Cabbage Soup

What!?  Onions, apples, potatoes, garlic and cabbage together in one soup?  Oh,........yeah!

Granddaughter Megan is quite the little bread baker-- just yesterday, she brought us the 'braided bread' in the photo.   M-m-m-m-m-m-m.......

You are so right if you think I'm on a 'cabbage kick'!  You know how they say 'two heads are better than one'?   Well,....mine, plus a cabbage-- this works for me, and the end result is...

TA-A-A-A-STY!!

I like this cabbage soup!  PJ told me I should include a story about this recipe-- a few years back, Grandson Ben was watching as I peeled and sliced the apples and asked what I was making.  When I told him it was 'Cabbage Soup', he quickly added in a sweet but matter of fact way, "You don't have to make any of that for me."  It was funny how the 'apple' had gotten his attention, and how quickly the 'cabbage' word erased it!

As with almost all recipes, a little tweaking doesn't hurt-- but, here is the recipe for how I make it:

With the exception of the ground beef and the Italian seasoning, the following recipe is already doubled because we like it as a re-run (left-over).  You could easily use the same amount of lean ground beef and halve the rest of the ingredients for a smaller batch.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound lean hamburger, browned, drained well.
• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil (I used light tasting Olive Oil)
• 2 cups very thinly sliced onions
• 4 apples-- peeled, cored, and finely diced.
• 6 cups shredded cabbage
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (or powder, to equal that)
• 2 large raw potatoes, shredded
• 6 cups vegetable broth (I used a large 46-oz. can of V-8 juice, but you could use your own homemade recipe of tomato 'cocktail'.)
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (rub together between fingers, to release more flavor)
• 2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 cup half-and-half or cream 
• salt and pepper to taste

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DIRECTIONS:

• Brown hamburger, drain.  Set aside.
• In a large heavy pot, cook onion and apple in oil over medium-high heat until just lightly browned. 

• Stir in cabbage and garlic, then reduce heat.  Stir in browned hamburger,  grated potato, broth (or juice), Italian seasoning,  sugar, salt and pepper; cover and simmer 30 minutes* (see my * note below). 
• Once everything is added, it looks like this.... now, it's ready to 'do its thing'.

Stir in cream.  Heat through and serve. (Adding the cream gives its V-8 soup base a lighter color at the end.)

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*Like I often do with other recipes like this, rather than watch it on top of the stove, I prefer to put my covered enameled cast iron Dutch oven of soup into the oven at 300-degrees for a '...see ya in an hour' kind of ease.  Slow-cooking crock pots work for this, also, and will give you an even longer time to be 'away' while 'the goodness is happening'!

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I found this recipe quite a few years ago in a magazine and saw that a similar one was on allrecipes.com.  One submitter wrote:  "I love cabbage and always try to come up with new ideas for cooking with it; it's a very economical staple in the fall and winter months, thus this recipe.  Add any vegetables or meats that you like--this is a recipe of great versatility! ...Enjoy!" 

The 'readers comments' section wasn't so favorable for this recipe.  It seemed there were a lot of complainers/whiners who left comments-- the recipe wasn't this,... it wasn't that,... nobody liked it, etc.  

Well,............I (we) DO like this recipe and I would give it 5 stars-- maybe it is the 'added hamburger' that contributes to our liking it so well. (?)    I can also see adding a very lean version of sausage (Kielbasa type?) to this recipe in place of the hamburger.  I, too,  think this is a recipe you can work up to suit yourself and your family.