A Savory, Fulfilling Cabbage Meat Soup, made with Salted Cabbage and choice Meat with Frozen Vegetables in a wonderful Soup base. It is delicious in its own right and can accommodate any kind of meat you may want to add. Use ground or diced Beef, Chicken, Pork or Sausages. Serve it up as the main course with some Buttered Dinner Rolls or Bread, and save the leftovers for a quick lunch.
This Cabbage Meat Soup shares the same soup base as Cabbage Roll Soup, and is derived from the Vegetable Soup, It’s just amazing what you can do with the Vegetable Soup base to create a whole host of other delicious soups.
Cabbage Meat Soup Base
The soup base is all the ingredients combined into a bowl, except for the Tomato Paste & EVOO. Both of these are used in the large Saucepan to cook any aromatic vegetables being added to the soup before the soup base is added.
Soup Base
- 5 C Water
- 3 C Tomato Juice
- 1/2 C Pimento Paste
- 1/4 EVOO & Tomato Paste, set aside separately
- 2 Tbl Lemon Juice & Chickpea Flour
- 3 Tbl Hodi Smoked Sweet Paprika
- 2 Bouillon Cubes (Beef, Pork, Chicken, or Vegetable)
- 1/4 tsp Ground Bay Leaves
Just combine all the ingredients into a bowl, except the Fat & Tomato Paste. Mix well and set aside until needed.
Fat for Cabbage Meat Soup
A light tasting extra Virgin Olive Oil or Butter is your all around Fat to use. Seeing how meat will be introduced into this soup. Then a rendered fat corresponding to the meat being added will elevate the flavors of the meat more so.
Beef Suet
Beef Suet or the rendered fat trimmings from Beef.
Cabbage Meat Soup Heat Level
There are two main ways heat can be adjusted to suit your level of preference. Either through the type of Pimento Paste used (Hot or Sweet) or the type of Smoked Paprika used (Sweet or Hot). You can experiment a bit here to reach your desired outcome. Either way you choose, you want to exchange just a small amount of either Sweet Paprika or Sweet Pimento Paste with the Hot variety.
I usually always buy the sweet Pimento Paste and therefore adjust the heat through the type of Paprika being used. A total of 3 Tbl of Paprika is used to season the soup base, and some of it can be replaced with Hodi Smoked Hot Paprika to reach the desired heat level in 1/2 tsp increments.
Hodi Smoked Sweet Paprika with Beech
Just an Amazing Paprika! It can be hard to find, but is it ever worth it. Just the smell alone is going to amaze you, let alone the flavors it can bring.
Mild Soup Base
For a Mild Soup, just the addition of Black Pepper, Chili Flakes, or Cayenne Pepper added to taste is good and easy to control. You can also remove 1/2 tsp of the Smoked Sweet Paprika and replace it with Hodi Smoked Hot Paprika.
Medium Soup Base
1 tsp of Hodi Smoked Hot & 2 Tbl + 2 tsp of Hodi Smoked Sweet will create a medium heat. This is my preference for heat level.
Spicy Soup Base
For a Spicy Soup base, exchange 1/2 Tbl Hodi Smoked Sweet Paprika for Hodi Smoked Hot Paprika. Which tethers on slightly too spicy for most.
Hot Soup Base
A very Hot Soup base can be made with the use of more Hot Hodi Paprika, but this is very Hot. At about 1/2 Tbl of Hot Hodi you are reaching the mark and anything over this is just too hot for most.
Salted Cabbage
Salting the Cabbage will break down the Cabbage, extracting the juices and get rid of any bitter taste in the Cabbage. It also helps it to cook much easier and create a very nice texture in the soup. Slice off any thick stems.
Use a whole Cabbage and salt the entire cored and torn Cabbage to portion off into Ziploc bags and freeze to use Freshly Salted Cabbage and previously salted and frozen Cabbage for this recipe.
