“The world stands with cabbage soup,” says an ancient Russian proverb. In those days, this soup was the main dish on the tables. It was cooked and eaten almost every day. It traditionally consists of meat, potatoes and cabbage. It was these ingredients that were considered the main ones by our ancestors, because then there was no such abundance of products as there is now.
Despite the passing years, the love for cabbage soup has not faded. Tasty, rich, they also top our dinner table. Every experienced housewife keeps a couple of proven recipes with her. My grandmother prepared the best ones that I have ever tried. Mom also adopted this recipe, which I later borrowed. But despite this, every time I try to get acquainted with new, interesting ways of preparing cabbage soup.
Now that the beds are sparkling with ripe cabbage, I especially want to talk about recipes for this dish. In this article, I have prepared for you 3 options for preparing the most delicious cabbage soup and the secrets of real, rich Russian cabbage soup.
Pork ribs are great for making cabbage soup. Thanks to them, the soup turns out aromatic and rich. Try this recipe. It's very simple. To do this, you need to stock up on a knife, a saucepan or cauldron, a frying pan, a cutting board and the ingredients from the list below.
1. Cut the meat ribs into pieces and boil in water for about an hour and a half. At the same time, they should only simmer slightly, and not boil at full strength. That’s right, the meat will be well cooked, and the bone will give a wonderful fat.
After the first five minutes of cooking, it is better to drain the water and replace it with new one. This will make the broth more clear and healthy.
2. Cut the carrots into medium cubes.
3. Peel the potatoes and cut into large pieces. Just cut a medium potato into 4 pieces. You can, of course, cut it smaller. But I like it better this way. You get real Russian cabbage soup with large pieces of ingredients.
4. Chop the onion into medium pieces.
5. Cut the cabbage into 2 parts. Cut out the hard core. Cut each half lengthwise into 4-6 pieces (depending on size), and then chop the cabbage crosswise into medium pieces.
6. Chop the garlic. Do the same with the greens. You can use dill, green onions, parsley or cilantro.
7. In a frying pan, with added oil, fry the onion and garlic until golden. Then add the carrots and fry for another 7-9 minutes.
8. Pass the tomatoes through a meat grinder and add to the roast as a sauce. Simmer for 10 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, the meat has been stewing for an hour and a half. Now you need to add a little more water, because some of it has evaporated during cooking. Add salt.
Be sure to skim off the foam during cooking. Otherwise the broth will be cloudy.
10. As soon as the broth boils again, add the potatoes and boil for 5-7 minutes.
11. Now it’s cabbage’s turn. Dip it into the soup and stir.
12. After 15 minutes of cooking the cabbage, add the frying agent to the pan. Mix. Add the greens and stir again. Taste the broth for salt and add more salt if necessary. Add pepper to taste.
13. Cook for another 10-20 minutes, depending on how quickly the cabbage and potatoes cook. Add bay leaf and remove from heat.
It is better for the soup to sit covered for about an hour. Although the aroma in the room is already so strong that it is difficult to resist.
Bon appetit!
2. Fresh cabbage soup with chicken
Chicken can also provide cabbage soup with a decent amount of fat. This soup does not take long to prepare and is very simple. The ingredients are available, especially now during the harvest season. This option is the most budget-friendly, but at the same time, very tasty.
1. Remove the skin and excess fat from the ham. Rinse. Place in cold water and place on the stove. In the meantime, let's start preparing the vegetables.
While cooking, add a little salt to the broth. This way the meat will produce less foam.
2. Remove the top, wilted leaves from the cabbage. Remove the stalk and finely chop.
3. Finely chop one onion. She's going to be roasted. Leave the second one for the broth. We will cut it differently.
4. Peel the carrots and cut into small strips. This is very convenient to do by first cutting it into rings, then in half. Then each half-plate is easily crushed into strips.
5. Cut the second onion into thin, almost transparent half rings. They will give the broth a special aroma. Divide them into strips.
