Sunday's Soup/Cabbage Confetti Soup

A few years back, I read a book about the nutrients and vitamins contained in vegetables and why we should eat them at a certain time of year. I was blown away by cabbage...of all things. Did you know that while the cabbage seems to be similar to lettuce, it's actually related to broccoli, kale, and cauliflower? Who would have thought? Not me! It's packed with vitamin C and K, helps to improve digestion, and also has an anti-inflammatory response in the body, so it helps to protect against infection, such as colds. Cabbage has also been found to lower blood pressure as well as cholesterol. Pretty amazing for this simple vegetable. So, eating cabbage at this time of year is especially great. It may actually help ward off a nasty cold :) 

I decided to call this soup Cabbage Confetti Soup, as it is rather colorful, with celery, carrots, fire roasted tomatoes, green and yellow split peas, and finally cabbage.   

Begin with 1 large yellow onion, and 1 cup of chopped celery. Saute under tender. 

Add 1 cup of green, and 1 cup of yellow split peas. If you would rather, you can choose one or the other. Split peas are pretty much...split peas. I just like the added color :)

Add in 2 large sliced carrots, 1 large can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, 6 cups of chopped cabbage, 12 cups vegetable broth, 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon of celery seed, 2 teaspoons of dried thyme, and 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary. 

Bring everything to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, or until split peas are tender. Serve and enjoy!

Cabbage Confetti Soup

ingredients;
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion chopped
1 cup celery chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
2 large carrots sliced 
6 cups chopped cabbage
1 cup yellow split peas
1 cup green split peas
1 28 oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes
12 cups vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon celery seed
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt and black pepper to taste

directions;
Begin by heating oil in large soup pot. Add onions and celery and saute until tender. Add garlic and continue to saute for another minute, stirring so as not to burn garlic.
Add split peas, cabbage, carrots, canned tomatoes, vegetable broth, bay leaves, celery seed, rosemary, and thyme. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until peas are tender, about 30 minutes. 
Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Add in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.

The soup may be served as is with a nice piece of warm, crusty bread. You may also serve it over a bed of wild rice, a delicious addition. 

The soup freezes well, so have some now, and save some for later. Another idea is to freeze in small batches for lunches.

I hope you enjoy the soup, and I hope that it will help to ward off those nasty winter time colds :)
Enjoy!

Rhonda

Sunday's Soup

With all the soup recipes that I have posted, I'm sure you can guess that I really enjoy a bowl of soup. Last year, while my husband and I were out skiing, we stopped for lunch and, surprise, surprise, I had a bowl of soup. It was fabulous!!! It was a creamy tomato/cabbage type of goulash. I've thought about that soup ever since and I've decided to try and come up with my own version since the restaurant would not share the recipe. I understand, but I was also quite disappointed. What I decided to do is try out a few recipes and then maybe do a little combining and tweaking until I can find the combination that I like. The recipe I'm sharing today was found on the food.com website. Not what I'm looking for, but it did give me some ideas. The soup as it is, is very good. You can find the original recipe here. I made a few very minor changes. My version is posted below.

Tomato Cabbage Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
1 28oz. can of diced fire roasted tomatoes
2 14 oz. cans of Cannelloni beans drained and rinsed
1 small cabbage chopped
3 large carrots chopped
1/4 cup chili sauce
8 cups of water
2 large vegetable bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon of dried basil
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in large soup pot. Add onions and celery. Cook until vegetables are tender.
Add remaining ingredients. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

If you would like, chicken sausage makes a nice addition if you would like a non vegetarian version. Saute the sausage until browned. Set aside and add when all other ingredients are added to the pot.
The 1/4 cup of chili sauce makes this soup rather spicy. I love spicy, so it was just right for me. Just start with less and add more a little at the time.

This soup will freeze well.

If by chance you have a creamy tomato/cabbage goulash type soup that you enjoy, leave a link to the recipe, and I'll give it a try. Or, you may also email the recipe to me, sewbussted@yahoo.com.

Sunday's Soup

Today's soup marks number 21! A friend of mine is cheering me on to create 52 soups, one for every week of the year. Summer vegetables will start coming in soon, like tomatoes and corn. I've had a roasted corn soup idea floating around in my brain, but I want to wait until I can get nice, fresh sweet corn as I want to roast it in the husks and besides, fresh corn is so very good. 

Today's soup is a spicy soup and full of flavor. It's quite hearty, but still low in calories. It's,

Spicy Crab Meat Stew  

 The ingredients;

1 medium size yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
8 oz. of Baby Bella mushrooms, chopped
1 red pepper, fire roasted
2 good sized potatoes, chopped into cubes
2 zucchini chopped
1 bunch of green onions chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh minced ginger
2 tablespoons of Thai red curry paste(or to taste)
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 28 oz. cans of fire roasted tomatoes

 1 1lb. can of crab meat

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 lemon sliced
salt and black pepper to taste
6 cups of water

Begin by roasting the red pepper. I talked about roasting red peppers here. It's best to do this first as the pepper needs to sweat for about 15 minutes.
While the pepper is sweating, add olive oil to large pot and heat. Add yellow onion and saute on medium heat until tender. About 5 to 10 minutes. Add garlic and mushrooms. Continue to saute for another 5 minutes. Add tomatoes. If you are using whole canned tomatoes, break them up. Add sugar and the water along with the potatoes, zucchini, red curry paste, and minced ginger. Bring to a boil and then reduce and simmer until potatoes are tender, approximately 20 minutes.
While the stew is simmering, removed charred skin from pepper. Remove the core as well as the seeds, chop and add to stew.
Add crab meat and green onions, reserving some for garnish. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat until crab meat is hot.
To serve, ladle stew into bowls, garnish with reserved crab meat and green onions. Serve with lemon slices on the side.

My husband is out of town, so I am here to enjoy this all by myself. Such a pity;) Actually, he'll be home soon and there will be plenty for him to enjoy as well!!
We finally had an incredible day yesterday and people were out in droves. Great weather makes the soul feel so good!
Hope you are having a lovely weekend.
Rhonda