Recipe: Peasant Style Cabbage Soup

We love German food at our house.  My husband's family heritage is from Transylvania, so I try to make German dishes periodically as a treat. 

I found this recipe by searching Swagbucks for a cabbage soup recipe.  I had a head of cabbage in the fridge that needed to get eaten and soup seemed like a perfect fit for all the rainy days we've been having.  Most hits were for the famous "diet soup" but I wanted something heartier.  I came across the Peasant Style Cabbage Soup on Leslie Cooks and it looked so good so I gave it a try.

I made this in the  slow cooker and noted my recipe adjustments below.  There's alot of chopping and preperation involved, so I chopped it all the night before and stored it in the fridge.  There are also many ingredients so I organzied all of those before I decided to make this to be sure I had everything I needed.

This was so good and you could really taste the smooth tomatoe broth with the cabbage, pork, caraway seed and spices.  The cabbage added at the end added a bit of crunch and texture to the soup.  If you have a family who will scream "but I dont' like cabbage!", don't add the second portion at the end and they'll never know it's in there ;o)

I served this with Homemade Rye Bread from the bread machine and Pfferrneuse cookies for dessert.  I'll post these recipes later this week.

PEASANT STYLE CABBAGE SOUP
from the website Leslie Cooks

2-medium onions, chopped
2-large celery ribs, chopped
1-cup chopped rutabaga
1-medium carrot, chopped
1-large tart apple, peeled & chopped
1-tbsp canola oil
2-tbsp flour
5-cups beef stock
1/4-cup chopped parsley
7-cups coarsely shredded cabbage, divided
2-small pork hocks (about 1 1/4lb)
1/4-cup uncooked pearl barley
1-tbsp paprika
2-large bay leaves
1/2-tsp dried thyme
1/4-cup tomato paste
3/4-cup water
1/4-tsp caraway seeds
Salt & pepper to taste

In a large saucepan sauté onion, celery, rutabaga, carrot and apple in oil until soft, about 10 minutes.  Stir in flour and cook for 1-2 minutes.  Stir in beef stock, parsley, 3 1/2-cups cabbage, pork hocks, barley, paprika, bay leaves and thyme.  Heat to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer, covered for 1 hour.

CROCK POT VARIATION:  I put everything in the slow cooker at this point and let it cook for about 6 hours on low.

Remove meat from pork hocks, shred and return the meat to the soup.  Remove bay leaves.  Skim the fat from the soup.  Combine tomato paste with water and add to soup.  Add remaining cabbage and caraway seeds.  Heat to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until cabbage is tender, about 10 minutes.  Season with salt & pepper to taste

CROCK POT VARIATION:  After adding the tomatoe past, cabbage and caraway seeds, I closed the lid and let it cook for another 30 minutes on high.

Makes 7-8 servings

For a printable copy of this recipe go here.

Happily submitted to Ultimate Recipe Swap where she's featuring Whole Grains this week over at Life As Mom.
 
Enjoy!  Sarah
 
from the book "The Rooster Crows - A Book of American Rymes & Jingles"
by Maud and Miska Petersham
1955 The Macmillan Company