6. Cut the tomato into neat pieces. Finely chop the garlic.
7. All ingredients are ready to prepare delicious cabbage soup.
8. Before boiling, be sure to skim off any foam that has formed. Otherwise, the broth will turn out cloudy, with unpleasant flakes. It may also appear during the cooking process. It needs to be cleaned periodically.
To make the broth even tastier and more beautiful, add a small piece of carrot (about 4 x 4 centimeters) and a small onion. Before doing this, they need to be slightly cut so that they can fully reveal their aromatic qualities. After 30 minutes of cooking, they need to be removed from the pan.
9. After 30 minutes of cooking, the chicken will be ready. It needs to be removed from the broth and left to cool. And the cabbage is sent into the boiling broth.
10. Fry the onions and carrots in oil until ready.
11. As soon as the broth with cabbage boils, add the potatoes. Let them cook together for 10 minutes after boiling. Then you will need to transfer the tomatoes. Simmer over medium heat (closer to minimum) for another 10 minutes. Add salt.
12. The meat had already cooled down by that time. It needs to be cut up and sent to the soup. Add the roasted vegetables and cook for another 7-9 minutes. Add onion half rings, peppercorns, garlic, bay leaves and finely chopped herbs. Stir and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from stove.
After this, the soup should sit under the lid for about an hour. This will make it even tastier and cool slightly.
Bon appetit!
Cabbage soup with beef is very tasty. This recipe is no different from the ones described above. But there are also some subtleties. Try making these flavorful cabbage soup. Your family will say “Thank you!” to you for this.
Select all ingredients by eye. The main thing is that the soup is not too thick or thin.
1.Rinse the meat and place in a pan with cold water without cutting. Before boiling and during cooking, be sure to skim off any foam that has formed. As soon as the broth boils, salt it. Cook the meat for 1 hour over low heat.
2. Fry finely chopped onion and grated carrots in oil. After 5 minutes, add a little meat broth and add tomato paste.
3. After an hour, the meat must be removed from the pan, separated from the bone and cut into pieces. Now put it back into the broth.
4. Chop the cabbage and place in boiling soup. Boil for 10 minutes.
5. Cut the potatoes into small cubes and add to the soup. Cook for 15-20 minutes
6. Open a can of beans and pour into the pan, along with the juice. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
7. 5 minutes before readiness, add the roast, finely chopped herbs and bay leaves.
8. Turn off the heat, cover with a lid and let it brew for about 1 hour. During this time, the cabbage soup will become even more tasty and rich.
Bon appetit!
Our great-grandmothers did not wonder how to make the perfect cabbage soup. They didn't have time for this. They simply mixed all the ingredients in one bowl and put it in the oven. All day they did their business, and the cabbage soup languished in the oven until the evening. Nevertheless, they turned out very tasty. Exactly what we now call real cabbage soup.
Nowadays no one cooks food in the oven anymore. Modern pots, multicookers and air fryers have replaced them. To make your cabbage soup tasty and rich, I present to your attention a few secrets:
1.If you are preparing meat cabbage soup, then the meat needs to be cooked for a long time. My mother set the meat to cook late in the evening, turned the heat to minimum and the broth simmered on the stove all night until the morning. The meat was literally falling apart. Even the bone became soft. And the broth was so rich that it’s difficult to describe. If cooking time is limited, the meat should be cooked for at least 1-2 hours. For this, by the way, it is better to use whole pieces.
2. For thickness, you can add a little flour to the soup. To do this, you need to fry it a little until light brown in a dry frying pan. Then dilute in a glass with broth and add to the soup, stirring thoroughly. After this, boil for 3-5 minutes and remove from the stove.
3. For cabbage soup, it is better to choose autumn cabbage. Early varieties can quickly digest and turn into mush. If you use early varieties, keep in mind that you need to cook them for no more than 20 minutes. Autumn cabbage should be cooked longer.
4. Another secret to perfect cabbage soup is that you need to cover the pan with almost ready cabbage soup with foil and put it in the oven for half an hour to an hour. Just imagine what you will see soon. These are potatoes that have acquired a dilapidated state, the softest meat and an extraordinary aroma. The oven temperature should be slightly less than average.
Bon appetit!
