Vegetarian Polish Cabbage Soup

This vegetarian Polish cabbage soup was inspired by a conversation with one of our members Joanna. She told us that cabbage soup is one of her favourite recipes to make at home. Cabbage soup is a very popular Polish recipe. A traditional soup usually contains meat – often ham or pork. We have made a vegetarian version. It’s extremely cheap to make and very filling and nutritious.

Some cabbage soup recipes use sauerkraut. Sauerkraut is a fermented cabbage that you can buy in a jar in a Polish shop or the Polish section of a supermarket. You can use sauerkraut in this recipe instead of the fresh cabbage if you prefer. It is often quite salty though so don’t add any extra salt at the end of cooking time until you’ve tasted it. We are cooking along with Veg Power , a national campaign to encourage children to eat more vegetables. Cabbage is vegetable of the week next week and we hope that this delicious curry recipe will encourage you and your family to give it a try.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 1 leek, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 small white or green cabbage (500g), chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 5 litres of vegetable stock
• Handful of dill or parsley, chopped
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the chopped onion, leek and the bayleaf and fry for 10 minutes until soft. Stir often.
2. Add the cabbage and stir well. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Pour in the vegetable stock, then add the carrot, potatoes and allspice. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
4. Stir through the chopped dill or parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Serve hot.