I made this soup immediately upon returning from Greece in 2023. I was trying to capture my memory of the food that I had there, and decided to try and turn the classic pork soulvaki into a soup version. I started with a roasted Greek pork shoulder and from there I layered the flavors with onions, garlic, chili peppers, tomatoes, and herbs. To finish the soup and mimic the concept of a soulvaki, I added potatoes and Greek yogurt. The garnish was a cucumber salad with dill, feta, and red onions as well as baked pita strips.
When making this soup there are a couple of things to bring up. The more flavorful and tender the pork, the more that will translate into the soup. With the addition of spices, onions, garlic, and herbs, the quantity you want to layer the flavors through the cooking process. Additionally the pork has a fair amount of fat in it, so you want to skim it off during the simmer phase.
Lastly, when your adding your yogurt into the soup, you do not want to add it directly into it. If you do so, the soup will be broken and the yogurt won't carry. You need to temper the yogurt with small amounts of soup broth until you've incorporated enough into the yogurt so that it won't break when you add it to the soup. After I tempered it, I also made a light roux and added the tempered yogurt and dill to that.
As with all my soups there is a lot of room for individualization in the flavors. If you like a more citrus forward soup, add some lemon to the soup. If heat is your flavor, adjust the quantities of chilies you put into it. The fresh dill and oregano are very important to this, as they round out the dish and complete the flavor profile of the soulvaki.
Enjoy.
Ingredients
Greek Pork Shoulder 3 lbs
Chicken Stock 3 qts
Potatoes, peeled and diced 1 ea
Chili Peppers* 5 ea
Onions, julienned 4 ea
Garlic, sliced 1 ea
Tomatoes, large, diced 3 ea
Dill, finely chopped 2 oz
Oregano, chopped 2 oz
Greek Yogurt 1 qt
Butter 1/2 lb
Flour 1 cup
Paprika 2 T
Avenue Spice 1 T
*I used banana and fresno peppers for this as they are a good base flavor. If you want hotter I would add a little bit of other peppers and still use these.
Garnish
Feta cheese, cucumber salad, baked pita strips, extra virgin olive oil
Method of Procedure
Prepare the Greek pork shoulder as per my recipe. Once cooled enough to work with, remove the bone, and dice to the appropriate size.
Heat your soup pot and saute your julienned onions, garlic, chopped oregano, and half of your paprika. Cook until lightly colored and softened.
In a saute pan, or grill, roast off your peppers. Once lightly charred and softened, remove from heat, cool, and chop discarding the seeds.
Add your peppers, diced tomatoes, potatoes, and chicken stock, and Avenue Spice then bring to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 40 minutes.
Skim the fat off of your soup while you are simmering.
Mix your yogurt with your dill and temper the soup broth into it. Add your soup to the yogurt slowly to incorporate it.
In a separate pan melt your butter and make a light roux. Add your tempered yogurt and dill to the roux base. Once thickened add to your soup base and thoroughly whisk together.
Bring to a simmer and season to taste.
Ladle soup into a bowl garnish.
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