This video describes in detail the preparation of meat soup with fresh cabbage. After watching this video there are no questions left. Everything is clear and understandable. I suggest you prepare cabbage soup according to this recipe.
Since ancient times, cabbage soup was valued for its satiety, simplicity and taste. People can hear many sayings, quotes and anecdotes related to this dish. I especially like the proverb “A good wife, and fatty cabbage soup - don’t look for any other happiness.” This phrase is the beauty of this dish. It can replace breakfast, lunch and dinner. Healthy, tasty and simple!
I wish you rich, thick and aromatic cabbage soup! See you soon!
“Soups with cabbage are also known in Europe, but they have nothing in common with our cabbage soup. Cabbage soup is a whole philosophy. There is such a concept - the lost spirit. As soon as we lift the lid over the pan with cabbage soup, we immediately feel this characteristic aroma that cannot be confused with anything else.
Let's break everything down into its components.
The basis of cabbage soup is rich meat broth. It can be made from beef, pork, lamb, with the addition of smoked meats or corned beef, but it must always be very rich, it must be cooked for at least 2–2.5 hours, because the meat must be well cooked and soft.
The second main ingredient is cabbage, fresh or pickled. (Shchi can also be made from pickled turnips; it has a peculiar sour aroma and taste.) In addition to cabbage, all kinds of roots were used - onions, parsley root, and to a lesser extent, celery and parsnips.
The basis of the national cuisine is peasant. And the main task of peasant food is to satiate people well, so that later they have a lot of strength for hard physical work. Therefore, flour was added to cabbage soup - fried or diluted in water; previously, such a seasoning was called “podboltka”. She made the cabbage soup thicker and more uniform, for which the soup had to be boiled with flour.
Finally, immediately before eating, sour cream, or less often cream, was added to the cabbage soup; these were already rich cabbage soup.
Cooking cabbage soup is, one might say, in the blood of Russians. There is one poem, although it’s not about cabbage soup, but about tea. I don’t know the author, perhaps it’s generally folk, because I’ve heard more than a hundred different versions in different areas. It says how the master bought tea for his serf:
Once the master bought me tea,
He ordered it to be cooked.
And I don’t know when I was born
How to brew damn tea.
I took half a pound of tea,
I put it in a pot
For seasoning onions, peppers,
And a parsley root.
He put it on the fire,
Boiled it three times.
And a little decoration
I added oil on top.
All this is the technology of cooking cabbage soup. “I boiled it three times” - what is this about? About the fact that cabbage soup needs to simmer for a long time. This is a historical technical moment. If the oven was hot, then the cabbage soup quickly boiled, the cast iron was taken out, placed on a stove, then, when the soup began to cool, it was put back in the oven: this is manual temperature control. Or he guessed such a moment, such a degree of heat in the oven, when the cabbage soup first boiled and then began to simmer.
If we prepare cabbage soup from sauerkraut, then the cabbage must first be simmered or stewed separately. By itself, it is quite tough, and in cabbage soup there can be no such thing as al dente vegetables. Nowadays it is customary for vegetables to be crispy in some soups - nothing should be crispy in cabbage soup, everything in them should merge together. All ingredients must reach the same degree of maturity, let's call it that. Of course, everything can be seen separately in cabbage soup; cabbage and potatoes, for example, do not merge into one porridge - but the taste should be uniform and balanced. This is the difference between cabbage soup and simple cabbage soup.
Sauerkraut cabbage soup is a winter dish; they were not cooked in the summer, because they started fermenting cabbage with the first frost. The cauldron of cabbage soup was taken out into the cold, it froze, and when it was necessary to prepare dinner for the family, the owner or hostess went with an ax and chopped the cabbage soup. They took a piece, put it in a small cast iron pot, put it on the stove, and heated it up. And it is believed that frozen sauerkraut cabbage soup is much tastier than freshly prepared cabbage soup. At the restaurant we use a similar recipe - only we freeze not ready-made cabbage soup, but pre-stewed sauerkraut. Thawed cabbage is more tender and softer than regular cabbage, and cabbage soup made from it is much tastier.
