Cabbage is a wonderful winter vegetable – it’s inexpensive, stores well in a cool room, and can be made into a huge variety of tasty dishes. I created this soup a couple of days ago, and though I thought the twelve quarts I made would be enough for two lunch meals, it got gobbled up at one sitting! The amounts below should work well for a smaller family than ours – I made about three times this amount.
Delicious Cabbage Soup
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 2 – 3 cloves of garlic, diced
- 2 – 4 T. oil (I used rendered chicken fat)
- 1 – 2 lb leftover turkey or whatever meat you have from making broth (you can use ground meat instead if you don’t have any leftover meat to use up)
- 1 large head of cabbage (purple or white)
- 1 T. sweet paprika
- 2 t. thyme
- 8 c. broth
- salt to taste
Heat the oil in a pot, and add the chopped onions; cook until translucent. Add the soup chicken and saute it until it’s warmed through. Then add the cabbage, spices, and broth. Cover the pot and cook on medium until the cabbage is so soft it’s almost melting. Taste it and add salt according to your personal taste – I’d estimate I used about 3 T. sea salt for my large pot full (12 quarts).
This recipe is super inexpensive and it’s a great way to use up your leftover chicken from making broth. The cost for me to make 12 quarts was under $5: the onions were .29 lb (I used approximately two pounds – .60), the cabbage was .39 lb (I used about 8 – 10 lb/3.90), and since I got the turkey carcasses for free, the broth and turkey were free. It’s packed with flavor and nutrients, and is very digestible. Perfect to warm you up on a cold winter day!
(This post is part of Pennywise Platter Thursday and Ultimate Recipe Swap.)
Avivah
I saw something similar in the Martha Stewart Magazine I traded in some unused miles for. You are definitely onto something.
I made this soup last night… two words: easy, yummy!
Here’s my tweaks: I only feed us – two adults. Therefore, it is easier in several ways to get the rotisserie chicken at the deli (I live in town…). That’s the extent of convenience for me most times. (I love being in the kitchen and cooking from scratch.) I also halved the recipe.
With that said, I chilled the bird, pulled the meat off, and simmered the carcass, skin, and drippings in the container with water. That’s my base… defatted and strained.
I had a partial head of Napa cabbage in the fridge, so that went in; and was short on regular onions, so I used a few green onions and half a red one.
Served it over brown rice and added a dash of pepper on top. Hubby and I both loved it! Will finish the leftovers for lunch! This would make a great potluck soup in a crockpot.
Could a person successfully can this if they wanted??? Hhmmmm….might try.
Thank you, Avivah!
Hi, Terry, welcome and I’m glad you liked the soup! I use napa as a stand in for cabbage all the time – I just bought two cases of it yesterday!
Yes, you can can this soup. You’d need to pressure can it, and the processing time goes according to the ingredient that needed the longest processing. In this case it would chicken/meat, so I’d can it at 90 minutes at 11 pounds pressure for a quart. I’ve canned several kinds of soups, and they’re so nice to pull off the shelf for a home cooked meal at the end of a busy day.