Cabbage Soup

I grew up with my grandparents. Soup was a primary daily staple and my grandmother used to make two types of "Kapusta". There was the traditonal sour kraut, dried mushrooms, potatoes, hambone soup made from the remainder of the roasted ham for lunch pumpernickle, and then there was the soup made from fresh cabbage. This stuff was a fumigant in reality, but it was something both my grandfather and my dad really enjoyed and probably was the primary reason that we never had problems with insects or ternrnites. Decades after my grandparants passed, my dad still wanted that soup. There was no recipe really, just a large head of cabbage cored and sliced in chunks, a can of tomato soup, leftover chicken soup or tomato juice, over a tablespoon of pepper, around a teaspoon of salt, several shakes of a bottle of catsup and some lemon juice. I pretty much made the soup for my dad the same way, but with the hints from a Jewish deli added a whole chopped onion and  used sour salt (citric acid)  in place of the lemon juice with a dose of MSG, and added a roased chicken base to the stock. My kids wouldn't touch it, but  my dad devoured that soup. He's  85 now and still expects that soup every so often. I'm wondering if any of you have any variations of a similar cabbage soup.  

Your cabbage soup is similar what I do, though I don't consider mine "soup".  I am 77 and live alone, and periodically I will get a small head of cabbage, and using a quarter of it at a time, I chop the cabbage including the core and cook it in water with butter, black pepper and about a half to three-quarters of a cup of mild salsa until tender,  sometimes adding a half cup of frozen red and green pepper and onion to the mix.  If I am having ham (which I love) I may toss in about 5 oz. of it cut in small chunks, or maybe add about a tablespoon of real bacon bits to it.  When it is cooked, I often add a half cup of instant rice to absorb the liquid and that is my meal.  When I don't have fresh cabbage, I will often do the same with 6 to 8 oz. of frozen Brussels sprouts (cut in half when half done).

A few weeks back, I googled and made a copycat recipe for Shoney's beef cabbage soup, and there were quite a few recipes to choose from.  The one I used started with a diced onion and green pepper, beef broth base, ground chuck, cabbage, can of whole tomatoes chopped with their juices, and a can of drained kidney beans.  You could easily adapt one of them using the vegetables you want/ omitting the ones you don't.
 
 

Dawn - my mother, her mother, and her mother's mother have been making a version of this soup for a long time. (I always called it "Jewish Soul Food"! ) Brown some lamb neckbones and meaty pieces that have been heavily dusted in sweet paprika, and sliced onions in a small amount of oil in the bottom of a stockpot. After that has browned on all sides, I add half of a large cabbage that has been thinly sliced, and a 1/2 cup of water. Let it continue to brown until the cabbage has cooked down a little, and add the rest of the sliced head of cabbage, 3-4 Tblsp, brown sugar, the juice of 2 whole lemons, and a large can of good quality pureed tomatoes. If there isn't enough liquid to cover the contents of the pot, I add a few cans of water. Let it boil, then lower flame to simmer for at least an hour, stirring every so often.  After an hour, add salt and pepper to taste, and simmer another hour or so. My family always serves this with what Mom calls "Sweet Rice". To make Sweet Rice, grease a casserole dish, preferably glass, with margarine. Take 6 cups of cooked rice, and add some margarine, sugar, and two beaten eggs to it. Stir gently to combine well, and spoon into casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, then run under the broiler to get the top brown and crusty, then serve.  I can't tell you how many of us would get into fights over the crispy top pieces!

My Father had an Aunt that made a wonderful sweet & sour cabbage soup. My Mother always requested that I only say hello & goodbye to her (for my own safety) because she was strict strict strict....and I always found that funny. I wish I had the recipe...but she was not a warm lady by any stretch.

Dawn your soup needs some onions and carrots, instead of tomato juice try V8. Also some fried hog jowl, is a plus.

I took my mother a big pot of sweet and sour cabbage soup yesterday.
 
I didn't use a recipe, but here's what I did...
 
Sauteed onions, celery and a tiny bit of garlic.  Threw in a can of fire roasted tomatoes and a bunch of V8 juice.  Then I added a carton of beef stock and diced carrots.  To make it sweet and sour I put in a couple spoonfuls of vinegar and probably a quarter cup of sugar.  At the end of the cooking I put in the chopped cabbage and let it cook.  Salt and freshly ground pepper was added as was a bay leaf and some thyme.
 
I let it cook.
 
When the cabbage was the right texture I tasted it.  It was missing the depth of taste I get in the Jewish delicatessens around here.  Hmmmm....
I added a few spoonfuls of brown sugar.  That did it!
 
I finished the soup by adding all of the brisket I had from the Passover dinner.
 
A perfect way to get my mother to eat something other than frozen boxed foods.

