Cabbage soup
============ 2025-11-25
Comment: Ideal if you have leftover cabbage and a fairly large piece of bacon (you should always have bacon in your kitchen, just like garlic, onions, and shallots — but I digress). Good, well-smoked bacon is recommended to give this traditional peasant soup its full flavor. In fact, the term "stew" would be more appropriate since cabbage soup is more like a meal than a soup.
If you have homemade chicken stock, use it from the start instead of water. I used one liter diluted with one liter of water.
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
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1 small cabbage (~500 g)
2 medium potatoes (300 g)
300+ g good quality smoked bacon
1 large carrot (or 2 small ones) ~200 g
1 onion (150 g)
2 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1 bouillon cube (optional instead of salt) or 1 liter of chicken stock
S + P
Preparation:
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Cut the bacon into 3 or 4 large pieces, separating the rind.
Place the bacon and rind in a saucepan with 2 liters of water (or 1 liter of chicken stock diluted with 1 liter of water), bring to a boil, and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes (approximately 1/3 of the water will evaporate).
Peel and cut the carrots into 2 cm (3/4 inch) sticks. Peel the onion, cut it into thick slices, and stud a large piece with cloves. Prepare the garlic. Shred the cabbage into short strips, removing the hard core.
Peel the potato and cut it into small dice.
Blanch the cabbage for 5 to 10 minutes in salted water, then drain.
When the bacon has cooked, increase the heat and add the bay leaf, cloves, onion, garlic, and carrots. After 15 minutes, add the potato and cabbage.
Season generously with salt (add the stock cube if not using stock) and pepper. Add a little water if necessary.
Cook, covered, for another 30 minutes, then remove all the bacon and rind, the bay leaf, and the cloves (if you can find them!).
Discard the rind and cut the bacon into lardons, then return them to the pot.
This can be served with thin slices of country bread, perhaps toasted.