Tomato Cabbage Soup With Pork Shoulder

This soup brings back some memories from my childhood. It used to be the favorite dish of my Grandma, she literally prepared it almost every time we were about to come for a visit :)

Truth to be told, there were times I wished she would cook something else, but you know how it goes... it's hard to break the tradition.

But anyways, somehow it has become one of my favorite soups too and I'm still cooking it until this day and will continue to do so, unless my family members start to complain too :)

As with all my Instructables, let me embed a video from my Youtube cooking channel. The recipe is quite easy so I'm sure you can cook this soup just by following the video. The list of ingredients and instructions follow below. And you can also check some more optional tips on how to tweak this tomato soup with cabbage, on my blog.

1 medium sized head of cabbage
750g (1.5 pounds) pork shoulder
500g (1 pound) potatoes
1000g (2 pounds) tomato puree
1 large onion
vegetable oil
salt & pepper to taste
2-3 litres (8-12 cups) water or stock
1 bouillon cube (if using water)
3-4 tsp sugar
3-4 tsp red paprika
1 tsp crushed caraway
½ tsp ground cinnamon
3-4 bay leaves
flat leaf parsley for garnish

Finely chop a large onion, then sauté it on vegetable oil until it becomes translucent. This will take just a few minutes.

While the onion is sauteeing, cut the pork meat into bite size chunks. I'm using pork shoulder because it contains a bi of fat and that's exactly what we need for this soup.

Once the onions are ready, put the meat into the pot, season with salt and pepper and start stir frying. Give it about 20-25 minutes. We want to meat to become somewhat soft, before adding the other ingredients.

We will need one medium sized head of cabbage. Cut or shred it into fine strips. The finer the cut, the better! And keep in mind we're going to eat the soup with a bowl, so adjust the size of the strips accordingly.

The meat should be somewhat soft by now, so let's add the rest of our spices. 3-4 tsp of sugar, 3tsp of red paprika, 1 tsp crushed caraway seeds. Give it a good mix and stir fry for 5 more minutes.

Now it's time to add the cabbage. Add all of it and don't be scared by the amount of it. It will look like too much cabbage, but keep in mind it will lose a lot of it's volume as it cooks.

Add the tomato puree too, I've used about 1kg (2 pounds). Drop in 3-4 bay leaves, cover the pot and simmer on low heat for 30-45 minutes.

While the soup is simmering, dice about 500g (1 pound) of yellow potatoes. You can use a different type too, based on your preferences.

Now is the right time to give the soup a taste and add more seasonings if needed. Truth to be told, it's almost impossible to hit the right amount of sugar and salt at the beginning so do not skip this step. The soup must have enough salt to be flavor intensive and it must be somewhat sweet.

I ended up adding more salt & pepper and 1 more tsp of sugar (4tsp in total).

One more thing I'm always adding is a bit of ground cinnamon, which gives the soup a fragrant touch. I've added 1/2tsp but feel free to add more.

Once you are satisfied with the flavor, add the potatoes, cover the pot again and keep simmering until the potatoes are fully cooked.

30-45 minutes later, our soup is done and we are ready to serve.

I love to use a larger soup bowl and garnish the soup with some finely chopped flat leaf parsley.

And that's it, please let me know how you liked this recipe :)