Delicious Cabbage Soup!

A cabbage is something that is frowned upon in India as a vegetable as there are very less variations of cooking it... at least very few people know them! And thus i have come up with this delicious soup using vegetables like carrots and cabbage to create a healthy yet a tasty soup (a combination which is difficult to achieve easily :)) for a Sunday morning or for serving it as a starter when u are entertaining or as simply a soul food for when u are too tired to prepare an elaborate meal.... Trust me. 2 bowls of this soup and you won't be asking for more (though you would be longing for more... i hope :))

Ingredients:

(Do Not get scared by the long list... it's very easy!)

2 tbsp Olive Oil

1 tbsp Butter

1 large Onion roughly diced

1 kg Cabbage roughly diced

6 cups Water (approx. 1.5 ltrs.)

2 stems of Celery roughly diced (approx. 185 gms.)

2 Orange Carrots roughly diced (approx. 185 gms)

4 large cloves of Garlic finely diced

1 grated Potato (250 gms.)

5-6 Tomatoes finely chopped (500 gms.)

Salt to taste

1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

1 cup boiled Kidney Beans (250 gms.)

4 tbsp Coriander finely chopped

2 tbsp Dill leaves finely chopped (Sava/Suva)

1/2 tsp Paprika/Red Chili Powder

2 tbsp Vinegar or as per taste

1 tsp freshly ground Black Pepper

Toasted Bread Croutons for serving

Method:

1. Take a heavy bottomed pan with a lid and heat the oil and butter and let the foam of the butter subside. See to it that the butter does not get brown. Then add the chopped Onions and Cabbage to it and let them brown nicely.
2. This will take about 15 to 20 minutes. Let it cook over low to moderately high heat and stir it occasionally. Keep scraping the browns on the walls and the bottom of the pan. That is what will give the soup it's color.
3. Now add the Carrots, Celery, Potatoes, Garlic and the Tomatoes along with Salt and stir for about two minutes. 
4. Then add the water and bring it to a boil.
5. After it has boiled for about 5 minutes, reduce the heat to the minimum and add the boiled beans.
6. Now let it simmer with the lid on for about 10 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for another 20 minutes or until the carrots are soft and the broth has reduced to half.
7. Now add the Coriander, Dill,  Paprika, freshly ground Black Peppercorns, Vinegar and Soy Sauce. Taste it for Salt and Vinegar and if you feel like some more... Do the honors.
8. Now toast the bread slices in a toaster or in an oven and apply some butter over them before cutting them into croutons.
9. Place some croutons in the soup bowl and then pour the soup over it and serve hot.

Tip:

• You can make this recipe in a pressure cooker if you are in a hurry but then use only a liter of water and see to it that you don't over cook the vegetables so as to make them mushy!
• You can add broccoli or aubergines along with the current ingredients but i would suggest, do that only when you are making the soup in large proportions or else it would feel a lot more crowded and the taste of cabbage would be subsided by aubergines.