Chewie, this was my grandmother's way of cooking. Simple meals that you ate to live, not lived to eat. I used to joke about her chicken soup as "washed chicken".  There was no complexity to anything Eastern European and the reason I learned to cook Cuban food from the neighbors when I was a teen and took over the cooking. As you know from our correspondence, my recipes are often quite complex, but in this case, I'm cooking for my Dad. I'm just looking to shake things up a little. I do quite a bit of cooking with V8 actually and keep 12 oz cans in the larder, it's the base of my pot roast and past e fagoli and a good thinner in general.  This particular recipe has Jewish roots and I did forget to mention that it's also sweetened with a tablespoon of sugar/quart of stock, so it is sort of sweet and sour. Belle and Sneetch gave me some ideas and 6star's salsa seems interesting too. I've only recently started to experiment substituting bottled salsa for a sofrito base in some of my recipes when I'm short on time. I appreciate the suggestions all!
edit: I didn't see your post b4 I posted Marlene. We must have been writing about the same time. The brisket is a good idea. If you do yours the same as I do simmered in a traditional catsup/vegetable/beef base, I save all that sauce and freeze it small containers. That's my secret weapon in some of my other soups such as Lima Bean/Barley/Mushroom soup

I've never had cabbage soup before, so I cobbled this together in about an hour for lunch today after see the above post.
 

 

 
I had some left over rice from last night. I did not have any lemon juice but used homemade wine vinegar.  No ham, so I used a couple of pieces of smoked pig tails that I smoked 2 months ago.
 
I;m not sure what the flavor profile is supposed to be, but I could make my version again.  .......

Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is different but seems very close to the recipe my kids Ukrainian "Big Baba" made...

http://mincedbeefrecipe.c...r-cabbage-soup-recipe/

Wanna loose 10 pounds in a week?
Go back to the 7 Day Cabbage Soup Diet that was popular several years ago!
7 Day Cabbage Soup Diet
Eat all the soup you want, whenever you want. 
Ingredients:
1 bunch large green onions
2 green bell peppers
1 or 2 cans of 14.5 ounce, diced or whole, tomatoes
1 bunch celery, sliced
1/2 head cabbage, chopped
1 package Lipton onion soup mix
1 or 2 cubes bouillon, optional
1 48 oz can V8 juice, or 6 cups water or light chicken or vegetable broth
Season to taste with salt, pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc.
(If slow cooking, add seasonings about an hour before done)
 Preparation:
Simmer or slow cook all ingredients until soup is done.
 
This is the basic diet plan:
Day 1 - All fruit is fine, except bananas; soup
Day 2 - Any and all vegetables, baked potato with butter for dinner; soup
Day 3 - Combine Day 1 and 2, without potato; soup
Day 4 - Up to six bananas, all the skim milk you want; soup
Day 5 - 10 to 20 ounces of beef, a can of tomatoes, 6 to 8 glasses of water; soup
Day 6 - All the beef and vegetables you want; soup
Day 7 - Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and vegetables; soup
Note: No bread, alcohol, or carbonated beverages - not even diet soda
 

Sounds a bit like Kohlsuppe, there are so many variations of it you might check those recipes out also.  We always had some sort of cured or smoked meat in ours, usually a pork knuckle.
 

 
This soup is a Roux thickened Chicken stock, with sauteed onions, celery, cabbage put in after it is smooth, creamy, thickened base soup. I put in Nathans Hot Dogs, but this soup would be great with left over Ham, Corned beef, Kielbasa, German sausage............

Dawn this may be a way to try something new...

Kim Chi Jjigae

http://globetrotterdiarie...oup-eating-south-korea

Your Dad will love it...or not request cabbage soup for a spell.

Now I have to find my Korean Cabbage Soup pictures from last year....  I'll be back!

My Korean Cabbage Soup:
 
Doesn't look good, but it was really great.
 

Looks good to me!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks.  Here's my recipe:
 
Cabbage and soy bean paste soup (baechu doenjang guk)
 
 
half of a medium size napa cabbage
1/3 cup soy bean paste
10 dried anchovies
6 cups of water
1 green chili pepper
5-6 cloves of garlic
2 tbs flour.
Hot pepper paste
 
Put Napa cabbage directly into boiling water and stir it with a large spoon for 20 seconds. Boil it for a minute with the lid open.
Rinse it in cold water a couple of times to clean any remaining dirt from the cabbage leaves. Gently squeeze the leaves to get rid of any remaining water.
Chop the cabbage into small pieces and put them into a large pot.
 
Add 1/3 cup soy bean paste, 5-6 cloves minced garlic, 1 chopped green chili pepper, 10 large dried anchovies (after removing heads and guts), and 2 tbs flour to the pot.
Mix it by hand or a wooden spoon.
Add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil for 20 minutes over medium high heat.
Lower the heat and simmer another 10 minutes.
Like spicy soup? Then add some hot pepper paste right before simmering.
 
I also added cubed firm tofu.
 
All this talk of soup is making me hungry!
 
 
 

That looks good!!

Ok Dawn!!

A frozen coffee drink afterwards...and your Dad is happy. You could get the kids to eat that...as well.

CCinNJ


Dawn this may be a way to try something new...

Kim Chi Jjigae

http://globetrotterdiarie...oup-eating-south-korea

Your Dad will love it...or not request cabbage soup for a spell.

 
I think I will try this with my home made Kimchi.     The pics of the soup you made were with fresh napa cabbage and not kimchi as shown in the link.      Oh ... well I'm sure both are good.