When we stew cabbage, we add smoked meats: for example, smoked pork ribs or knuckle, they give a rich flavor. Next, I can cook the soup with a simple beef broth, because the cabbage already has a smoky aroma and taste. Fried onions and carrots can be added when stewing cabbage - or you can already add it when cooking cabbage soup. We also add allspice and black pepper to the cabbage, and you can also add cloves and bay leaves.
Sauerkraut is stewed for an hour. We put fresh cabbage into the prepared broth immediately, without pre-processing. If you put potatoes in cabbage soup, then first of all: sauerkraut contains acid, if we put everything together, the acidic environment will prevent the potatoes from cooking - the cabbage will boil, and the potatoes will remain raw. So first the potatoes, boil them until half cooked, and only then the fried vegetables and sauerkraut. Then everything should simmer for at least 20–30 minutes, but no more than an hour. Some people pound potatoes in soup to give them a suspension.
I like to add tomatoes to cabbage soup made from fresh cabbage: they give a little of their tomato acid to the broth, without giving it an orange color like tomato paste.
There is also seasonal cabbage soup made from sorrel or nettle. They are called cabbage soup, I think, because sorrel and nettle replaced cabbage at a time when there was none. In regions where people were engaged in fishing, cabbage soup was prepared in fish broth. Another variety of cabbage soup characteristic of Russian cuisine is mushroom cabbage soup, which is made from salted, dried, and fresh mushrooms.
Any dish should be perfect in terms of salt at the time of serving. You can’t say: “Let’s add salt to the soup, because then we’ll add sour cream.” Or: “Let’s not add enough salt, because we’ll season it later.” You need to salt cabbage soup in stages. First we need to salt the broth when we cook the meat. Meat contains salt-soluble proteins that do not dissolve in water, but dissolve in a saline solution, and in order for the broth to be saturated, salt must be added. Then the soup is salted when the vegetables are added. The third time - just before removing from the heat.
I saw how housewives in villages cooked cabbage soup. Many people immediately put raw meat, potatoes, chopped cabbage, onions, carrots, seasonings into a cast iron pot, then fill it with water, put it in the oven and forget about it for 4-5 hours. During this time, the meat is boiled, the foam boils and boils away, and when the cast iron is taken out, the cabbage soup broth is clear. Everything manages to be cooked, but not boiled down into a puree-like mass - it’s amazing how a Russian oven cooks everything itself without any blemishes.”
“Shchi is perhaps the main Russian food and one of the most important stews for any man. Firstly, properly cooked meat soup gives a charge of some kind of crazy thermal energy. Secondly, this is the best hangover dish.
You should definitely cook cabbage soup with sauerkraut. If it is too sour, you can rinse it or add thirty percent fresh.
The secret of real cabbage soup is to cook the meat for a long time over low heat and put the onions and roots twice: first in the broth, and then in the almost finished stew. And under no circumstances should you add chopped potatoes: in an acidic environment, their pieces become woody and spoil the whole taste. It is better to mash the boiled potatoes and thicken the broth with them.
If you add just a little dry white cabbage soup, the cabbage soup turns out very fragrant. You just need to soak them in advance, then bring them to a boil in the same water, cook for ten minutes and strain. The broth should be saved, and the mushrooms should be finely chopped.
I also advise you to season the cabbage soup not with sour cream, but with a mixture of sour cream and cream or even pure thick cream - the cabbage soup does not need extra acid. I also add finely chopped dill and a little garlic to this mixture.
This is how I cook cabbage soup. First I make a strong broth from beef brisket (you need 2 kilograms), onions, carrots and small pieces of celery root and parsley. Then I put the cabbage (800 g) in a cast iron pan with two tablespoons of butter, pour in a couple of glasses of strained broth and put it in the oven for an hour and a half, preheated to 90 degrees. Then I move the pan to the stove, add the remaining broth, bay leaf and peppercorns, bring to a boil and cook over low heat until the cabbage softens. After this I throw away the bay leaf. Then I chop the onion, a little garlic and a little more celery root and fry over low heat for about ten minutes. I also add mushrooms there. Then I pour in a little broth from the pan and simmer the whole thing a little. And fifteen minutes before removing the cabbage soup from the heat, I put chopped meat, vegetables from the frying pan, mushroom broth in them, thicken them with mashed potatoes and add chopped parsley.
