Young Cabbage Soup with Beef Ribs and Fresh Herbs

Young Cabbage Soup with Beef

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In early summer, when everyone has had their fill of young cabbage, we make a vegetable soup with young cabbage or a green cabbage soup in a rich meat broth. We season it generously with summer herbs: cilantro, parsley, dill and green onion tops. The cabbage does not overcook or lose its color, because it is barely cooked at all, yet it turns tender and soft.

The soup gets its body from the vegetables themselves. Whether to make it with meat or in a rich broth is really a matter of taste and personal preference. If you make it without meat, you can add green peas or green beans, which are in season in summer. A light vegetable soup with herbs and a bit of cabbage is also something you can put together in just half an hour, with no effort.

There is a lot to say about the benefits of young cabbage, and about its drawbacks too. First, it is a source of nearly all the vitamins we know, which we badly need after the winter vitamin deficiency. That is especially true since young cabbage is almost the first seasonal vegetable of the year. Second, it is very low in calories. A young cabbage salad needs no oil at all, as the cabbage is juicy on its own. And third, it is simply delicious, especially with other vegetables or in soups.

When we make soup with meat and cabbage, we prefer a dense, rich broth made with beef ribs. It comes out clear and fragrant, and the ribs carry enough meat to satisfy everyone. Adding young carrots and onion to the broth makes the beef and cabbage soup incredibly tasty and colorful. By the way, making this soup in autumn is problematic, because as the head ripens, the cabbage becomes coarse and loses its bright color.

The important thing, if you want the soup to be bright and the cabbage to keep its wonderful color, is not to boil the shredded cabbage. Just drop it into the boiling soup and take the pot off the heat right away. In 2-3 minutes the cabbage will be soft without changing color.

If you cook the meat broth ahead of time, this green cabbage soup takes 25-30 minutes, since young carrots cook very quickly. We always prefer to make summer cabbage soup with plenty of herbs, and we add a lot of them. You can also add hot pepper if you like spicy soups. If you make the soup without meat, you can cook all the vegetables together and add the young cabbage right at the end.

Ingredients

2 servings

  • Fresh young cabbage 200 g
  • Cold water 1 l
  • Onion 1
  • Young carrots 1
  • Hot pepper (optional) 1
  • Mixed herbs (parsley, dill, cilantro, green onion) 0.5 bunch
  • Beef ribs 350 g
  • Salt, black pepper, coriander to taste
  • Light soy sauce (optional) 1 tbsp
  • Hard-boiled egg (for serving, optional) 1

Step-by-step recipe

Broth

  1. Prepare the cabbage and herbs. A head of cabbage usually weighs at least 1 kg, and we don’t need that much: 200-250 g is enough. For a soup for two, use the outer leaves, which are a beautiful bright green. The inner leaves are white or yellow and make a vitamin salad or braised young cabbage with tomato. Add plenty of fresh herbs to your bowl: it is both healthy and tasty. I like the way Asian soups are served, for example Chinese chicken noodle soup — the abundance of herbs gives it an unforgettable flavor and charm.

    Young vegetables.

  1. Make the broth from the ribs. Wash the beef ribs and carefully remove any bone splinters, which unfortunately are left behind when the meat is chopped. Pour 1 l of cold water into a pot and add the ribs. Bring to a boil and skim off all the foam, which forms in large amounts. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to the lowest setting that still keeps a simmer, and cook for 1 hour. The broth for young cabbage soup should not boil hard, only barely bubble.

    Beef broth.

  2. Take out the ribs and add the vegetables. Remove the ribs and let them cool a little. If the broth is a bit cloudy and you want a clear soup, you can always clarify it. It is easy to do with an egg white, much like clarifying the broth for jellied tongue. Add the peeled onion, cut into thick strips, and the peeled young carrots, cut into long sticks. Do not grate the carrots, or they will give the soup little sweetness and color it too much. If you like, add a coarsely chopped hot pepper, with the seeds and white inner membranes removed.

    Vegetables in the broth.

Soup

  1. Return the meat and cook the vegetables until done. Season the broth with salt and pepper to taste and add a pinch of coriander. Separate the meat from the ribs, remove the cartilage, cut the meat into large pieces and return it to the broth. Bring the soup to a boil and simmer over low heat until the carrots are done, 20-25 minutes. The broth should barely bubble rather than boil hard. A light soy sauce, just 1 tbsp, adds a very pleasant flavor to the soup. Give it a try.

    Cooking until the vegetables are done.

  2. Add the cabbage and take the soup off the heat. While the vegetables cook, remove as many of the outer green leaves from the head of young cabbage as you need and shred them finely. When the vegetables in the broth are soft, or better yet almost soft (al dente), add the shredded cabbage and stir. We don’t cook the cabbage: wait until the soup starts to boil, then immediately take the pot off the heat.

    Shredded cabbage.

    Cover with a lid and let the soup stand for 3-4 minutes. In a few minutes the young cabbage will turn soft and lose its crunchy firmness, while keeping its wonderful green color. Add a little more salt and pepper to taste if needed.

    Letting the soup stand.

Serving

  1. Divide the meat and vegetables evenly among deep bowls, then ladle in the soup. Roughly chop the prepared herbs and slice the green onion tops as for egg and green onion salad. Sprinkle the soup generously with herbs and onion. It looks lovely topped with half a hard-boiled egg.

    Young cabbage soup

    Serve the young cabbage soup hot, but not scalding. Toasted bread goes very well with it. It is best to cook cabbage soup so that you eat it right away.

Calories and macros

485 kcal

Serving ≈ 730 g

  • Protein19 g16% of kcal
  • Fat38 g74% of kcal
  • Carbs12 g10% of kcal

100 g67 kcalProtein 2.6 gFat 5.3 gCarbs 1.6 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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