Magic Cabbage Soup

Over the weekend, David and I were sick. As I had mentioned last time I was sick (not that long ago!), pregnant people can hardly take ANYTHING to feel better. David can take whatever he wants and we even have lots of different options but he just doesn't for whatever reason. So I was looking for a soup recipe that would help us feel better. We didn't want anything spicy (even though it can help clear out the sinuses) and we're sick of chicken noodle. That is when I found cabbage soup.

We based it off the recipe found here and changed it to what we needed. Hers is actually vegan (depending on the broth you use) but it's lacking protein. You could just as easily use beans but we decided to use brats because we were unsure of the cabbage and knew that brats and cabbage tasted good together. We also used chicken bouillon (since that's what we had).

So here is what ours was.

• half yellow onion, chopped
• 1 head of garlic, minced
• 1 large cabbage head, chopped
• 5 large carrots, peeled and sliced
• 10 cups water (with 5 chicken bouillon cubes)
• 1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes with onion and garlic with liquid
• 1 frozen package of 6 Polish sausages, chopped 

Then we threw everything into a pot but the bouillon and the sausages. We didn't cook the onion ahead of time (and we even keep ours frozen so we don't cry when we cut it).  Then we waited for it to boil (high heat) and added the bouillon and the sausages, put a lid on it and let it simmer (low heat) for 20 minutes. The end! It's so simple. The prep isn't that bad (although truly David did all of it) and you can just leave it on the stove and walk away while it simmers.

Not only is this delicious (we decided even with our additions, it serves about 4 or 5 people, not 10-12) and easy to make but it's great at making you feel better. It feels really  nice on sore throats and does help clear out your sinuses.

We both decided we would eat this soup even when we aren't sick. It does seem like it would be a little bland without the flavor of the sausages and bouillon but that's just my opinion. When you're sick, you can't really taste anyway. If we made this just as a great soup to warm up with, we might add more seasonings (I was thinking Italian seasoning would probably be a great addition).