Beautiful, creamy red cabbage soup, packed with nutritious ingredients, perfect for a weeknight dinner or for serving to guests.

RED CABBAGE SOUP

You will not believe how good this red cabbage soup is! It tastes just as good as it looks! 🙂 I must say I totally enjoy that deep purple color. Not to mention my daughter, she was delighted to get to eat such a purple soup.

Soup is what I cook the most, I think I make soup 2 or 3 times every week. Either for lunch or dinner, soup is warming, healthy, nourishing and filling.

I make any kind of soup, from creamy soups like today’s red cabbage soup or our old-time favorite carrot soup to chunky vegetable soups, chicken soups, bean soups and so on… . We never seem to get tired of eating soup.

INGREDIENTS FOR CABBAGE SOUP

Red cabbage:

Cabbage is one of my favorite vegetables, yet I often have the feeling it is a slightly underrated vegetable. Most people I know don’t really eat cabbage on a regular basis, they buy it to make a salad in summer maybe or they make a soup every once in a while.
I really don’t understand why! Cabbage is so tasty, so economical and there are hundreds of ways you can cook it.
Not only soup or salad but stewed cabbage, cabbage rolls, cabbage casserole, sauerkraut, pancakes or pies and so on.
Cabbage can be cooked as a main meal or as a side dish. I have even seen a recipe for a chocolate cake made with sauerkraut once, but I have to admit that I’ve never tried that.
And there are so many different sorts of cabbage and each of them is delicious: white cabbage, green cabbage, red cabbage, pointed cabbage, savoy cabbage, napa cabbage… you could even count the Brussels sprouts, which look like mini-cabbages.
For this recipe, you will need a small head or half a regular head of red cabbage, about 750 g/ 1.7 lbs.

Spices:

I use the same spices I use when making German red cabbage: cloves, juniper berries and bay leaves.
I also use a small amount of cinnamon, a tiny pinch, and some balsamic vinegar to adjust the taste of the red cabbage soup.

Apple:

Also, a typical ingredient to combine with red cabbage.

Potatoes:

They add creaminess to the cabbage soup, allowing you to use less cream.

Dairy:

Some single or heavy cream.
If you want to make vegan red cabbage soup, replace the dairy with a vegan alternative, like soy cream or any other kind of vegan cream.
Coconut cream is also great, but it changes the taste slightly.

Toppings:

The toppings are optional but very nice. You will need:
Half a very crisp red apple, very thinly sliced.
Some chopped pistachios.
Some chopped parsley.

HOW TO MAKE A CREAMY RED CABBAGE SOUP?

Chop the cabbage finely. I almost always do that in the food processor (Thermomix), it takes seconds.
Cook the chopped onion until translucent.
In the meantime peel and chop the potatoes, add them to the pot together with the red cabbage.
Cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes.
Add the cloves, juniper berries, bay leaves, and stock.
Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, simmer for about 20 minutes.
Add the finely chopped apple and simmer for 10-15 more minutes until everything is soft.
Remove the bay leaves and blend the soup. I leave the cloves and juniper berries in the soup, they will get blended as well.
I prefer to blend the soup in the food processor, that makes it really smooth. If you use the food processor, blend the soup in several batches.
You can also use an immersion blender to blend the soup.
Return the soup to the pot, add the cream or vegan alternative, salt and pepper to taste and a tiny pinch of cinnamon. Add about 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar.
Stir well, and adjust the taste again with salt, pepper and maybe a little more balsamic vinegar.

WHAT SIDES FOR RED CABBAGE SOUP?

The most obvious choice would be a slice of good bread with some salted butter.
Crispbread or crackers are always a good idea too, I love to make some fresh crackers of any sort and serve them with soups.
Or how about some mozzarella and garlic stuffed rolls, some simple rolls or baked cheese rolls?