Do you have any foods that you grew up eating, that if you close your eyes, you can see them in your mind and almost taste them? There are many different foods that come to my mind, and one of them is German Rivel Soup! I remember my Grandma Alice making it, and my Mom, too… and everyone at the dinner table would gobble it up! It’s a simple and frugal soup, dating back generations, where meals needed to be hearty and used ingredients that were most readily available. Even with such simple ingredients, rivel soup is absolute deliciousness! This is sort of a German version of chicken noodle soup… but the rivels are little dumplings instead of actual “noodles.”
It was pretty common with "old recipes" that people didn't write things down, making food from memory and rarely measuring... just "dumping" ingredients together. These “recipes” were then shared with younger generations by "making" the foods with kids/grandkids. I researched dozens of recipes and also tapped into my Mom for advice on how to re-create this soup as I recalled eating it as a kid. The most important part of my rivel soup was getting the rivel dumpling part correct… and what I’m sharing with you is SPOT ON from what I remember.
For rivel soup, there are two main components: the chicken broth… and those yummy little dumplings! Depending on how "involved" you want to be, you have a couple of options for the broth. I highly recommend taking the time to make your own chicken stock from scratch, which takes a little bit of time, but most of that time is hands-off… and the homemade umami and goodness is so totally worth it! You’ll need chicken carcasses/bones, a few veggies, a few spices/seasonings, and water (pretty simple, huh?). The second option is using purchased/pre-made chicken stock. Homemade chicken stock in the pressure cooker is my preference, because you can crank out a batch of this stuff in a fraction of the time it takes to make it on the stovetop in a soup pot. As for the second component, the rivels, the ingredients are also super simple: flour, egg, salt, and a little bit of milk… easy enough, but you’ll need to get the right dough consistency so the dumplings will cook up as slightly airy but with a tiny bit of a chewy texture inside. Then to make the soup, combine the chicken stock, some cut-up veggies, a little additional seasoning, some pre-cooked chicken, and the rivel dumplings… Boom! There it is!
Even though this probably sounds weird, when you’ve ladled the finished soup into your bowl, the “pièce de résistance” that sets this soup into stellar status is sprinkling it with… CINNAMON! Yes, cinnamon! Trust me on this one… the aroma of the cinnamon and the added layer of flavor will K-N-O-C-K your socks off!
Enough talking… Let’s get to cooking so you can taste this scrumptiousness for yourself! I’ll start off with directions for making homemade chicken stock (both pressure cooker and stovetop versions), then the recipe for concocting the rivels, and finally I’ll explain how to put it all together to make the soup. Even though this looks lengthy, it isn’t difficult. Your tastebuds and your tummy will love it!
For rivel soup, there are two main components: the chicken broth… and those yummy little dumplings! Depending on how "involved" you want to be, you have a couple of options for the broth. I highly recommend taking the time to make your own chicken stock from scratch, which takes a little bit of time, but most of that time is hands-off… and the homemade umami and goodness is so totally worth it! You’ll need chicken carcasses/bones, a few veggies, a few spices/seasonings, and water (pretty simple, huh?). The second option is using purchased/pre-made chicken stock. Homemade chicken stock in the pressure cooker is my preference, because you can crank out a batch of this stuff in a fraction of the time it takes to make it on the stovetop in a soup pot. As for the second component, the rivels, the ingredients are also super simple: flour, egg, salt, and a little bit of milk… easy enough, but you’ll need to get the right dough consistency so the dumplings will cook up as slightly airy but with a tiny bit of a chewy texture inside. Then to make the soup, combine the chicken stock, some cut-up veggies, a little additional seasoning, some pre-cooked chicken, and the rivel dumplings… Boom! There it is!
Even though this probably sounds weird, when you’ve ladled the finished soup into your bowl, the “pièce de résistance” that sets this soup into stellar status is sprinkling it with… CINNAMON! Yes, cinnamon! Trust me on this one… the aroma of the cinnamon and the added layer of flavor will K-N-O-C-K your socks off!
Enough talking… Let’s get to cooking so you can taste this scrumptiousness for yourself! I’ll start off with directions for making homemade chicken stock (both pressure cooker and stovetop versions), then the recipe for concocting the rivels, and finally I’ll explain how to put it all together to make the soup. Even though this looks lengthy, it isn’t difficult. Your tastebuds and your tummy will love it!