Lucy Burdette: Who doesn’t love stuffed cabbage on a winter night? However, it’s time consuming enough to make that I don’t do it very often. When I do, I have used a version of Jane Brody’s stuffed cabbage which you can find here.
Then a couple of weeks ago my friend Chris mentioned that her family makes a stuffed cabbage casserole in which the cabbage is not actually stuffed but chopped and mixed into the dish. And then I realized that stuffed cabbage soup must also exist and I decided to try a version of that. It really should be called "unstuffed" cabbage soup because that's the beauty of the recipe--much faster and equally delish!
Ingredients
One medium onion
1/2 head cabbage
Three carrots
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon smoked paprika or 1 1/2 teaspoons regular
1 32 ounce box beef broth—make this high quality and not terribly high sodium
114.5 ounce jar diced tomatoes
One 8 ounce cup tomato sauce
Half cup of water
Half a cup brown rice
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup lemon juice (one medium lemon)
One Bay leaf
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Brown the beef and drain most of the grease off. Chop the onions and carrots and add these to the ground beef with the paprika to sauté until soft. I chopped the vegetables in my food processor and didn't fuss too much about size and uniformity.
Add the broth and stir to scrape up any browned bits full of flavor. When this is simmering, add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, rice, Worcestershire sauce, and water. Bring to a boil.
Add the chopped cabbage, reduce to a simmer, and cook for half an hour to 45 minutes until the cabbage is soft and the rice cooked through.
Stir in the lemon juice and honey. Add raisins if desired. Simmer a few more minutes and serve. Oh my goodness, this was so good that we ate it two nights in a row!
