This is my personal favorite soup and the one my mother made the most as it was simple. The ingredients were almost always available in the pantry, as well as it was quick to make. The broth without paprika is insipid. I call this “paprika vegetable” as it’s no ordinary vegetable soup. It can be added to easily with many other vegetables of your choice, but don’t try to make it without paprika and a good handful of fresh flat parsley, and not the curly garnish type.

As a kid, when I heard “Zöldségleves” I was in heaven. It meant this flavorful, hot meal with a chunk of bread. I liked big chunks of potato, I didn’t care if they were mealy, soft, or firm types. Often times, the vegetables were in big chunks, a potato quartered, a carrot cut into three. The carrots and potatoes grew in our garden. We could reach under the potato plant, pull a potato, wash it off and eat it raw, the carrots too. I loved the huge chunks, you could really taste the vegetable’s unique flavor.

Diced smaller, you lose some of the intensity, but for the elderly it’s so much easier to chew and swallow.

This soup is easily adapted to prechopped and frozen vegetables, which makes it super easy to make a quick meal on the run.