Gulyásleves

thumb|260px|An outdoor cauldron in Hungary, used for cooking gulyás

( and in Hungarian), is a Hungarian soup, made of beef, vegetables, ground paprika and other spices. It originates from a dish cooked by the cattlemen ( , ), who tended their herds in the Great Hungarian Plain (known as the or 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 (called ) over an open fire.

The word is a loanword from Ottoman Turkish (spelled in modern Turkish), meaning a cauldron made of copper; from the word "copper" in Old Turkish language (spelled in modern Turkish).

The original dish called was a stew, not a soup. Traditional Hungarian is often still cooked outdoors over an open fire in a cauldron, giving the appearance of a barbecue. Later on when the dish left the peasant cuisines and became popular even in the town,

alt=Gaulyasleves according to the traditional recipe|thumb|Gulyásleves

There are different variations of the recipe. The meat is beef, but often mixed meats are used (e.g. beef, pork and mutton or lamb). Tomatoes, carrots and fresh peppers (often hot chilies) are also added. Onions, paprika and caraway seeds provide its flavour. Cubed potatoes or pasta squares are typically added to this spicy soup. This dish is not to be confused with other dishes, like or .

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See also