Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Cabbage Soup

I got this recipe from IC whom I work with. I was sick and needed something to cure my stuffy nose. This soup is very flavorful and was done largely on intuition. It can be adjusted to your individual palate or style of cooking. It is also a great fall farmer’s market recipe…Enjoy!

Cabbage Soup


1 med onion
1-2 tbls butter
1/2 head of cabbage
2 tsp. salt
1 tbls of dry thyme
Fresh dill (to taste, a little less than 1/4 c appx)
Diced tomatoes, 28 ounce can or fresh (see directions below**)
1 to 2 med carrots, sliced (IC’s addition. Adds a sweetness, but is optional)
Pepper, to taste (my addition)
Topping: Sour Crème, Cream Fraiche or Cottage Cheese

Chop onion and place in gallon-sized dutch oven with butter on medium/medium-high heat. Stir onions occasionally so they do not burn. Cook until transparent.

Add water until pot is half full. Add thyme. While waiting for the water to boil, cut the cabbage into thin strips and massage with salt. When water boils, add cabbage and carrots. Simmer until cabbage is soft, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes. Continue simmering another 5 minutes or so. Add dill and simmer five additional minutes. Add pepper to taste and salt if you feel you need more. Serve hot.

**You may use fresh tomatoes, two or three. You may want to seed and peel them first. Mollie K recommends boiling them for 10 seconds, then peeling them and squeezing out the juice and seeds. Chop and add to soup. You may need to cook the soup a bit longer if you use this method.

Thoughts and Feelings: I had to use dry dill because for some reason my local Whole Foods does not carry dill and my dill plant is very tiny and delicate. I look forward to making it with fresh dill.
I also added cottage cheese to the soup, which IC does not endorse. I had it without too and it was delicious. Ricotta might be a little less adventurous if you want to add a simple dairy product to it. IC usually adds sour cream but thought creme fraiche sounded good, too.
I also would like to try it without carrots.

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