Jägersuppe - Hunter's Soup

A traditional German dish, jägersuppe translates to hunter’s soup in English. This version features wild mushrooms, bacon, red wine and sour cream. 

A while back I was looking for soup recipes and came across the name jägersuppe. I am not familiar with German cuisine so, intrigued, I followed the links and went down a rabbit hole of recipes with all manner of wild game and foraged ingredients.

The recipe I finally settled on called for chanterelle mushrooms which my high-end local grocery store, Central Market, often carries. Much to my disappointment, they didn’t have any! So I picked up some baby bella mushrooms there instead and decided to hydrate some wild mushrooms to keep to the spirit of the recipe name. 

It turns out that chanterelle season here in the US is July through November so I’ll definitely be making this again later in the year. Even without the special mushrooms though, it was delicious, rich and satisfyingly savory. 

Jägersuppe – Hunter’s Soup

Use whatever nice fresh mushrooms you can find if chestnut ones aren’t available. If you have chanterelles, all the better! This recipe is adapted from one on Gute Kueche, Germany’s Good Food magazine. It makes four servings. 

Ingredients

1 oz or 28g dried wild mushrooms

8 oz or 227g fresh baby bella mushrooms

½ large or 1 small onion (Mine weighed 112g)

2 tablespoons butter

3 ½ oz or 100g bacon crumbles

2 tablespoons flour

4 ¼ cups or 1L beef stock

½ cup or 120ml dry red wine

½ cup or 120ml sour cream

¼ teaspoon white pepper

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt or to taste – depending on the saltiness of your stock

Optional for garnish - chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

Pour boiling water over the dried mushrooms in a heatproof bowl and set aside to soak. 

Clean the fresh mushrooms, trim any hard bits and slice them. 

Mince the onion.

Sauté the sliced mushrooms in the butter.

Keep cooking until they have released their liquid and turned a lovely golden brown. Remove them from the pan and set aside. 

Drain the dried mushrooms, reserving the liquid and straining out any dirt. Chop them finely with a sharp knife.

Fry the bacon crumbles in the same pan you used for the mushrooms.

Add in the minced onion and cook until the onion is softened and translucent. 

Dust the bacon and onion with the flour. (I like to use a little sieve which helps avoid lumps.) Stir well and cook the flour for a minute or two. 

Pour in the stock and red wine and bring to a low boil.

Stir in the fresh and dried mushrooms along with the soaking liquid. Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the sour cream, season with salt, if needed, and white pepper and bring to a boil again briefly.

Stir well to combine.

Garnish with some chopped parsley to serve. Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 10th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter J. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the J recipes below:

• Aloo Tamatar Jhol - No Onion No Garlic from Sneha’s Recipe
• Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers from Blogghetti
• Coconut Cherry Jasmine Rice from Jolene’s Recipe Journal
• Cowboy Candy from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Jackfruit Seed Stirfry from Mildly Indian
• Jägersuppe - Hunter's Soup from Food Lust People Love
• Juniper Butter Cookies from A Messy Kitchen
• Jicama Slaw with Carrots, Cucumbers, and Bell Peppers from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Vegetable Jalfrezi from Mayuri’s Jikoni

Here are my posts for the 2026 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew

B: Baby Cos Peach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing 

C. Traditional Cullen Skink 

D. Coconut Cream Date Caramel 

E. Edamame Summer Salad 

F. Lamb Feta Mint Patties 

G. Ricotta Gnocchi à la Poêle 

H. Hazelnut Vodka 

I. Italian Sausage Stuffed Mini Peppers - this post!

J. Jägersuppe - Hunter's Soup - this post!

To check out the Alphabet Challenges for 2024 and 2025, click here.

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