Beef Goulash with Smoked Paprika and Charred Peppers

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 09:30:00 +0000

The word gulyás means herdsman, and the dish is named after the men who cooked it — cattle drovers on the Great Hungarian Plain, the Alföld, who simmered beef and onions in a bogrács, an iron cauldron slung over an open fire, while they moved herds across the grassland. What they made was a soup, loose and brothy, and much of what gets served as “goulash” outside Hungary is thicker and closer to pörkölt, a related braise. This version sits between the two: a hearty, spoonable stew with potatoes in it, the way a Hungarian household is likely to cook it on a cold evening. The twist is a second paprika — a spoon of Spanish smoked pimentón alongside the sweet Hungarian kind — and red peppers charred black over a flame before they go in, both there to add a smoky depth the open cauldron once gave for free.

Hungarian - vo.rs

Beef Goulash with Smoked Paprika and Charred Peppers