Thursday, October 4, 2018

Hearty Sweet Sour Beef Cabbage Soup

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We visited family in Wisconsin last weekend and came home with 6 cabbages and 3 bags of corn.
We didn't even try to plant cabbage in Chicagoland with such a late Spring and the quick hot temperatures. So, we were happy to have wonderful cabbages.
One of our favorite recipes is 

SWEET and SOUR BEEF CABBAGE SOUP!



Full bodied and hearty this soup is perfect for freezing. Steamy bowls served with bread or rolls, makes any chilly night the perfect night for soup.


Some of the ingredients for the soup, pretty simple list. I used my already canned tomatoes...and a bit of tomato paste, to add more flavor.


Such simple ingredients. Onions, Cabbage, Tomatoes. Not shown-Beef Bone Broth in a carton---This is the first time I used bone broth, but in this ritzy suburb it is hard to get anything with bones-everything is trimmed within an inch of it's life.


You can definitely use chopped fresh tomatoes, but all I had was yellow ones. So I stuck with the reds, I had canned.


The taste profile is enhanced with fresh ground pepper, canning salt, allspice whole, ground allspice, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, bay leaf, and garlic. 



Are you licking your lips now...I am.


Hearty, and full-flavored.


The allspice gives such a gentle flavor.
This is pretty much a mixture of several recipes I have used, and tweaked.

Prep Time with a chopper---15 min.
Cook Time 3 hours or crock pot it.
Servings 8-10

Ingredients:
  • 1# of sliced beef chuck roast or stew meat
  • Salt Pepper on the meat 
  • 2 Tbsp of oil to brown meat with
  • 1 32 oz. carton of Beef Bone Broth
  • 2 cups of Water
  • 1 large onion chopped (I use 1/2 yellow, 1/2 red)
  • 4-6 cloves of garlic minced.
  • 1 medium to large head of cabbage
  • 15 whole allspice berries
  • 3 quarts of chopped fresh tomatoes or equivalent from cans.
  • 1/4 cup of brown sugar (more if you like it sweet) our tomatoes were very sweet this year.
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar--I added a bit more as we like a tang---but you can do this at the end
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2-3 Tbsp of Tomato paste 
In heavy pot or frying pan---brown seasoned sliced meat in oil until browned on all sides. Remove meat and add chopped onions sprinkled with a little salt-cook until translucent. I added 1 cup of the water to the pan to rinse and remove all the 'good bits'. I transferred all to my soup pot: the meat and onions and liquid. (OR_You can transfer to crock pot here)

Add all the water, broth, cabbage and allspice berries. Sweat this down until the cabbage is tender after it reaches a boil, (1/2 hour or so).

Add the chopped or stewed tomatoes, and everything else, except the tomato paste. Season to taste. 

Cook down on simmer for another hour, or leave in crock pot on low all day---.
Stir in the tomato paste and heat through 15 more minutes, until thick and flavorful. Check seasonings, and remove the bay leaf. 

Serve piping hot---with crusty breads. Excellent frozen---and like all soups, better the second day!


No reason this couldn't be made with turkey, chicken, or ham, and appropriate broths with tomatoes.
We use smoked turkey legs instead of ham for veggie and bean soups. 

Excellent.

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