Ričet, as it is called in Croatia and Slovenia, or Ritschert in Austria (and Bavaria), is a thick soup (Croatian: varivo, German: Eintopf) from the mentioned countries. As a Croatian, I will describe the Croatian version, but as far as I know it is practically identical with the Slovenian and Austrian one.

The essential ingredients for a ričet are barley and beans, plus in most cases some type of cured pork meat. When you say ričet in Croatia, sometimes only barley itself is meant. The ričet soup is mostly a winter meal and made in big batches as it not only does not loose its quality when reheated, but in fact it gets better one, two days after preparation.

Like most substantial soups, it is not particularly photogenic, but it is truly a tasty dish if you like the ingredients. The barley (pearled barley, like the one suitable for making porridge) and beans are soaked beforehand, and in the first part the barley, the meat and the beans with other ingredients are cooked separately, to be unified halfway through the process.

⌚ Ca. 2 hours plus overnight soaking time

Suitable for: Ričet is not glutene-free, but it contains no eggs, nuts, shellfish nor lactose. This recipe is not vegan, vegetarian, kosher nor halal, but omitting the cured pork meat and sausages makes it all of these.

PDF-recipe for collecting and printing

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Ingredients 🛒 (serves 4)

2 pork sausages suitable for cooking (not Frankfurter!), ca. 500 cured, smoked pork loin, 1//2 cup pearled barley, 1 cup dried beans, 1 onion, 1 pepper, 1 carrot, 1 parsley root, a piece of celeriac root about same size as the parsley root, 2 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp tomato puree, 2 bay leaves, 1 veggie or beef bouillon cube, 3 tbsp sunflower oil, summer savory, pepper, paprika and salt to taste

How to 🍳

Soak the dry beans overnight in plenty of water. Soak the barley separately for at least 2 hours. Discard the water both from beans and from barley.

Heat about 1.5 L of water and put the meat into it. Cook for about 30 minutes on medium heat, then take the meat out. Put the barley in the pot with the water in which the meat was cooked and cook on medium heat for about 30 minutes.

In a second, big pot heat the oil. Fry finely chopped onions and pepper until they soften, then add finely chopped garlic and roughly chopped carrot, parsley root and celeriac. Fry a few minutes, then add the tomato paste and drained beans, stir well. Add warm water to cover it all (about 2.5 L water). Stir well, add all the spices including bouillon cube. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and let it simmer.

After the barley is cooked for 30 minutes, add it to the bean soup with about 1/2 L of the water in which it was cooked. Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and add to the rest. Cook for about 1 to 1.5 hour more, stirring occasionally and, if necessary, adding water. When the beans are soft, the ričet can be served.