Sweet n Sour Sausage Cabbage Soup

[Kayelle]

Try saying that three times. lol

This is delicious..... You can ladle it over a bowl of fresh cooked noodles if you wish. My husband loves it that way. Don't add the noodles to the recipe however....they will soak up too much of the broth. I like it just like it is. Good for my "low carb" diet.

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound of reduced fat pork sausage. I like "Jimmy Dean" brand
• 1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 medium Golden Delicious or other sweet-tart cooking apple, unpeeled, diced
• 6 cups reduced-sodium beef broth
• 1 15-ounce can crushed or diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoon paprika, preferably Hungarian sweet
• 4 cups sliced green cabbage
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Lightly saute the pepper and onions. Add sausage, caraway seeds and thyme and cook, stirring and breaking up the meat with a spoon, until it is mostly browned, about 4 minutes. Stir in apple chunks and cook 2 to 3 minutes more.Stir in broth, tomatoes, honey and paprika and adjust the heat so the mixture boils gently. Add the cabbage and simmer about 30 min. Season with vinegar, salt and pepper.

 

[spork]

That's a great looking recipe, Kayelle. I'll have to give the sausage some thought... maybe andouille. I like the addition of apples. And, definitely, short wide strips of egg noodle for me, too.

I don't know if it's still in vogue, but cabbage soups were once touted as a weight loss program in themselves.

 

[lubos]

Kayelle, that's a very interesting recipe. In Slovakia (where I am from), we make a sauerkraut soup called kapustnica. Although good all year round, it is traditionally eaten on Christmass, as the first course, followed by a fried fish and a potato salad. Anyway, I see many similarities between the two recipes. Of course, yours seems to have adapted to the local tastes (i.e. sweet cabbage instead of sauerkraut, tomatoes...) but then, it also contains many ingredients found in the original kapustnica recipe (apples or plums, paprika, caraway, sausage). Here is a link to kapustnica on my cooking site. Does you family have any origins in Slovakia or Hungary?

 

[Kayelle]

oh yeah, I remember the cabbage diet, Spork. I think it was in the '70's.
Andouille sausage would be too spicy for my taste, but maybe not for you.

lubos, thank you for sharing your authentic recipe, along with the pictures. It looks wonderful! I like the idea of some sour cream in it, I might try that next time. My father's family came from Germany, and my mother's family came from Ireland.
Dad did a sauerkraut and pork rib soup with tomatoes and small white beans that was delish!!