Eintopf

This is how we do an Eintopf. Basically a stew or one-pot. It’s a very German, rustic dish and as such not very vegetarian. I’ll add all the ingredients I can think of with help of Mum. However, this is very much a throw-in-what-you-like and leave-out-what-you-don’t-like dish. My grandparents, for example, throw in bacon rinds.

It’s agreed upon that the one-pot gets better after sitting for a day or two, so usually big portions are made and eaten over the course of a few days.

Also, fairs in rural areas often have so called „Gulaschkanonen“ (goulash canons). Dict.cc gives me the very boring translation of „field kitchen“. A Bockwurst will be dropped into your little dish as well.

I remember helping the volunteer fire brigade of my old hometown prepare their goulash canon a day before their open day in my childhood.

Sometimes you even find field kitchens by the side of a road to offer cheap lunches to long-distance drivers.

Ingredients

• Legumes of choice
  • usually peas, white beans, brown lentils
  • we usually use the dried variant, so let them soak overnight
• Soup Vegetables
  • we get those in bunches in shops. Typically, it consists of: carrots, parsley, leek, celery root. You can also add root parsley or parsnip.
  • 
  • Sometimes people with big gardens drop a lot of soup vegetables on us, so we chop it, portion them in bags and freeze them.
• Onions
• Potatoes
• one or two bay leaves, dried allspice berries, savory
• something smoked like gammon steak or knacker sausage
  • 
• Salt and Pepper
• Vinegar and Sugar

I’m not giving amounts here, because it’s all very by feeling and mood.

Let’s Cook!

1) Chop everything.

2) Throw everything into the pan and cook with water or broth. - Minus vinegar and sugar

Mum uses instant-powder for mashed potatoes to get a thicker quality to the stew, other people use starchy potatoes and mash a few of those.

What about that vinegar and sugar? My grandparents add the vinegar and sugar right to the whole stew when it’s still in the pot. I prefer to do it in steps on the plate. First a few spoonfuls without, savouring the „pure“ stew, then adding the vinegar, savouring a few spoonfuls of the sour stew and then I’ll add the sugar for the last spoonfuls.