I created this cabbage soup recipe in my own kitchen based on what I had on hand, what tastes great and what I know to be healthy. This is one of those versatile cabbage recipes that anyone can make and that most people will love on a cold winter day.
Best soup ever!
Cabbage Diet Soup Recipe
Best of all, it turns out that what I made is the basis for the well-known cabbage diet soup recipe. This is what I learned just now: Cabbage seems to be on of the best diet soup vegetables because cabbage is said to be a ‘negative-calorie’ vegetable, meaning that takes your body more calories to digest it than that it contains. Plus it’s a liquid food, helpful for your body to reduce toxins.
More or less: If you eat this soup for a week, you’ll lose weight. I believe it! Day one you are to make this cabbage soup bare-bone, without fat, meat or anything, but loaded with these vitamin-rich vegetables. Verrry healthy! Then, on day two and three, you can add a potato, which together with the mushroom gives you complex B vitamins. Very good. Then on day four you could add a bit of milk. Day 5-6 you can add meat as a source of protein and vitamin D. Not sure what you do on eat seven, other than: eat more cabbage soup! Ha ha. Let me know how this is working for you.
Beyond dieting, there are more reasons to make my Cabbage Soup! More important than losing weight, I believe that it is loaded with health benefits for anyone, particularly the cabbage, but also the other vegetables. Let me explain:
What’s so healthy about Cabbage ?
Cabbage is touted as one of the most beneficial vegetables. Let me sum up the benefits sited in a recent article on cabbages:
- Short-cooked & raw cabbage has cancer-preventive benefits. The uniqueness of cabbage in cancer prevention is due to the three different types of nutrient richness found in this widely enjoyed food. The three types are (1) antioxidant richness, (2) anti-inflammatory richness, and (3) richness in glucosinolates.
- Steamed cabbage is cholesterol-lowering, and thus offers cardiovascular support.
- Cabbage supports to the digestive track, as it contains a variety of nutrients of potential benefit to both our stomach and intestinal linings.
Tip 1: Steam it in a pot on a stove. Do not microwave your cabbage, as that destroys the benefits (duhhh).
Tip 2: Use a range of different type of cabbages to get a wider range of health benefits.
How much? It’s best to enjoy cabbage and other vegetables from the cruciferous vegetable group 4-5 times per week; serving size: 2 cups.
This is my understanding but do your own research!
Ok. We shall finally go over to COOKING cabbage recipes, shall we? All this discussion aside, my soup as described below simply tastes great!!! I could eat this ‘every day’, but what about my other soup recipes?? I make this once in a while and just love it.
Cabbage Recipes: Cabbage Vegetable Soup Recipe
Makes about 10 servings
Ingredients
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 onion, cut into chunks
2 teaspoons of oil or butter
4 carrots, cut into chunks
4 stalks of celery, cut into chunks
freshly chopped parsley
1 large bell pepper, cut into chunks
1 cup of chopped regular white mushrooms
5 pieces of porcini mushrooms
1/2 a large head of green cabbage (or a whole small head), cut in small chunks
pepper
2 chopped tomatoes
2-3 liter. water and 2 cube of organic* vegetable stock (or 2ltr.-3 of homemade chicken stock/ half a mid-sized pot)
* If you can’t find organic stock cubes, sure NOT to add artificial ‘garbage’ instead with MSG. If you don’t have homemade nor organic stock, just use water instead, and add more fresh herbs and perhaps even extra veggies to boost the flavor.
* optional extra: add a grated potato, which the ‘cabbage soup diet program’ says you can add on day 2 and 3 of the diet. Besides the healthy benefits of potatoes, I like it that it thickens to soup. Be sure that the potato cooks enough. By grating it, it cooks really fast.
* optional extra: bacon bits, sausage bits, chicken breast pieces, etc.
How to make Cabbage Soup
Step 1: in a mid-sided pot, heat the oil, garlic, and onion till soft (i.e. just a few minutes)
Step 2: add the other vegetables, minus the tomatoes, with half a cup of water and cover the soup. Let it steam for a few minutes. Check and stir to ensure your veggies don’t burn.
Step 3: add the tomatoes, (pre-heated) stock, and pepper.
Step 4: Let soup simmer on low head, covered with a lid, for a few minutes. Taste the soup and add herbs and/or other veggies as needed to boost/balance flavor.
Step 5: Take the pan of the stove. Remove 2-4 cups of the chunky bits out of the soup. With a hand blender
Tip: this soup can be made a day ahead of time. But be careful not to overcook it, as that would make you lose some of the health benefits. NO microwaving! Simply, bring it to boil on the stove and serve immediately.
How to serve my delicious Cabbage Soup
1. Cabbage Diet Soup Style: to make this for your cabbage soup diet, steam the vegetables without first softening (and so sweetening) the garlic/onion. Omit the bread. Vary the soup day by day, as was discussed before. Serve with a bit of chopped fresh parsley on top.
2. True Italian – Style: add a spoonful of your best olive oil to the soup, stir it and serve. (Italians add uncooked olive oil to pretty much anything. It’s healthy to do so and sure is a flavor booster!) Use oil you’ll find at a specialty store rather than at a supermarket aisle.) Serve with homemade Ciabatta bread.
3. Crowd-Pleasers style: stir in a bit of uncooked oil at the end, serve with grated cheese on top, and homemade Ciabatta bread on the side. Be sure you’ve added those bacon bits in the soup earlier on.
4. Gourmet – style: instead of ‘your best olive oil’, stir in some 
What are your favorite cabbage recipes? Please share them with me! ~ Rose
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