Year of the Soup: Week 31

I have no idea what 1/2 pound of potatoes looks like.  If have a 10 pound bag in my kitchen that was nearly half empty, how many potatoes makes 1/2 pound?  This sounds like a bad math problem.  I’m not good with math problems.  So I threw four potatoes into the soup and called it good.

I think that may have been too much potato, because this soup tasted a little too much like this soup, and less like a yummy cabbage and bean soup, as intended.  Still good, but fewer potatoes would definitely have allowed the other ingredients to shine.  So when you make it, try only two potatoes – or I  suppose you could actually weigh them if you’re a little more neurotic.  This soup came from 101 Cookbooks, another excellent source for food-related blog-stalking, if you’re into that sort of thing :)

Rustic Cabbage Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• a big pinch of salt
• 1/2 pound potatoes, skin on, cut 1/4-inch pieces
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cups white beans, precooked or canned (drained & rinsed well)
• 1/2 medium cabbage, cored and sliced into 1/4-inch ribbons

Directions

1. Warm the olive oil in a large thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the salt and potatoes. Cover and cook until they are a bit tender and starting to brown a bit, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the garlic and onion and cook for another minute or two. Add the stock and the beans and bring the pot to a simmer. Stir in the cabbage and cook for a couple more minutes, until the cabbage softens up a bit. Now adjust the seasoning – getting the seasoning right is important or your soup will taste flat and uninteresting. Taste and add more salt if needed.  Serve hot.

Source: 101 Cookbooks