When I graduated from high school, almost 25 (gasp!) years ago, I moved to San Francisco, where I started college and worked as a nanny. During that time, I lived in the Marina District, right near the wharf. There was a Hungarian restaurant a few blocks from our house.
This Hungarian restaurant was out of this world. It was run by an older couple and their daughter, recent immigrants. Sadly, it didn’t stay open very long. I had never had authentic Hungarian food prior to that, and I don’t think I’ve had it since. But this was some of the best food I’ve ever tasted.
Hungarian goulash is somewhere between a soup and a stew. If you like, you can serve it over pasta like we are doing, or you can serve it with some boiled potatoes. Or serve all by itself.
If you're on the GAPS Diet, use the fermented fish sauce instead of soy sauce and serve the goulash by itself or with boiled cauliflower.
Hungarian Goulash
Difficulty: EASY
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
Goulash:
Butter, lard, or expeller-pressed, refined coconut oil (2 TBS) — where to buy expeller-pressed coconut oil
Onions, yellow or white, medium (2)
Garlic cloves (6)
Paprika, sweet (1/4 cup) —
Tomato paste, organic (1/4 cup) where to buy tomato paste
Caraway seeds (1 tsp) where to buy caraway seeds
Sea salt — where to buy sea salt
Beef or chicken stock, preferably homemade (2 cups) where to buy beef or chicken stock
Beef roast, chuck-eye, boneless, grass-fed (5 lbs) where to grass-fed beef roast
Soy or tamari sauce, where to buy soy saucenaturally fermented, or homemade Thai fish sauce (1/3 cup)
Cornstarch or arrowroot powder, organic (1/4 cup) where to buy cornstarch
Bay leaves, dried (2) where to buy bay leaves
Pasta:
Kosher or sea salt
Filtered water — where to buy water purification systems
Brown rice pasta (1 bag) where to buy brown rice
Garnishes:
Sour cream, grass-fed, organic (1/2 cup +) — where to buy starters
Black pepper, freshly ground where to buy black pepper
Sauerkraut, homemade or a lacto-fermented brand — where to buy starters, where to buy lacto-fermented sauerkraut
Equipment
Crock pot or slow CookerDirections
1. In a large skillet, heat the butter or coconut oil over medium heat.
2. Peel and finely dice the onions and garlic cloves. Add to the skillet along with the paprika, tomato paste, caraway seeds, and 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt.
3. Cook until the onions are softened and lightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Cut the roast into 1 1/2-inch chunks. Set aside.
5. Stir in the beef or chicken broth, scraping up any brown bits.
6. Transfer the onion mixture to the crock pot.
7. Add the meat to the crock pot along with the soy sauce, cornstarch, and bay leaves and stir to combine. Cover and cook on low until the meat is tender, 2-5 hours.
8. Add filtered water and kosher salt or sea salt to a large stock pot.
9. Bring the water to a rolling boil and add the pasta. Stirring occasionally, cook until al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes. Strain and set aside.
11. Remove the bay leaves from the crock pot. Stir one cup of the stewing liquid into the sour cream to temper, then stir the sour cream mixture into the stew.
12. Season the stew to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
13. Serve the stew over the pasta with extra sour cream and sauerkraut on top.
Photo Credit: MizD!, on Flickr
This looks good :)
Yum! This kind of food is total comfort food to me. My mama used to make a dish she called goulash (different than this and probably not a ‘real’ goulash) that was always one of may favorites. I make her version now but not often. I love how you keep the sauce separate from the pasta. Great idea to use the cauliflower as the base.
I am so excited you posted this recipe!!! My mom used to make Hungarian Goulash for us as kids and can no longer remember recipe. I was just talking about it!!!
Hi Ann Marie, I’m still trying to figure things out. Can I just buy any brown rice pasta in the grocery store or is there anything that’s better? For instance should it be organic or sprouted or anything? Also should I soak the brown rice pasta in advance or anything?
I buy the brown rice pasta at Trader Joe’s. It would be best to make your own soaked or sprouted or sourdough pasta from wheat or rice flour.
And no, you can’t soak the store-bought brown rice pasta.
Thanks! :)
For my no grain diet I have discovered sauteed cabbage as a great base for sauces and stir-fries. I think it would be delicious with this dish.
You could also use zucchini “pasta”.
This recipe looks super delish and I have recently been craving goulash.
This looks great – and I just went grain free so I’ll be trying it w/ cauliflower or just tons of veggies :).
