As a child, when my mum cooked the traditional lamb soup for Easter, she cooked the head of the lamb. I remember the eye looking out from the broth and the smell of it. And because of that I refused to eat the soup for many years until I started cooking and changed the recipe by cooking only with the lamb meat, like in this recipe below, with a boneless leg.
An influence from the ethnic Germans in my hometown is to add chopped, fresh chervil at the end of cooking. I love the taste of it and still add it once a year in the lamb soup when it’s Easter.
Enjoy!
transylvanian easter soup
8-10 portions
Ingredients
50 ml sunflower oil
500g lamb, diced and mixed with 1 tsp salt
200g carrots, finely diced
100g celeriac, finely diced
100g parsley root or parsnip, finely diced
100g onion, finely diced
2-3 medium potatoes, diced
3L chicken or vegetable broth
4-6 tbsp white vinegar or the juice of 2 lemons
2 egg yolks
150g creme fraiche or sour cream
1 big bunch of chervil, finely chopped
Method
In a large pot, heat the oil on medium temperature, then add the meat and sear it. Add the broth, cover with a lid and leave to cook for around 1.5 hours (check if the meat is cooked, if not leave it on for longer).
Once the meat is cooked, add the vegetables and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Add lemon juice and more salt if needed.
Make the thickening agent for the soup: mix the egg yolks with creme fraiche or sour cream, and add 1 or 2 ladles of hot broth.
Turn off the heat on the soup, and add the thickening agent and chervil. Stir, cover with a lid and leave it to rest for 10 minutes.
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