And, of course, you don’t need to eat this cabbage soup right away: they need to sit for several hours.”
“There are cabbage soup with fresh cabbage, there is green cabbage soup with sorrel, there is cabbage soup with sauerkraut, there is daily cabbage soup made from sauerkraut - not the easiest way to prepare it, but it allows you to make this sauerkraut tender.
There are two options for preparing daily cabbage soup. The first is when they are made from frozen sauerkraut. This method is typical for northern cuisine, for places where people had good cellars. The cabbage froze in winter, and it was necessary to open the barrel and chop off a piece for yourself. Freezing, as a rule, did not affect the taste of cabbage, but gave it a very soft, velvety consistency. There is another way - first cook cabbage soup, and only then freeze it for a day, so that the cabbage becomes silky and the taste becomes uniform and rich.
Cabbage soup made from sauerkraut is radically different from cabbage soup made from fresh cabbage. Cabbage soup made from sauerkraut has high acidity. Vegetables in an acidic environment take longer to cook, so these cabbage soup must be cooked longer. But meat, on the contrary, softens faster due to acid, so it is not at all necessary to put first-class meat in such cabbage soup.
This is how we prepare cabbage soup from sauerkraut at the Tsar’s Hunt. We take a large pressure cooker, put a kilogram of veal tail, cut into joints, into it. (You can just use a piece of beef neck or shoulder, and in general any meat is suitable, both pork and lamb.) Next, add a kilogram of sauerkraut, finely chopped and washed in cold water (to remove excess acid and salt, if any) . Add a couple of peeled potatoes - whole or cut in half. Add 100–150 grams of sauteed onions, a spoonful of tomato puree or a couple of tomatoes cut into pieces without skin, 2 bay leaves, a teaspoon of cumin, a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar - and pour 4 liters of cold water. Close the pressure cooker tightly, put it on the stove - and everything cooks together for an hour and a half. During this time, the tail will be cooked and the meat will be so soft that it can be removed from the bones and thrown away. And the potatoes will be sold out, you won’t even be able to see them.”
“I would divide cabbage soup into five main types. From fresh cabbage, from sauerkraut, from fresh sorrel, from sorrel prepared for the winter, as well as gray cabbage soup - from the top leaves of cabbage.
For the cabbage soup to be tasty, the broth needs to be rich and aromatic. I add parsley root, celery stalk and root, bay leaf, allspice, a head of garlic to it, and to the already prepared one, onion pre-sautéed in vegetable oil. Some people put onions with carrots, but for my taste, adding carrots to cabbage soup is not necessary at all. Then cabbage or sorrel is added.
If I cook cabbage soup from young cabbage, I add it at the very end, I try not to cook it much - I don’t like it when there is boiled porridge in the plate. I throw in the cabbage, bring it to a boil and that’s it, remove it. When the cabbage soup is steeped, the cabbage will give juice, but will remain crunchy and undigested.
But to be honest, I prefer sauerkraut cabbage soup. Sauerkraut, unlike fresh cabbage, needs to be cooked a little - and you should definitely add cabbage brine to the soup. And you definitely need to let the cabbage soup brew - because not all ingredients immediately release all their taste, juice, and aroma.
It is better to serve sour cream with cabbage soup separately. Although there are white cabbage soup, when sour cream is added at the very end of cooking, the cabbage soup is brought to a boil and removed. They really do come out white.”
Cabbage soup- national Russian dish. They are distinguished by the sour taste created by sauerkraut, usually used in cabbage soup. But other plants can also add acid, for example, sorrel, nettle, or neutral herbs, followed by dressing with cabbage or other brine. Vegetables are usually added to soup raw, without prior frying. The liquid base for cabbage soup can be meat, fish, mushroom broths, decoctions of vegetables or cereals. Fully vegetable cabbage soup is called “empty”. “Daily” cabbage soup is well known, which acquires its taste only a day after its preparation. Often cabbage soup is “whitened” with sour cream, cream or milk.
