The Cabbage Pot

Fall, my favorite time of year. The leaves are beginning to show a beautiful red, yellow and orange canopy, the morning air is crisp and cool and the mosquitos have finally left. It’s also a great time to dig out my favorite sweaters, and make soup and home made bread. 

The garden is winding down although we still have few tomatoes on the vine, about 8 squash, kale, collard greens and a couple heads of cabbage to pick. Friday was movie night with our friends Gerd and Maria and I’m always trying to find a new recipe to try on them since they are such gracious guinea pigs. To tag along to our weekend it was also the Flamingo Cup, which is an annual potluck and croquet tournament so I was looking for something that I could use for both events.

I’ll start by saying I like cabbage but it is not a go to vegetable and mainly because aside from a few things like cole slaw, marinated and curried I don’t know what to do with it. I’ve had it roasted and boiled and neither really hit the spot. Now I can see you shaking your head and saying so, why would you plant cabbage if you didn’t love it? In one word - husband.

Remember when I said we expanded the garden, well I was out of town one weekend with some girlfriends and I came home to cabbage - 4 purple heads, 4 green heads. When I inquired about the number of heads of cabbage the response was “I wanted both green and purple and they only came in 4 packs” - go figure. 

The purple got very large but the green were smaller most likely due to the amount of sun; the green got a bit overshadowed by the squash plants, which have taken over. But we did get 4 smaller cabbage; one of which I used in a soup for movie night. 

I started with a recipe on Pinterest but then noticed it had white potatoes in it and I’m not really a white potato fan - in any form. So I decided to use the recipe for proportions and cooking methods but use what I had in the fridge for ingredients. 

To a stock pot I added:

2 stalks of celery diced

4 carrots chopped 

1 large onion diced

2/3 head of green cabbage

1/2 cup brown rice

Fresh rosemary, oregano and thyme (sorry I did’t measure just tossed)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

6 cups of veggie broth

Cover, bring the soup to a boil and then simmer for about 45 - 50 minutes. When the rice is cooked and the veggies soft, add 2 cans of beans (I used navy beans), 14 ounces diced tomatoes and adjust seasonings. 

We served the soup with some fresh whole wheat bread and baked acorn squash (from the garden). The dinner got rave reviews. 

Fast forward to Saturday and the Flamingo Cup - what to make for the potluck - you guessed it more soup! We simply added more of everything to our left over soup pot, tossed in the crockpot and heated it until it was time to head to the park. 

Saturday was a beautiful Minnesota fall day; clear blue sky and warm with a tinge of crisp, it was a great day for croquet. Neither Dan nor I won one of the coveted Flamingo’s (gold, silver or bronze) but we had a great time with family and friends. And the food, as always, was awesome; calico beans, samosas, cauliflower salad soup, and dessert. The winning dessert for me this year was caramel popcorn balls - they were the best. 

We ended the day on the back deck enjoying a glass of wine and relaxing, it was a wonderful day.