Beef and Cabbage Soup

When the weather turns cool and the evenings are crisp, there's nothing better than a warm comforting bowl of soup for dinner. Even here in hell, it's cooled off enough that soup's a good thing. Point in fact, yesterday morning we woke to a cool 56 degrees and our high was only 88 - perfect soup weather. Laugh if you must but I'll admit I wore a fleece pullover when I was out walking the Maxer dawg just after 6:00 this morning and bowl of soup would have tasted mighty fine when I came in the door. I settled for coffee instead.

This particular steamy bowl includes the requisite onions, garlic and celery along with ground beef, kidney beans, canned tomatoes and best of all cabbage. Cabbage is an excellent source of vitamin C and it's high in fiber too which makes it one of the leafy green veggies the medical profession's telling us to eat more of to reduce the risk of colon cancer.

That's all fine and dandy too except that ingestion of said cruciferous vegetable also causes a night time phenomena most commonly called "thunder canyon" between the sheets. No matter - this bowl of cabbage comfort is more than worth the noise.

By the way if you're using purchased beef stock rather than homemade, give it a flavor boost by adding a couple of cans of undiluted beef consomme. It'll up the taste by one hundred percent and nobody will ever know that you didn't make your own stock. I do it all the time so now you know my secret!

Beef and Cabbage Soup (an original JBug Recipe)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, chopped

2 stalks celery, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

1 pound extra lean ground beef

1/2 cup dry red wine

2 cans beef consommé, undiluted

4 cups low sodium beef stock

1 – 28 ounce can diced tomatoes

1 16 ounce can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

8 ounces cabbage, chopped

1/4 cup orzo or other small pasta

Salt to taste

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add olive oil and heat until shimmering. Add onions, celery, garlic, red pepper flakes, black pepper and dried Italian seasoning. Cook, stirring often until onions are soft. Add ground beef and cook until beef is no longer pink, crumbling it well as it browns. Add red wine and cook until it is almost evaporated (about 3 minutes). Add beef consommé, beef stock and diced tomatoes. Heat to boiling, lower heat and simmer covered for 15 minutes. Add kidney beans, cabbage and orzo. Cook for additional 20 to 30 minutes or until pasta and cabbage is cooked.  Taste for seasoning and add salt as required. Serves 8   Download Beef and Cabbage Soup

 

 

Comments

[Nanan]

Ahhh - this looks like something my Moma would have made on a brisk fall day! Yes, indeed!

[June]

Mine too Lea!

[Mags]

LMAO @ thunder canyon between the sheets...LOLOL! I'm all too familiar with that!

I like the addition of the kidney beans to this recipe. More fiber...even BIGGER THUNDER CANYON!

[June]

Ya and even more of an issue when you eat the darn stuff 2 days in a row, but it sure is good as leftovers. LOL

[Betty Prewitt]

several years ago I tried to make soup. Because I was too scared to mix seasonings it was always bland and then I browned some hamburger and threw in some consomme and broth, a few potatoes, carrots, celery and onions. The family loved it. So last night I made the cabbage and beef soup following the directions to a "T" and the family has changed their mind and my plain ole hamburger soup has been replaced with this cabbage and beef soup. It Was Wonderful!!

[June]

Betty - I'm beginning to think you may just be my biggest fan (next to the big guy of course!). By the way, for heaven's sake don't be afraid to mix seasonings ...if in doubt, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning and any kind of garlic (fresh or powder) will work almost every time but you don't want it to always taste the same anyway. Experiment!!! That's what cooking's all about...oh and welcome to Thunder Canyon LOL.