This recipe looks really easy, and tasty too. I can’t do pasta yet, but I do like the boiled cauliflower idea!!!! Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather :)
Here is a tip from my Hungarian Great Grandmother. Add the Sauerkraut to the pot it at the end so it warms up. In Hungary they pretty much always serve the Sauerkraut in the food.
It adds something to it.
Yes, I would mix it in but only at the VERY end. You don’t want it getting too hot, otherwise you lose all the probiotics and enzymes.
A few years ago we went to Poland and ate in a Hungarian restaurant in Krakow. We had goulash served over has browns. It was amazingly tasty–a standout on a trip with a lot of incredible food. When I was big into lo carb nonsense, I made it with zuchini hashbrowns and lo and bdhold it was pretty good. I imagine zucunini is GAPS ok.
Yes zucchini is GAPS OK.
I am was born and raised in Hungary and we make goulash (gulyas) all the time. I thought I share some tips, thoughts and a bit of history on this dish.
This hearty dish was a very popular dish among herdsmen in Hungary. Traditionally goulash was prepared in a cast-iron kettle hung above open fire, out in the fields.
Hungarian goulash is neither a soup nor a stew, it’s somewhere in between. Though in Hungary it’s considered rather to be a soup than a stew. You would find it under Soups on the menu in a restaurant. There are about 50 different versions by the way.
There are four must have ingredients for Hungarian goulash:
1. real Hungarian paprika
2. lard from pork or bacon
3. caraway seeds
4. green pepper
5. potatoes or little four noodles (csipetke in Hungarian)
We do not have soy sauce in our cuisine. I was so surprised to see it in this one.
You may also add in carrots, parsnips and celery leaves. In season fresh tomatoes are a must.
The one suggestion I would make is that after sautéing your onions in the lard I would add your beef cubes. While the beef cubes are browning then I would add the garlic, salt and cumin. Once the beef has browned on all sides – pull the pot off the stove and add your paprika. This way it will not burn. Stir. Then place it back on your stove and add a small amount of water. While it is cooking you can prepare the potatoes. (I never made this in a slow cooker. Only in a pressure cooker.)
When the meat is cooked halfway, you can add the potatoes and some additional water or beef broth. When potatoes are cooked, you are ready to serve. Top with green pepper rings.There is no sour cream in goulash to my knowledge.
There are many variations to goulash:
* “babgulyás” is cooked with beans
* sauerkraut is added to the “székelygulyás” (like Heather’s great-gradma said)
* french beans are added to the “palócgulyás”
We love goulash. It is a great one-pot dish. We love having traditional cucumber salad with it.
I meant to say 5 main ingredients.
Csilla, My Hungarian Grandmother, who was a chef in Budapest, used to make goulash for my father when he lived in Hungary. He prepared it for us the same way. Your recommendations make the recipe more authentic. Thanks!
Great,thanks!!
At work we were recently talking about goulash and now to have this wonderful recipe and the tips and suggestions from experienced readers ~ wow ~ I’l have to share all of this with my co-workers. Thanks so much.
My husband is Hungarian and makes his grandmother’s recipe for gulas occasionally and it is AMAZING!!!! He puts potatoes and tomatoes in his and no soy sauce like Csilla said. It’s one of my favorite meals :)
Those of us on GAPS, can’t have arrowroot or cornstarch either. Do you think coconut flour might work as a sub?
Martha, there is no need for any of those ingredients in the authentic recipe. It will all work out.
Thank you!
This sounds great since winter has FINALLY hnit Long Island. But I MUST brown my meat. I find it is so much more flavorful
*hit
I loved this recipe. The rice pasta turned out a little flimsy and I was unable to find pastured grass fed beef at Draeger’s near my house in Menlo Park, CA. Unfortunately I didn’t have a lot of time for shopping around so I had to buy the next best meat. Is there a meat guide to the bay area where you can buy pastured grass fed beef? Thanks, great recipe!
This is a super easy recipe to make on the stove top. I had it recently in a tiny little authentic Austrian restaurant in Vienna. They served the sauerkraut on the side and served it over mashed or roasted potatoes. The tang in the sauce came from lemons and lemon peel or vinegar. I use lemon juice from one or two lemons plus the peel. I always get rave reviews as though I’ve created a masterpiece, when really it is a simple stew pot dish, easily cooked over a Hearth in a peasant home for 1000s of years.
It’s going to be finish of mine day, except before end I am reading this fantastic paragraph
to improve my knowledge.