cabbage soup

MORE CABBAGE! This recipe highlights all of the ingredients in it. You can taste each one and its contribution to the dish. It's simple, hearty, and cooks pretty darn fast. Great for a nice chilly evening.

Ingredients:

2 small heads of napa cabbage, shredded- about 4 cups

2.5 quarts of veggie stock

2 pounds of red potatoes, cut into 1/2" pieces, and well rinsed

1 pound of carrots, cut into 1/2 pieces

1 LARGE leek, white and green parts only, halved, and cut into 1/4' slices- about 1.25 cups packed

1.5 Tbsp. Earth Balance

3 tsp. dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot over medium heat, melt the Earth Balance, and saute' leeks until translucent, about 7-8 minutes. Add potatoes, carrots, thyme, and stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil (10 or so minutes), the potatoes and carrots should be almost cooked. Test them. If they are fork tender, its time to proceed, if not, continue cooking until they are ready. I'm waiting. OK, they're done- let's move on. Add cabbage and turn off the heat. Stir for 2 minutes until the cabbage is cooked through. Serve with some nice crusty bread or crackers and eat while watching Jersey Shore, wrapped up in your Snuggie.

UPDATE 1/7/10:

Tonight we took the leftovers from this soup and totally reinvented it. We cooked 12 vegan meatballs in the oven, reheated the soup with the leftover shells from the recipe above, and 2.5 Tbsp. 2x tomato paste, and added 2 tsp. of oregano. Tossed the meatballs into the soup, and made some nice crostini. It was damn good (I ate 2 huge bowls!). Hooray for versatile recipes!