Soup
JANUARY 2026
Eat it while it's hot!
Soups are a universal dish, known across the world and in all cultures, and they hold a special place in Latvian cuisine as well. Following the rhythm of the seasons, Latvians include soups in their daily meals throughout the year — warming up in winter with hearty beet or sauerkraut soup, and cooling off in summer with cold soup or a light milk and vegetable soup made with the season’s first carrots, peas, and potatoes.
IESŪTĪTIE MATERIĀLI
- Visi
- Argentina
- Audio
- Australia
- Bashkortostan
- Books
- Brazil
- Bread
- Cabbage
- Canada
- Catering
- China
- Costa Rica
- Cucumber
- Denmark
- Fermentation
- Festive table
- Germany
- Hostesses
- Italy
- Mushrooms
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Photo
- Piparkūkas
- Pīrāgi
- Quote
- Recipe
- Romania
- Soup
- Story
- Switzerland
- Uncategorized
- United Kingdom
- USA
- Video
Fragment from Inese Grava-Gubiņa’s interview with Latvieši pasaulē curator Marianna Auliciema, November 28, 2025. Around 2006, 2007, and 2008—that was the time when we began teaching the first Latvian cooking classes at the Gaŗezers Summer High School. After that, a year passed, and I returned again—this time for the second time—to teach. We worked with teenagers—young people aged 14–17. In the first year, I think Latvian cuisine as...
Guna Asons: There are soups that need to be prepared the day before they are served. They have to stand overnight — especially cold soups. Then people say, “Your soup is melding”. When I was young, I didn’t eat cold soup. It was something unfamiliar that I had to learn to appreciate. The story was recorded and submitted by Dagnija Roderte.
Vilma Bērziņa: "Frikadeļu" soup — it’s loved by children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. But Gunārs (my son-in-law) makes it the best. We also enjoy red beets, especially my husband Elmārs. We grew them in our garden, made salads, and cooked beet soup. The story was recorded and submitted by Dagnija Roderte.
Pēteris Pūtelis: Dambrovskis Anniņa made a marvellous solyanka. She prepared it with salmon. Oļģerts and Anniņa had a small restaurant on Massachusetts Street. It was a poor neighbourhood, but the restaurant was always well attended. Anniņa used to cook solyanka for fraternity members at “Frater Freešteiks” (the next day, for hangovers). Anna never revealed her soup recipe to anyone, and she passed away with it. The story was...
Soups JANUARY 2026 Freak-adelian Soup in Australia Melbourne, Australia The ambassador of “Taste of home” Liene Brūns, together with her friends Evelīna and Valters, is cooking frikadeļu zupa (meatball soup) in Melbourne, Australia. https://youtube.com/shorts/bGjSLRwSOFY?feature=share January stories Freak-adelian Soup in Australia Frikadelle soup (Solvita Dambrovska) Soups in refugee camps in Germany post WWII. Photographs from the “Latvians Abroad” museum collection. Soups for Charity (Anita Jurevica) Squirrel Sorrow Soup “Saknes...
On December 13th 2025, the Jutland Latvian weekend school “Mazputniņš” celebrated Christmas. Vegetable meatball soup was prepared, and the meatballs had already been made the day before by Solvita Dambrovska together with her husband.
The collection of the “Latvians Abroad” Museum preserves life stories that include memories of soup during refugee journeys and in refugee camps in Germany after the Second World War. The collection also contains photographs depicting food queues in the camps, where people—often holding homemade containers—stand in line for soup distributed from the camp kitchen. Several photographs show Scout and Guide groups eating soup during camps, while others depict...
Anita Jurevica talks about a charity initiative—soup lunches—that she organizes every year in Minneapolis, USA. For 17 years, this initiative has become a testament to warmth, togetherness, and Latvian traditions.
During the period I lived in Germany, a new name emerged for one of my favorite Latvian dishes — sorrel soup. At that time, in everyday life I mostly spoke English, and someone once asked me what I was making. I said it was “sorrel soup.” Since “sorrel” sounds a bit like “sorrow” or even “squirrel” (after all, who knows what those strange Latvians are really stewing in...
Marika talks about how “sakni un zari” came about. She also recalls a vivid moment when beet soup was cooked together with Lithuanians, Estonians, and Ukrainians, where at the end everyone had the opportunity to taste and compare the different versions of beet soup.
Zupa Zupa founder Elizabete talks about how the idea to sell soups came about. Find out which soups are her favorites and which ones are the most popular!
Latvian Eats blogger Līva believes that soup is more of a summer dish, but in Australia the view is quite the opposite. In the video, she talks about how Latvian Eats came to be, which soups are the most popular in her home, and which ones are cooked in a small pot just for herself because no one else is interested.