Kapuśniak made with Fresh Cabbage

In the first year of writing this blog,  I wrote a post – Poles love to eat cabbage and now that I am writing about soups I am going to look at  a Polish classic – kapuśniak – cabbage soup.

Kuchnia Polska – Polish Kitchen or Polish Cookery

FALLING IN LOVE WITH CABBAGE

There are two types – ones made with fresh cabbage and ones made with sauerkraut.

Here I am going to write about ones made with fresh cabbage.

Kapuśniak – Version 1

Ingredients

• 500g fresh white  or sweetheart cabbage (a small head)
• 100g smoked bacon
• 1.5 – 2 litres of vegetable stock (can be from powder or cubes)
• 1 large onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 or 5 peppercorns
• 2-3 medium sized potatoes.
• Salt & pepper – to taste
• Flat-leafed parsley to garnish

Method

• With a sharp knife, shred the cabbage and then chop across to get little pieces.
• Chop the onion into small pieces.
• Chop the bacon into small squares.
• Put the vegetable stock into a large pan.
• Add the cabbage, onion, bacon, bay leaf and peppercorns.
• Bring to the boil and then simmer, with a lid on, until the cabbage is nearly tender.
• Peel and chop the potatoes into medium sized chunks.
• Add the potatoes to the soup and gently simmer until the potatoes are cooked.
• Check for seasoning.
• Stir in a handful of chopped flat leaved parsley.
• Serve with a little chopped flat leaved parsley on top.

Served here in Royal Doulton – Tapestry – 1966 to 1988

Note – If you want to start this in advance, make it up to adding the potatoes.

Kapuśniak – Version 2

Ingredients

• 500g fresh white cabbage
• A few pork ribs
• 1.5 – 2 litres of vegetable stock (can be from powder or cubes)
• 1 large onion
• 3 tablespoons of tomato purée
• Salt & pepper to taste.
• Flat -leaved parsley to garnish

Method

• Into a large pan put the pork ribs, peppercorns and the vegetable stock.
• Bring to the boil, then simmer gently with the lid on until the meat is tender.
• With a sharp knife, shred the cabbage and then chop across to get small pieces.
• Chop the onion into small pieces.
• Add the cabbage and onion to the pan and simmer till the cabbage is tender.
• You might have top up with a little hot water.
• Remove the pork ribs – these can be eaten later or as a snack for the cook!
• Stir in the tomato puree.
• Check for seasoning.
• Serve with a little chopped flat leaved parsley on top.

Served here in Royal Doulton  – Burgundy – 1959 to 1981

Kapuśniak – Version 3

This is made as Version 2, after adding the tomato puree, stir in around 100ml of soured cream and mix well in.

Garnish with flat-leaved parsley.

Served here in Royal Doulton – Carnation – 1982  to 1998