I love me a good stuffed cabbage roll. My husband? Not so much; so, when I came across a recipe for cabbage roll soup, I thought I would make it instead for our irregular Tuesday late morning early afternoon gathering of The Book Club.
The ladies, like me, love their veggies, but, unlike me, are eschewing potatoes and grains so, the usual rice added to anything cabbage roll was out.
But…
Cauliflower is good, right?
So, I borrowed my friend, Barb’s, trick and popped a chopped half head of cauliflower into the food processor and pulsed it a couple of times, until…
Cauliflower rice!
Genius!
Grain issues solved, I got on with making my cabbage roll soup.
Note: because I used hot Italian sausage and added a jalapeño, my soup was a tetch on the, ermmm, zippy side, tho’ the addition of a dab o’ sour cream to the individual serving bowls settled things down nicely. If you don’t really feel like zippy, feel free to omit the jalapeño, and mebbe use sweet Italian sausage, or even the more traditional ground beef for your soup.
INGREDIENTS
•1 tbsp veggie oil
•1 large sweet onion, diced (~3 cups)
•4 cloves garlic, minced
•1 green pepper, diced (~1-1/2 cup)
•1 jalapeño pepper, sliced
•1 lb Italian sausage
•1 head cabbage, chopped*
•1/2 head cauliflower, cored, roughly chopped, and riced
•28 oz can diced tomato
•2 tbsp tomato paste
•4 cups stock
(I used half chicken and half beef)
•12 oz low sodium veggie juice
•1 tsp paprika
•1 tsp thyme
•1 tsp parsley
•1 tsp dried chives
•1 tsp black pepper
•1 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1/2 tsp sea salt
•1/2 tsp garlic powder
•2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
•1 tbsp Sherry Peppers Sauce (optional)
•1 bay leaf
•1/2 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
•1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
•Sour cream (optional)
*I used a 14 ounce bag of cole slaw mix, because my market, for some reason, was out of cabbages.
Warm the veggie oil in a large pot over medium high heat.
Add the sausage. onion, peppers, and garlic and cook, breaking the sausage into small chunks until the sausage is a little crispity on the edges and the onion is tender, 15 or 20 minutes.
Drain well, then add back to the pot with the cabbage, and cook over medium heat until the cabbage is softened, about three minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to combine.
Note: you can most certainly let the soup simmer on the top of the stove for several hours and serve it, but I was:
- Planning to bring this soup with me to Mira’s house for or book club/gossip/catching up gathering, and…
- I always think a dish like this tastes so much better after resting in the fridge overnight to allow the flavors to meld, so…
Transfer to a slow cooker and cook on high for four hours, or on low for six to eight hours.
I tasted the soup after four hours on high, and added 1/4 cup shaved Parmesan, let that cook for another hour, took another taste, and stirred in one cup of shredded Swiss cheese.
Cook the soup on low for another hour or so, then turn off the slow cooker and allow to cool before stashing in the fridge overnight.
Before serving, stir in another 1/4 cup of Parmesan and reheat the soup.
Remove the bay leaf and serve.
Nice soup.
Zippy, but nice.
Note: the jalapeño I used was unusually spicy, so some of the cheese I added during cooking was to try to cool down some of the soup’s heat. If you skip the jalapeño, or don’t mind a lot of spice, feel free to adjust the amount(s) of cheese added to suit your taste and dietary concerns.