August 10, 2025 2:58 pm
Fazulnica or Fazulovica (dialectally also Fyzulnačka) – A Moravian and Slovak popular soup made from smoked meat broth, lard, onion, garlic, marjoram, brown beans, and peppers. Add cut smoked and boiled meat and beans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bean_soups
Fazulovika is a Slovak bean soup. Or maybe I should say that Fazulovika is Slovak FOR bean soup? I think that there are several variations that all have longer names describing which type of bean soup it is. I only found a couple of recipes in English, and all the Slovak ones basically just present the recipe with no commentary (I guess food blogging as performed in America hasn’t caught on in Slovakia?). While Google Translate did a reasonably good job translating the recipes, I didn’t get a lot of information beyond that.
At the very least, there is a “sweet and sour” version that adds vinegar and sugar at the end, while other recipes don’t include these. Overall, they are similar enough that I didn’t feel the need to differentiate when creating my recipe, but I don’t know if maybe I wound up including elements from several different dishes in ways that wouldn’t be done in Slovakia? Anyway, it’s tasty, although a little out of season for the weather we’ve been having in Duluth.
To start with, what type of beans? This was probably the hardest thing to try to figure out, since there were a number of different names used for the type of bean in the recipes, none of which translated to something that actually told me anything useful about what the English name for the bean would be. The one English language blogger I found said that cranberry/ barlotti beans were the closest thing he had found outside of Slovakia. A little further research about common beans in Slovakia said that the two main types are a speckled brown bean similar in size to a pinto bean, and scarlet runner beans*. (I had actually guessed the latter, because several recipes showed pictures with very large beans in the soup.)
I happened to have a jar of pinto-type beans that I grew a couple of years ago and hadn’t found a use for yet (actually a variety called Roark, which looks and tastes like pintos), so I chose to go that route rather than spending money on more beans. Ultimately, I think you could use just about any kind of bean for this recipe, and it would be tasty, just maybe more or less authentic depending on your choice.
Once you’ve decided on your beans, you need to get yourself some smoked meats. I probably went a little overboard. In fact, I’m adjusting the recipe from what I made because there was literally more meat than beans in my soup, so I’m calling for 500 g of smoked pork neck instead of 1 kg. As I recall, the first recipe I entered that ingredient into my spreadsheet from measured it in kg, but many of the others just called for a specific number of necks. I did a little research trying to find the average weight of a pork neck, but I think I was calling 1 neck 1 kilo, which, as I found when I ordered my smoked pork necks, was closer to 2 necks. (Also, the necks I got were boneless. If the recipes I was looking at were using bone-in necks, there would be a significant difference in the amount of edible meat you wind up with in the end.) Ultimately, you can pretty much use whatever cuts of smoked pork you can get your hands on. A selection of 2-3 different cuts will give you some variety in textures, but ultimately, it’s all going to add that salty, smoky flavor.
I ordered smoked pork necks and ribs from PV Euro Market*, which specializes in Eastern European foods. The sausage and bacon I got from my local meat market, but getting sausage from PV Euro as well probably would have been more authentic, as I think the smoked sausage called for in most of the recipes I looked at is a dry-cured salami type rather than the softer Kielbasa type I was able to find here.
I checked several different stores locally, but couldn’t find unsliced bacon (which I have found in the past… I just don’t remember which store carried it), but the amount I called for (90 g) is only about 2 thick slices anyway, so I didn’t worry about that too much.
I call for a yellow pepper, but if I recall correctly, most of the recipes I looked at just called for a pepper, and yellow comes from what was used in one of the videos I watched. I wasn’t able to find any helpful information about what kind of peppers are common in Slovak cuisine. The pepper in the video was more pointy than a common bell pepper, but I have no idea if it’s sweet or hot. I wound up buying a bag of multicolored mini sweet peppers, and used a yellow one. I’m sure a yellow bell pepper, or a mild hot pepper, would be fine as well. (Any Slovak readers out there? What can you tell me about common peppers in your country?)
If you’ve been with me since the early days of my blog, you’ll recall that I have run into parsley root before. There are special varieties of parsley bred to have a large root, which looks a lot like a parsnip or a fat white carrot. It’s actually a fairly popular root vegetable in much of Europe, but not very common in America. I think if it were actually in season (it’s a late fall/winter crop), I may have been able to find an online source that would ship a small bunch (progress over 2019 when the only source I could find wanted something like $200 for a case of 12 bunches). But, alas, it’s not in season, so I did the same thing I did back then, and ordered dried parsley root* from Amazon, and figured a handful equals one root.
I’m not actually certain why you would add butter to the pot when boiling the meat to make the broth, but a couple of recipes did this, so I did as well. My best guess is that it helps trap any impurities from the meat to make them easier to skim off. I would think the fat in the meat would do the same? I don’t think it would alter the flavor to skip it.
