Simple Szekely Caraway Seed Soup

Being the youngest, and an avid supporter of thumb loving, I seemed to catch all that was willing to be caught by me when I was a little girl. To rid my body of whatever it was ailed by, my mom would make a delicious, clean, and simple caraway seed soup. On the side, she would pan toast cubes of bread that I would toss on top of the golden broth one by one. The nourishing soup gently cajoled me me back into health year after year.

• 1 onion
• 1-2 tablespoons of caraway seeds
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 2 tablespoons of oil
  
• 1 egg (for the dumplings)
• Salt to taste
• 3-4 tablespoons of flour (for the dumplings)
• 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
• Dash of sweet Hungarian paprika
• water

Boil 8-10 cups of water with the full head of the onion. While that is on the stove, make a caraway seed tea by boiling the seeds with one cup of water. The roux will be made with two spoonfuls of oil and two spoonfuls of flour gently sauteed on the stove until an even light reddish brown will appear. Remove it from the stove and after ten seconds, add half a teaspoon of paprika to it (the rest of the teaspoon is added to the soup after the onion softens). Next, add a couple tablespoons of cold water, and thoroughly allow the roux to mix, as to eliminate all lumps.
Combine roux with soup.

Pour the caraway seed 'tea' in with the rest of the broth. Continue cooking, and begin the dumplings. Scramble the egg with a pinc of salt and 2-3 drops of oil. Slowly add sifted flour, little by little to the egg until an even consistency, thicker than a pancake forms. Dip a spoon into the boiling soup and use this to fill half of the soup with the dumpling paste. Place in boiling soup and gently shake it to drop it in. The soup is ready when the dumplings float to the top. Finally, chop up the parsley, as much as desired, and add to the soup right before serving.

Possibility for alteration: Instead of making caraway seed tea, toast them in a nonstick pan. When toasted, grind them and use to flavor the soup through the roux, by adding it to the flour.