of my favorite soup recipes of yours! Thank you so much for sharing it! It is so perfectly yummy and I love it with some rye bread on the side.
Petra Kupská
Thank you, Melody, for your nice words! 🙂 I am happy you enjoyed the soup.
Kristi
My Mom always made this with braised lamb shank. Have you ever tried that?
Anicka Cooklikeczechs.com
The lamb shank certainly sounds very interesting, unfortunately I haven't had the chance to try it. In the Czech Republic, sausages (parky) or smoked meat (uzene maso) are most popularly used in lentil soup.