Tuesday, May 12, 2009

5/12/09 Ham and Cabbage Soup



Today I made my homemade ham and cabbage soup for dinner. This is one of my most favorite recipes I make and it is one of the first recipes that I made all on my own! I start out with a Ham bone leftover from a ham that I made (in this case yesterday). I know most people make either Split Pea Soup (yuck) or Bean Soup (double yuck) with their ham bones, but I made this recipe for those of us that do not like either and hate to let that ham bone go to waste! If you like things like Boiled Dinner or Corned Beef and Cabbage then you will most likely love this soup. You need to start out with making a simple Ham Broth, here is how:

The Broth:

Ingredients:
Left over Ham Bone
Water
Baby Carrots
Celery

Toss the left over bone with some meat still attached into your crockpot, throw in a handful of baby carrots and break up a couple of stalks of celery and toss in as well. If you just made the ham and still have the pan juices from cooking it, pour those in as well. Cover it all with water, set the crockpot on low and let cook all night. Let your crockpot do the work while you sleep. :-)

The Soup:

Ingredients:
Broth cooked from Ham Bone (see above)
Ham meat (picked from the bone)
About 2 handfuls of Baby Carrots chopped
About 4 stalks of Celery chopped
About 1/2-3/4 of a head of Cabbage sliced

When you wake up to an amazing smelling house (just ask my husband) give the broth a few stirs and go about your morning routine. When you have a moment strain out everything from the broth (I use a spoon strainer tool like thing) into a bowl so it can cool. Turn off the crockpot (with all of the broth still in it) and give it a bit of a break after working all night long. While the meat and veggies are cooling begin chopping up the baby carrots and celery. Toss these new veggies into the broth in the crockpot. By this point your meat should be cool enough to handle. Pick all of the ham that you can off of the bones and throw back into the crockpot. Throw out the bones and the old smooshy veggies. Cover the crockpot and let it cook on low for about 6-8 hours. About 45 minutes before serving stir in the cabbage. Cover and let cook until cabbage is cooked, but still crisp.
I serve this soup wit homemade bread (tonight I did Egg Bread in my bread machine).
Enjoy!!!!

1 comment:

  1. Yes, the house smells awesome when broth is in the crockpot overnight. It's better than the best part of waking up to a certain coffee brand in your cup. I personally think cabbage is way underused so anything that has cabbage cooked enough so it's edible, but not moosh, is a winner in my book.

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