Cabbage, Potato, and Sausage Soup

Yesterday I was preparing for a late February blizzard dusting here in Chicago and decided a good soup would be in order. It just so happened there was an interesting recipe for potato, cabbage, and chorizo soup in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal. Looked good so I took the basics of it and transformed it into something of my own. You’ll notice my soup is a cabbage, potato, and sausage soup NOT a potato, cabbage, and chorizo soup. (See what I did there? Ha!)

First, I needed to substitute one of the main ingredients since I didn’t have any of the uncooked kind of Spanish chorizo in the house. But you know damn well I have my own cache of sausages in a secret vault. I think I’ve got something like 10 different flavors in my freezer right now. It wasn’t a tough decision picking one, this recipe had my Spicy Spanish sausage written all over it.

I also upped the amount of sausage for the soup. The recipe called for only 5 oz of sausage. As reference, that’s about one normal sized link of sausage for a soup where you’re adding 8 Cups of stock/water. When’s the last time you shared one link of sausage with 3 other people? Exactly, never.

Ok, so having adjusted the amount of sausage required up to a pound, I set to work adding some other items. This is basically a vegetable soup with some sausage added so I feel you really can’t go wrong adding just about anything to it, and in doing so add some more flavor. Cabbage and potatoes aren’t known for BOLD flavors but they do absorb flavors. So I added some carrots, a little more of the smoky Spanish paprika which is in the sausage, and finished it with a little bit of vinegar to add some acid and give it a little more body.

The soup turned out nice. Some good spiciness from the sausage and extra paprika and was filling but not too filling. It’s a much lighter soup than you’d think. I’d say more of a minestra than minestrone. Cheryl really liked the flavors but declared she’s more of a thicker soup gal. More for me then!

Cabbage, Potato, and Sausage Soup (serves 4 easily)

• 2 Tbs Olive oil
• 4 large shallots, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb of your favorite sausage, sliced into ½ inch pieces
• 2 Yukon gold potatoes, large dice
• ½ green cabbage, cored and cut into pieces, sliced
• 1 large carrot, quartered and sliced
• Salt and pepper
• 8 C water or stock
• Chopped parsley for garnish
• ½ Tbs Paprika/pimenton (optional, try to add some more of whatever is in the sausage you use)
• 3 Tbs apple cider vinegar or dry vermouth or sherry

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat and cook the shallots and garlic for about 5 minutes until soft but not brown.

Add the sausage and cook for 5 minutes, stirring to keep from sticking to bottom of pot.

Add potatoes and cook until the start to brown, then add the cabbage and carrots.

Cover with water/stock. Turn up the heat on the stove and bring to a boil. Once it boils, reduce heat to simmer. Simmer soup until potatoes and carrots are tender but not mushy. About 20 mins.