Today’s post comes from one of my newest blog finds – Christina @ Dinner at Christina’s! Enjoy 🙂
Rustic Cabbage Soup
I love 101 Cookbooks and have surfed my way over to some awesome blogs by following the comment links. That’s how I found Maggie’s blog!
I answered her plea for guest bloggers and offered a recipe post. She was very flexible, and I chose this recipe because it’s one of my favorites and I feel like it represents the health-conscious and vegan/vegetarian quality of Maggie’s recipes.
The list of ingredients and instructions are Heidi’s:
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
a big pinch of salt
1/2 pound potatoes, skin on, cut 1/4-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
5 cups stock
1 1/2 cups white beans, precooked or canned (drained & rinsed well)
1/2 medium cabbage, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch ribbons
Warm the olive oil in a large thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the salt and potatoes. Cover and cook until they are a bit tender and starting to brown a bit, about 5 minutes – it’s o.k. to uncover to stir a couple times. Stir in the garlic and onion and cook for another minute or two. Add the stock and the beans and bring the pot to a simmer. Stir in the cabbage and cook for a couple more minutes, until the cabbage softens up a bit. Now adjust the seasoning – getting the seasoning right is important or your soup will taste flat and uninteresting. Taste and add more salt if needed, the amount of salt you will need to add will depend on how salty your stock is (varying widely between brands, homemade, etc). Serves 4.
I wasn’t sure how much 1/2 of a pound of potatoes were, so I used two large potatoes. I used Knorr’s vegetarian stock, but only 2 cubes which is supposed to equal 4 cups of water and I put in the whole 5. I thought the other flavors might make up for it, and I was right. I just added a little black pepper and the flavor was great. I used canned white beans for the convenience as well.
The one thing I always notice when I’m making one of Heidi’s recipes is the smell they produce. Nothing else I ever cook has such a hearty, wholesome smell. I imagine it’s how a kitchen in the 1800’s might have smelled. Some stronger, rawer odors from chopping the raw potatoes, onions and cabbage. And then this almost earthy, deep smell from the layering of the ingredients as she builds the recipes up. It’s homey and warm, my boyfriend Johnny also always notices when he walks in the door from work.
Heidi’s original recipe called for an extra drizzle of olive oil and parmesan cheese shavings on top, both of which I omitted, but would be great touches if you preferred.
I was so eager to eat I didn’t grab a picture until the end. This was when I was ladling the leftovers into a storage container, so forgive the lack of presentation!