italian sausage and cabbage soup

A while back a friend and I were talking about the cabbage soup diet. Do you remember that one? I think I came across it way back in ‘97.

If you aren’t familiar, the premise is you make this giant batch of cabbage soup that’s supposed to last you the whole week. The first day you can eat only the soup and fruit (with some limitations). The second day is only soup and vegetables (with some limitations) and a baked potato. The third day is soup with vegetables and fruit… and so on and so forth. Each day is very specific.

I think I lasted about 36 hours before I got a massive migraine and had to stop.

However… it got me thinking about how much I love cabbage - raw in salads, sautéed, in dumplings, etc. etc. And why I don’t include it in soup more often…

But not the soup from the diet. No. This one would include some sausage, and a whole smattering of vegetables. Guaranteed to be headache proof.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp avocado oil

2 lbs pork italian sausage

1 onion, minced

1/2 bunch celery, sliced

1 1/2 cup chopped carrots

1 1/2 zucchini chopped

1 pint crimini mushrooms, quartered

28 oz can whole tomatoes

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 small head cabbage shredded

1 tsp salt

1 tsp celery salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

8 cups chicken stock

2 cups tomato juice (or v8)

Directions:

Heat oil over medium high heat in a large dutch oven.

Add in sausage. Cook until browned, remove, and set aside.

Turn heat down to medium.

Add in onion, and cook until translucent. Stirring to prevent browning.

Add in carrots, zucchini and mushrooms. Cook until slightly tender. Stirring occasionally.

Add in tomatoes, breaking up with scissors or a spoon, garlic, cabbage, salt, celery salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.

Let cook for 5 minutes.

Add sausage back in.

Add stock and tomato juice.

Bring to a boil.

Once boiling turn down to simmer. Let simmer for 20 minutes before serving.