Tuesday, October 02, 2007

It's all about the cabbage

My mother mentioned she was making vegetable soup last week...maybe it was over the week-end...I can't remember when exactly...but the word cabbage was mentioned. I love cabbage and my mouth started watering immediately. I begged (not much) for the recipe, which she emailed to me a day or two ago. I had to get groceries this morning so I picked up the necessary ingredients and started on the soup after I picked up the twins from school. Well...I just had a taste of it about 5 minutes ago and I have to say, it is the BEST vegetable soup I think I've ever tasted. It tastes *just like* the soup up at the Plaza Restaurant in Blue Ridge Summit, PA. YUMMMY. So, below I'll post the recipe and maybe someone else out there will try it and like it, too.

Other news: Delaney started riding the school bus to and from school yesterday. Yes, I caved. She loves it. She was so excited when she came home from school yesterday because she got to see where lots of her friends live. I'm happy she's happy but now I have to force myself to go out for my daily walk. Ugh. I'm not good with motivation.

I planted up the rest of my pansies today and even went over to the woods and dug up a cute "weed" I saw there. It might be an Aster. If you know, tell me. I saw loads of these along the Dismal Swamp Trail and they were swarmed by butterflies. My hope is I can get this one to reproduce/spread so I'll have more of it next summer.


VEGETABLE SOUP

1 chuck roast cut into bite sized pieces (I found one that was about 1 1/2" thick and weighed almost 2 lbs. After I trimmed off the fat, there wasn't a lot of meat left. I used half, cut up the other half and froze it for next time.)

1 large onion, diced

1/2 - 1 c Green & Red bell pepper (I used 1 whole red one)

V-8 Vegetable juice (I used 1/2 of a 64oz bottle)

1 small cabbage, cut up (about 5 inch span)

3 16oz bags of mixed vegetables (I used 1 bag of corn, 1 bag of Baby Corn & Veg blend, 1/4 bag of edamame beans, 1/4 bag of broccoli)

Put meat, onion, peppers in stock pot. Cover with V-8 and simmer about 30 minutes.

Add cabbage to the top but do not stir! Simmer about 1 more hour.

Add mixed vegetables and cook about 30 minutes longer or until tender.

I did find that my soup was not very soupy. I added 5 cups of water until I got the consistency I wanted. I also added about 1 or 1 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt and 6 or 7 turns of the "Peppercorn Medley" grinder.
**Vegetarian options: If not using meat just put in a package of onion soup mix. Eggplant is a good meat substitute.

Photos: Delaney getting on the bus for the first time, a cute little toile painted duck (1983) I bought at the thrift shop the other day - (Grammy, it goes well with our "Mavica est. 1997" heart!), our relaxing spot in the yard, the plant in question, and vegetable soup.






1 comment:

Liudwih said...

We just had cabbage the other day! Colcannon then just sauteed with a bit of smart balance, salt and pepper. YUMMMM! I will have to try a modified version of your soup.