Soup! Potato, Cabbage, and Pork Products

With a few inches of fresh snow overnight, it's soup weather today. This is one of my favorite soups for the winter, and fairly flexible. There are lots of directions this soup can go, all delicious!

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons butter OR olive oil (or 2 tablespoons of each)
1 large (not red) onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 carrots, peeled and chopped (circles or a dice)
8 russet potatoes, peeled and diced into roughly 1/2 inch chunks
1 head of green cabbage (about a pound), cored and sliced thin
2 pork chops (1/2 pound), boneless or bone removed, diced
1 ham steak (about 1/2 pound), diced
1 kielbasa sausage (about 3/4 pound), sliced
8 cups of chicken stock
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
pinch of dried thyme
pinch of caraway seeds

Directions:
I start by heating my butter and/or olive oil over low heat in a large stockpot or dutch oven. I used my LeCreuset bouillabaisse pot, which holds about 7 and a half quarts of yummy. While the butter melts, I dice my onions and mince my garlic and toss them into the pot when the butter is melted. Cover with the lid, and let the onions and garlic cook while you peel and chop the carrots. Add the carrots to the pot, stir, and cover to let them cook while you peel and dice the potatoes. Once the potatoes are ready, add them to the pot, stir, and cover. Chop up the cabbage and set it aside in a bowl. Now all of your veg are chopped and you can get on with the meat--I start with the fully-cooked meats to prevent cross-contamination from raw to cooked items. Add the fully-cooked meats to the cabbage and set aside; add the raw meat (pork chop and possibly ham) and spices to the pot and stir. Add in chicken stock, enough to cover everything by about an inch. Reduce the heat to low and let the soup simmer for about 30 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through.

If you want a creamy, thick soup, you can puree some of the soup in a blender in batches or use an immersion blender to break up the potatoes and carrots to create a thick base before adding in the cabbage and cooked meats. If you like a broth-y soup, leave it as is, and add in the cabbage and cooked meats. Give the soup a stir to submerge the cabbage, cut the heat, and cover the soup, letting it stand for about 10 minutes for the heat to wilt the cabbage. Serve with crackers or crusty bread if you'd like.

Some notes: Feel free to use whatever type of cabbage you like. Napa cabbage, savoy cabbage, and plain ole' green cabbage all work well here. Red cabbage will give you a purple soup. Also, feel free to use whatever pork products you like--crisping up some bacon lardons, and using the bacon fat as a base is nice. Smoked pork chops are nice (I'd recommend skipping the ham so you're not eating a salt lick). Canadian bacon works instead of ham. Cooked and drained breakfast sausage, or cooked and drained chorizo are also good, but definitely pre-cook them to get the grease out. Not sure about the chicken stock?--Use pork stock, water + ham hock, veggie stock, or a ham/pork soup base + water. (A chicken soup base + water or stock in a box both work for chicken stock here also.)