Gulyásleves

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Gulyás or Gulyásleves (gulyás soup) is a traditional Hungarian soup, made of beef, paprika and various other ingredients.

It originates from the cattlemen (gulyás also means cowherd) who tended their herds in the Great Hungarian Plain, known as the "Alföld" in Hungarian. These Hungarian cowboys often camped out with their cattle days away from populated areas, so they had to make their food from ingredients they could carry with themselves, and this food had to be cooked in the one available portable cauldron over an open fire. Beef, onions, paprika, and caraway seeds provide its typical flavour. Cubed potatoes and pasta squares are typically added to this spicy soup. There are different variations of the recipe. Tomatoes and fresh peppers (often hot chilies) are also added. Often mixed meats are used (e.g. beef and mutton/lamb). Traditional Hungarian "bogrács gulyás" (cauldron gulyás) is often still cooked outdoors over an open fire in a cauldron.

This dish is not to be confused with another recipe which has become known outside Hungary as "goulash," but which is referred to in Hungary as "pörkölt" or "paprikás", and which is not a soup.