Add 2% Sea Salt for the amount of Cabbage you are salting. Example; 3 lbs of Cabbage, use 27g of Sea Salt. Sprinkle it over the Cabbage to mix and squeeze the Cabbage. Then leave it sit there for a while to work, giving it a mix once or twice more.
Salted Cabbage
Combine 1/2 lb (227g) of Cabbage with 3/4 tsp of Sea Salt. Mix it in well, squeezing the Cabbage, and set aside for about 1 hour. Squeeze out the Juices before adding.
You can certainly add in more if desired. Just adjust the salt so that it is 2 % of the total Cabbage weight.
I’m not sure why, but I much prefer torn Cabbage than chopped. Well, sort of, I tear the outer leaves and then chop the much denser leaves of the Cabbage. But for some reason Torn Cabbage seems to be more pleasant to eat, maybe that’s just me.
Meat
Add in 1 lb of Ground Beef, Pork, Chicken or Sausages. Even diced Beef, Pork, Chicken or coarsely chopped precooked Sausages like Italian Sausages, Chourico Sausages or the raw meat from Chourico Kebabs. The meat used in this recipe was 1/2 lb each of Ground Beef & Pork.
Ground Beef & Pork
1/2 lb of both ground Beef & Pork.
Vegetables
Onion and Garlic are cooked in the Pan with the Salted Cabbage & Meat. The addition of Frozen Vegetables is thrown in to simmer for about 10 minutes before covering and removing from the heat to rest for about 20 minutes.
Onion & Garlic
1 Onion diced or sliced & 3 Cloves of Garlic minced, tossed in with the meat that has been browned.
Frozen Vegetables
2 Cups of Frozen Vegetables, added in to simmer an additional 10 minutes for soft or added last and brought back to a boil before covering and letting rest 20 minutes before serving for firmer vegetables.
Salt & Pepper
Use the Salt & Pepper blend to adjust the seasoning before serving if needed. If not, this blend is great to set on the side in a bowl to use whenever a bit of Seasoning is needed.
Salt & Pepper blend
- 1 Tbl Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp White Pepper
Equipment
- 1 Soup Pot
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Digital Scale
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Beef & Pork - or just ground beef or pork
- 1/2 lb Cabbage - or more, Salted
- 1 Onion
- 3 Cloves Garlic
- 1/4 C Evoo & Tomato Paste - each, can use Butter instead of EVOO
- 2 C Frozen Vegetables
- Salt & Pepper - to taste
Soup Base
- 5 C Water
- 3 C Tomato Juice
- 1/2 C Sweet Pimento Paste
- 3 Tbl Hodi Smoked Sweet Paprika
- 2 Tbl Lemon Juice & Chickpea Flour - each
- 2 Cubes Bouillon - Beef, Pork, Chicken or Vegetable
- 1/4 tsp Ground Bay Leaves
Instructions
- Chop or tear the Cabbage into bite size pieces and weigh out 1/2 lb. Slice off any thick pieces of Stems and place into a bowl. Add 3/4 tsp Sea Salt, Toss & Crush the Cabbage, mixing it well. Set aside to soften for about 1 hour.Combine the soup base ingredients into a large mixing bowl to whisk together and set aside until needed.
- Add EVOO & Tomato Paste in a soup pot or wok and heat over Max heat. Cook for a few minutes, mixing every so often. Add the Ground Beef and Brown.If using butter with the tomato paste, start it at medium heat and then turn the heat up to max after adding in the meat.
- Then add the Onions & Garlic along with the Squeezed Cabbage. Squeeze the Juices out from the Cabbage as you add it to the pot. Continue to cook while mixing until the Cabbage has softened more, just a few minutes.
- Add in the Soup Base and mix well. Cover and bring it to a boil, mixing every few minutes. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the Frozen Vegetables, mix well and continue to simmer for 10 minutes, mixing every so often. Mix again before covering and removing from the heat to rest for 20 minutes. Adjust the seasoning if needed and serve.