You could probably use at least double the water in the initial boil. I’m not making any changes to my recipe in that regard, but I did have to add another liter or two of water once I added the vegetables and meats to cover everything. Although the salt was called for in my recipe, I was considering skipping it until I added all that water. The smoked meats were QUITE salty, and of course, that transferred to the broth. I would definitely say taste your soup before you add any additional salt to this recipe!
When it comes to finishing the soup, again, there are a couple of different methods that make me think there are probably several different types of fazulovika that I’m Frankensteining together. Most recipes do the lard-onion-flour-paprika roux to thicken it. Others do a mix of dairy (usually cream and/or milk) and flour. The sweet and sour version I mentioned at the beginning usually uses cream or sour cream. However, I did encounter at least one other recipe that used both roux and cream, so I’m not totally inventing that, but I can’t vouch for authenticity.
Marjoram is an herb I seem to forget about a lot. It goes really well with beans, but somehow I rarely remember that if I’m creating a dish from scratch. I couldn’t quite tell from the recipes if they were calling for fresh or dried; my first impression was fresh, but given the quantity I came up with when I finished doing the math, I suspect that dried is more common, so that’s what I used. (Also, I don’t know if I could find fresh marjoram in any stores here in Duluth, although I didn’t look.)
This would be best served with a nice crusty bread. I had bought a nice, local, sourdough loaf but waited several days for a slightly cooler day to make this, and when I went to cut myself a slice discovered it was starting to go moldy. (Thankfully, I had used some of it for other meals in the meantime, so it wasn’t totally wasted.) I did purchase a take-and-bake baguette to eat with the leftovers, but never felt like turning the oven on and wound up using it for something else as well.
Serves: 8-10
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: ~3:15
Total: ~3:30, plus overnight soaking
(As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
300 g beans
5-6 whole black peppercorns
1 ½ teaspoons cumin seed
1200 ml water, plus more as needed
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 yellow pepper, stem end cut off but otherwise whole
3 bay leaves
7-8 g butter
500 g smoked pork neck*
2 smoked sausages*
90 g slab bacon
250 g smoked pork ribs*
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 ½ large carrots, diced
⅓ bunch parsley, chopped
1 parsley root, diced
Additional water, as needed
¾ teaspoon salt, if needed
2 ½ Tablespoons lard
1 onion, finely diced
1 ½ Tablespoons flour
2 ¼ teaspoons paprika
5 teaspoons flour
150 ml cream
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon marjoram
Optional:
1 Tablespoon sour cream
50 ml milk
3-4 teaspoons vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 red onion in place of yellow onion
½ cup baby carrots, in place of large ones
2 Tablespoons tomato puree
2 cans red beans, in place of dry beans
2 teaspoons oil, in place of butter
4-5 whole allspice berries
1 Tablespoon smoked paprika
400 g fresh pork knuckle
Dried mushrooms, to taste
Pick over your beans, removing any bad beans or foreign objects. Rinse well, drain, and cover with an inch or two of cool water. Leave to soak overnight.
Tie up the peppercorns and cumin seeds in a small piece of cheesecloth, or place them in a tea ball. Set aside.
Put 1200 ml of water in a large pot, along with garlic, pepper, bay leaves, bundle with the whole spices, butter, pork neck, sausages, bacon, and ribs. Add additional water as needed to cover the meats. (I used about another 7-800 ml) Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 1-2 hours, until the meat is tender. (I removed my sausages after 1 hour, but left the rest to simmer for a second hour).
Remove the meats and set aside to cool. Discard the pepper, bay leaves, and spices. Drain the beans and add them to the broth. Return to a boil and reduce the heat. Simmer until beans are soft, 45 minutes or so.
Once the meat is cool, separate it from any skin or bones, and chop or shred it into bite-sized pieces.
Once the beans are soft, add potatoes, carrots, parsley, parsley root, and the meats. If needed, add additional boiling water to cover everything. Taste and add salt if needed. Continue to simmer for another 20 minutes or so, until the vegetables are tender.
Heat lard in a small sauté pan, and fry the onion until it is translucent. Sprinkle in 1 ½ Tablespoons of flour and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the paprika. Pour into the soup and mix well. Cook for 5 minutes or so.
Mix 5 teaspoons of flour into the cream, then stir the mixture into the soup. Cook for another 5 minutes or so, until any raw flour taste is gone.
Season with ground black pepper, marjoram, and additional salt if needed. Serve with crusty bread.
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
I receive no compensation for mentioning any other websites or product.
Posted by Lorin Black
Categories: bacon, Beans, legumes, Paprika, Parsley root, Pinto Beans, Pork, Sausage, Slovak, soup
Tags: Beans, Fazulnica, Fazulovika, legumes, Parsley root, Pork NEck, Ribs, Sausage, Slovak, Smoked Meats, Smoked Pork, soup
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