Tar Heel Kitchen: Potato-Cabbage Soup
Since 1926, the Agricultural Review has been a free newspaper published by the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. For many years, The Tar Heel Kitchen was a featured column written by the department’s marketing home economist. These recipes tended to be seasonal with just a handful of ingredients. We thought these recipes needed to be shared in a new format. Tar Heel Kitchen posts will unearth a few of these timeless recipes each month. On the menu this week is a recipe for Potato Cabbage Soup from the March 1, 1983 issue.
“Soups are a welcome addition to any meal during the chilly months,” said Cynthia Higgins, former NCDA home economist. “The versatility of soup cannot be overestimated as a hearty meal itself. Serve a robust vegetable soup with some homemade bread and you are sure to be a hit with your family.”
Higgins also offered advice for making a good stock for soup. “Stock making is an exception to almost every other kind of cooking. Mature vegetables and aged meat can be very flavorful. Instead of making the effort to keep juices in the vegetables or meat, you want to extract the flavor from them and trap them in the liquid.” Meat stocks should be simmered on low heat for a few hours, vegetable stocks deteriorate in flavor if simmered longer than 30 minutes. Higgins also warned readers not to salt too heavily at the beginning of stock making.
The weather forecast calls for a chilly weekend across North Carolina. We think it is the perfect weekend for a big bowl of soup.
We tried the recipe below out in the test kitchen and thought the cabbage added a nice texture to the soup. And, as with many recipes, we thought a little bacon would have made it better. Another suggestion was to try sweet potatoes as a substitution.
Potato-Cabbage Soup
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 medium onion
- 1 small cabbage
- 3 potatoes
- 1 cup boiling water
- 3 cups light cream
- salt, pepper
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in saucepan. Mince half a medium onion and cook in butter until translucent. Finely slice a small head of cabbage to make about 2 cups shreds. Peel and dice 3 potatoes. Add cabbage and potatoes to the saucepan with 1 cup boiling water and a little salt. Simmer over low heat until the potatoes are soft. Add 3 cups light cream and heat slowly.
