Creamy Cabbage Soup With Gruyère

- Total Time
- About 45 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1medium onion, chopped
- 1russet potato, peeled and grated
- ¾pound cabbage (about ½ medium head), cored and shredded
- Salt to taste
- 5cups water, chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 1Parmesan rind
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 2cups low-fat milk
- 1cup grated Gruyère cheese
- 6½-inch thick slices of French or country bread, toasted and cut into small squares
- Minced fresh chives
For Garnish
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy soup pot. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the grated potato, the shredded cabbage and ½ teaspoon salt. Stir together for a minute, taking care that the potatoes don’t stick to the pot, and add the water or stock, the Parmesan rind, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer, cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
- Step 2
Add the milk to the soup. Stir to combine well and heat through without boiling. A handful at a time, stir the Gruyère into the soup and continue to stir until the cheese has melted. Taste and adjust seasonings. Remove the Parmesan rind. Serve, garnishing each bowl with a handful or toasted croutons and a sprinkling of minced chives.
Private Notes
Comments
Spectacular. Even better than French onion soup. But. Low-fat milk? Seriously? That's worse than "processed cheese food", if you ask me.
I used less broth, somewhat more onion and cabbage, and cream. Probably not even that much - I didn't measure. Maybe 3/4 C.
I will use thyme, as someone suggested, the next time.
This was really, really nice. I think the secret to a soup like this is a little caramelization. I cooked the onion in butter until it was starting to get a bit brown, then added the finely shredded cabbage, and cooked for another 5 minutes, then the grated potato, and used a metal spatula to scrape the browning potato off the bottom of the pan for another 5 min. I left the lid off to reduce, which I think was a good idea. Then followed the directions exactly, except using 2% milk.
I'm breaking my rule about commenting on a recipe I altered on my first try to say that I just happened to have roasted off a head of cabbage right before I saw this recipe (cut the head into eighths, sheet pan, olive oil, salt, 450F, flip once) so I used that instead of raw cabbage, and I love the result. The cabbage was well caramelized, and it added a lovely flavor to the soup. I might have also been a little heavy-handed with the gruyère because when I am ever not?
I make a soup with these ingredients but I find butter enhances the flavors better than olive oil. It’s wonderful even without the cheese. Caraway seeds are a nice addition. Cabbage is so full of flavor the soup doesn’t need any seasoning except salt.
All these vegetables can take some full-fat cream. Low-fat milk is flavorless.
The rare miracle recipe that let me use up the half cabbage, broth, and a potato from my St. Patrick's Day meal, along with some leftover bits of gruyere and raclette from Christmas fondue. Delicious!
