CABBAGE and BEANS

Green Cabbage and Navy Beans play a leading role in this hearty soup

No matter how many fad diets come and go, nutritionists always come back to a simple premise when it comes to healthy eating: Eat plant based foods and eat them as a primary source of your diet. Cabbage and beans is a Mediterranean classic that fits the bill, as so many traditional dishes from that part of the world do. It’s got fiber and protein from the beans, and cabbage is part of the coveted green leafy vegetable group.

Why cabbage and beans?

How many stories start with the saying “back in the old days”? Well this is another one. When dishes like cabbage and beans were staple foods for a Mediterranean family dinner, it wasn’t because the ingredients were on a list of foods that are good for you. They used what ingredients were available to them and did their best to make it taste good. Cooking was a sort of kitchen improv. All traditional meals of any culture were born from the “use what you have” theory, and beans, because they can be dried and stored for long periods of time, are a staple in traditional meals of most cultures worldwide.

Soups and stews have always been a great way to stretch a few ingredients into a wholesome meal. With food prices rising the way they are these days it’s a good time to look at what worked for families before supermarkets, take-out and prepackaged foods, when money was worth less than food. America’s great depression was such a time. In order to feed the hungry masses, soup kitchens became a vital resource for food. Soup is easy, economical, healthy and can feed a crowd.

The art of cooking is all about adding flavor

Both cabbage and navy beans are pretty darned bland, so adding flavor to a dish that features these ingredients is what makes the meal. Ricky flavors the stock of this soup with a leftover ham bone. Making stock with meat or poultry bones, is an ancient and universal practice. The left over meat and marrow in the bones, flavor and thicken a broth. These days many of us think of meat bones as something to throw away, but they can transform a pot of water to a meal. A ham bone, in this instance, gives depth of flavor with salty smoky goodness and is perfect for a soup or stew that does not have a lot of competing flavors, and that’s why it works so well with this cabbage and bean soup. You can learn more about making your own stock for soups, stews and gravies using left over meat bones in our post MAKING STOCK.

With the help of the smoky ham bone and the beans, the stock for this meal is thick and hearty. Cabbage is sturdy enough to hold it’s own. It doesn’t wilt away with cooking. This is not a soup that you serve as a side dish. It is a meal in itself. This recipe makes enough for several people and no one will walk away hungry.

Here’s what YOU WILL NEED:

This is what economical looks like

With food prices changing so often these days, I think it would be almost impossible to estimate the cost of a meal before you are actually there buying the ingredients. But it doesn’t matter what the current economic picture is, it is easy to see that these ingredients are not going to cost you much. Dried beans are always a bargain. They are packed with protein and fiber. With the variety of dried beans available, if you start incorporating them in your diet, the meal possibilities are endless.

For this soup you can use any bean you like. Make it your way.

What about the ham bone?

The most challenging thing about this recipe is getting your hands on a ham bone. Unlike a beef bone, you can’t just go to the store and pick one up. About the only way to get a ham bone is to first have a dinner with whole ham. Hams are pretty big, so it’s not unusual to have plenty left over for another meal. But once the leftover ham is gone, you may not be ready for another meal made with the ham bone.

That brings us to solution number two, which requires premeditation. This suggestion is not only for ham bones, but other large meat bones as well. When you have a large cut of meat with a bone, don’t throw the bone away. Stick it in a freezer bag and freeze it. They can be in there for quite a while and still be good for soup or stew. You don’t need a lot of meat left on the bone. It’s the bone that holds the magic to making water a meal, not the meat, but leaving a little meat on the bone if you are planning to use it for another meal is all the better.

Option three to the rescue

Ricky and I had decided during the summer that we would post this recipe as soon as there was a nip in the air. As time grew near, not having a ham bone became an obvious issue. It was still too hot outside to roast or boil a ham. I think we were each just waiting to see which one of us was going to cave first and cook a baked ham.

As the unspoken stalemate continued we visited with a cousin of his, Debbie. She has held true to Ricky’s family traditions of feeding a crowd, whether there is one or not. I never turn down an invitation to Debbie’s. Upon arrival, her dining room looks like a scene from the story of a Christmas Carol. The journey of the ghost of Christmas’ past usually starts with a scene where seemingly endless food is lining a long table. That’s what her table looks like, and that is just the appetizers she has put out to pick at, not the meal or the desserts!

Some time during our visit, Debbie had to get something from her freezer and in the process of moving things around came across a ham bone. Well, as the song goes, you can’t always get what you want BUT sometimes you get what you need 🎵 , and we needed that ham bone! We left with a full belly and a ham bone. Thanks Debbie, I think we did the bone justice!

This is WHAT TO DO:

Prepare the ingredients

Start cooking

The olive oil, garlic, onion and basil are the base flavors of the stock.

You may notice in our recipes that have basil and/or oregano in them, that the dried leaves are larger than the bottled herbs you find in the grocery store spice departments. You can see the difference pretty clearly in the stockpot in these pictures. Ricky and I grow our own basil and oregano over the summer. When I dry my herbs, I don’t cut them up finely. I wrote about growing basic herbs at home, using them fresh and drying them. If you are interested see Back Porch Herb Garden, Cooking with Herb, It’s Drying Time Again.

Almost done

Not much left to do now before you let it simmer on the stove for the afternoon. Do not add the cabbage at this point. You have a couple of hours to go before you will add the cabbage.

Bring the stock to a full boil for a couple of minutes and then turn down the heat and simmer for 2 and 1/2 hours. You can simmer with the cover on or the cover off. The broth will be a little more concentrate and thicker if the cover is left off. Here’s something to remember about cooking with covers or without. If you are simmering with the cover off, you will need the stove set at a higher temperature than you would if you put the cover on. More heat escapes with the cover off. I happen to love being able to smell all the goodness of soup while it is simmering, so I leave the cover off.

Adding the cabbage

After the soup has simmered for 2 and 1/2 hours, add the cabbage and bring the soup to a boil again. Turn the heat down to medium low and let the cabbage cook at a slow boil for 45 minutes.

Done

Serve