Fresh cabbage soup!
Probably every Russian person knows the taste and smell of homemade cabbage soup. There are many recipes for cooking cabbage soup; they are cooked in meat, vegetable and even mushroom broth. And sometimes with fish. There are also different types of cabbage used in cabbage: fresh white cabbage, pickled (sour) cabbage, cauliflower. There are delicious cabbage soup not with cabbage, but with sorrel or nettle. Each housewife prepares cabbage soup a little differently, I will tell you how this delicious soup is cooked at our home.
The recipe for my cabbage soup with fresh cabbage is very simple. My cabbage soup with meat is seasoned with frying and served with sour cream. Or mayonnaise. Who likes it how?
for 1 pan of cabbage soup
Meat with bone - a piece;
Onion and carrot in broth;
Sour cream or mayonnaise.
Everything is like everyone else. Place the meat with the bone in cold water, add root vegetables - onions and carrots. Cook the broth. Then remove the carrots and onions and throw them away.
The meat can be separated from the bones and only the pulp left. You can put it directly into a plate with the finished soup or return it to the pan with cabbage soup a few minutes before the end of cooking.
Now add chopped potatoes and cabbage to the boiling broth. Let's cook. AND make frying: fry chopped onions, carrots and tomatoes in oil. You can add ketchup there too. But at the end (when everything is fried).
When the cabbage is cooked, add the frying agent to the cabbage soup. It's boiling. Cook for 7 minutes.
Add chopped herbs and, if you prefer, garlic (chopped). Boils for 1 minute. Turn it off. Let's close. You need to let the cabbage soup sit for at least one hour. Better 2-3. Add sour cream to your plate with cabbage soup!
This is such a delicious homemade soup!
Bon appetit and delicious cabbage soup!
Shchi is included in the list of the most famous dishes of national Russian cuisine. This traditional cabbage soup has not lost its relevance today. Classic Russian cabbage soup was prepared from fresh cabbage, but the broth could be very different. Most often, cabbage soup was cooked in beef broth, but there are also recipes for cabbage soup in pork, chicken and fish broth, and lean cabbage soup was even prepared in mushroom or vegetable broth. Cabbage soup made from fresh cabbage, cooked in fatty beef broth, turns out very tasty and satisfying, and the addition of bell peppers and tomatoes makes it even more aromatic and colorful.
In the classic cabbage soup recipe, tomatoes and peppers are not among the ingredients, but I like to add them to make the taste and aroma of the soup more colorful.
Meat (it is better to take clean boneless pulp) must first be soaked in cold water, then rinsed. Then we take a pan, pour cold water into it, add the prepared meat and send it to cook until fully cooked.
While the meat is cooking, let's start with the vegetables. The cabbage must be cut into thin strips.
Cut the onions into small cubes and grate the carrots.
Frying is never added to classic cabbage soup, but if you want to get a rich taste, you will need to cook it. To do this, pour two tablespoons of vegetable oil into a frying pan and heat it. Add the onions, and after two minutes add the carrots. Once the vegetables are soft, remove them from the pan.
Cut the potatoes into cubes.
Cut the bell pepper (the color of the pepper does not matter) into strips.
Cut fresh tomatoes into thin half-slices.
As soon as the meat is cooked, remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon. By the way, the broth can be prepared in advance, for example, in the evening, and the next day you can prepare fresh cabbage soup for lunch.
Place shredded cabbage in the broth and put on fire.
After the cabbage has cooked for 10 minutes, add the potatoes.
After another 5 minutes, add chopped tomatoes and bell peppers.
Stir and cook for another 10 minutes.
Now it's time to add the roasted carrots and onions.
Lastly, add salt, spices and bay leaf.
We leave the cabbage soup to cook for another 15 minutes, and during this time we will take care of the meat - cut it into small pieces.
And finely chop the greens (I used green onions and parsley).
Pour the prepared cabbage soup into plates and add fresh herbs.
Traditionally, meat cabbage soup is served with pieces of meat and sour cream.
Bon appetit!
