Red Cabbage Soup

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?

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