What else would you eat in this freezing weather ? Something hot, something you can chew on but also slurp, something meaty (unless you’re vegetarian and you add beans instead) and served in a large bowl that you can wrap your hands around to warm them up ! It’s just a simple rustic vegetable soup with cabbage and smoked sausage.

Dark green savoy cabbage is lighter and less dense than a regular white or green cabbage and the textured leaves are pleasant and also much easier to peel off after plunging them in boiling salted water. You’ll discover that the leaves get paler and smaller and more tender, the closer you get to the core.

Unfortunately, I feel like you may have to make a dish of stuffed cabbage leaves first and then use the leftover smaller leaves close to the core, for this recipe, since the soup only requires about 6 cups of cabbage leaves and one whole savoy cabbage can easily provide up to 18 cups, but you’ll figure it out.

*note : cabbage leaves blanched 2 minutes in boiling water with 1 tbsp of salt and 1/2 tbsp of vinegar per liter of water, then patted dry and kept in the fridge in a colander or container without a lid, will keep for up to 1 week ...

The rest of the customary vegetable ingredients balance out the cabbage flavor, the sausage adds some smokiness and fat too and the cherry tomatoes, which are the only non-winter addition but are pretty much the only flavorful tomatoes available in winter, are added whole preferably, to add just enough acidity to lighten up the soup without clouding it and making it all red, like crushed tomatoes or purée would, but you could replace them with some lemon juice. It still a brothy soup with big pieces floating about and every spoonful is different. The spice mixture, to be ground into a powder, adds some more complex Mediterranean flavors and complements the cabbage as well as the sausage too.

I don’t have much else to say except that work has picked up quickly, despite the pandemic and it’s been one celebration after the other for the past weeks and life is good !

Take care & see you soon with another winter dish, maybe a vegetarian quiche ? … :)