Life-Changing Cabbage Soup

Slightly tangy, slightly creamy, this cabbage soup will make you rethink cabbage.

I know, this is a lot to promise from any soup, particularly from a soup made from the notoriously sock-flavored boiled cabbage. But this soup has made believers out of all my housemates. It’s at once tender and hearty, it sticks to your ribs and warms you right through, and it’s just as good if not better the next day.

Adapted from Nash Holos.

Ingredients:

1 head of cabbage

2-4 potatoes (more if small)

2 onions

1 leek (or on this case, a ton of scallions)

2 tbsp butter or oil
2 tbsp flour

1-2 cups yogurt.

2 liters water or stock

Start heating the water or stock in a large soup pot.

Chop the potatoes up pretty small. You’ll be mashing them up in the soup, and a lot of the texture is going to come from how thoroughly you mash them. Personally, I like a few of them to stay chunky, but it’s up to you. So is the type of potato - I just use whatever is on hand, and so far everything’s worked.

Slice the cabbage up pretty small - not grated-level fine, but you don’t want to be fishing out recognizable chunks of cabbage. Drop it in the stock and let simmer. I use green cabbage, but there’s no reason red shouldn’t work, other than it might look odd.

Chop up the onion. The size will depend on how you like your onions in soup. Larger chunks if you like the succulent burst of savory onion flavor and smooth simmered texture, small dice if you’re not so into that and want the onion to blend more into the background. Add it to the soup. Let the whole thing just boil lightly for a while until the potatoes are mashable. In the meantime…

Chop the second onion and the leek - same deal about size depending on how you like them. Heat the butter or oil in a small skillet and start caramelizing the onion and leek. This’ll take about ten minutes or so; don’t skimp on the time here because this is what will give you a rich savory flavor in the soup.

While your onions are caramelizing, mash the potatoes in the soup pot. I just use the back of a spoon. Add water if it's thicker than you'd like.

Add a little more butter or oil to the skillet and then add the flour. I’ve used whole wheat flour and ground oat flour - I like something a little robust. Stir that around with the onions until it starts to smell like toast, 2-3 minutes. Then put the whole thing in the soup pot and stir it around.

Deglaze the onion skillet with the yogurt, and pour it into the soup. Turn down the heat so the yogurt doesn’t separate, stir it well, add salt, pepper, and a dash of lemon juice if you like, and eat.

Serves between four and eight, depending on how hungry they are and how much leftovers they want.

Cost breakdown:
Cabbage: $0.79
Onions: $0.23
Potatoes ~$.50? (part of CSA)
Scallions: $1.00
Yogurt: $1.00
Stock ~$1.00? (made from a $7.00 chicken)

TOTAL: $4.52