Sweet And Sour Cabbage Soup-Meatless

Cabbage soup is an easy enough thing to prepare provided you are willing to spend time waiting for it to cook. I let mine simmer six hours. If you have a crock pot, this might be a good opportunity to use it.

I made mine meatless, but it certainly wouldn't be hurt by the addition of some beef. Just don't do what my mother used to-she'd cut up hunks of beef salami and toss it in (she did that with mushroom barley soup as well) and heavens, please don't use a jar of V-8 juice in place of the tomatoes-people will notice. Really, they will. In other words, as long as you're not attempting to channel my mother as you cook, the soup ought to turn out OK.

You Will Need:

1 head cabbage, sliced, chopped coarsely

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

2 teaspoons dried minced garlic

2 tablespoons dried minced onion

3 bouillon cubes (the fake beef flavour) dissolved in 3 cups water

1 large tin of Italian tomatoes, chopped with juices retained

5 carrots, chopped

3-4 stalks celery chopped (including leaves if you have them)

1/2 cup raisins

1 teaspoon thyme

salt and pepper as desired (I use quite a bit of pepper in this soup to balance the sweetness of the raisins)

Additional water to cover

In a large pot, dump everything and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, skim any foam that accumulates. Reduce heat to simmer, cover with lid slightly ajar and cook the daylights out of it for several hours.