Cabbage soup - 6 step-by-step recipes for a delicious dish for the family

This cabbage soup is popularly called “kapustnyak”. And this is not surprising, because one of the main ingredients is cabbage - fresh or pickled. A distinctive feature of this soup is the presence of millet. Thanks to this, cabbage always turns out thick and rich. You can cook it in meat broth, or you can prepare a purely vegetable, vegetarian, or lean version. It all depends on the recipe and available products. 100 g of ready-made first course contains only about 47 kcal.

A little history

How to cook cabbage? What to prepare this dish from? The name itself speaks for itself! Of course, it is made from cabbage. But again, cabbage can also be different: sour, salty, fresh. And the additives (as in the ax soup in the well-known Russian fairy tale) can be completely different.

Actually, cabbage (another name for the dish) is a dish of national Ukrainian, Slovak, and Polish cuisine. As usual, some other countries also claim it as its place of birth, where the vegetable of the same name has long had nutritional value. In terms of its relatedness, cabbage soup made from fresh cabbage is the brother of the well-known borscht. But it’s a little easier to prepare and doesn’t require as many ingredients (as for real Ukrainian borscht, which requires a spoon).

Fresh cabbage soup with rice and chicken

Rice is a common ingredient in soup, successfully replacing traditional millet.

Ingredients for 2-3 liters of water:

Chicken fillet (or leg) – 400 gr.
Rice, cereal - ½ cup.
Potatoes – 4-5 pcs.
Sauerkraut – 300 gr.
Onions, carrots - 1 pc.
Tomato paste – 3 spoons.
Vegetable oil - the same amount.
Dill – 2 sprigs.
Black pepper, salt.

How to cook:

Place the chicken in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil the chicken until tender. Then remove the chicken from the broth and cut into pieces.
Instead of meat, add diced potatoes.
After 10 minutes, add the washed rice. Continue cooking the soup for the next quarter of an hour.
Chop the onion and sauté in oil in a frying pan. Add shredded carrots. Fry for a couple more minutes.
Transfer the sautéed vegetables to the pan.
Chop the cabbage into strips and place next. Then add the meat pieces.
Cook for 3 minutes, season the cabbage with tomato paste, pepper, and chopped herbs. Add salt and adjust the taste for salt. Turn off the stove.

Benefit and popularity

In many countries around the world, delicious cabbage is widely popular. After all, the soup turns out to be satisfying and healthy. In addition, it is very cost-effective. After all, it can be used, especially when nothing else is at hand, as a complete lunch for a large family: both the first and the second. If this dish is not prepared lean, but with meat, then pork is best. It is fatty and nutritious. And sauerkraut, pre-washed with water to remove excess acid, neutralizes this fat well, allowing all component products to be well absorbed.

Some people add flour, butter, and sour cream with garlic. And according to Zaporozhye, Cossack, millet must also be introduced at a certain stage of preparation. This is probably how the Sich Cossacks prepared cabbage in the ancient times of Catherine the Great.

The Chinese and peoples of eastern Siberia make this dish with rice, using only fresh cabbage. Therefore, each housewife decides for herself how to prepare cabbage soup (its recipe and ingredients). Which, in general, is wonderful, if only because you can fully demonstrate your culinary imagination and prepare a delicious dish, delighting your loved ones or guests with this simple folk dish.

Cabbage soup made from sauerkraut with millet and pork

Traditional soup with sauerkraut, most often it is prepared this way.

Compound:

Water – 3 liters.
Pork – 350-400 gr.
Millet – ½ cup.
Sauerkraut – 400 gr.
Potatoes – 400 gr.
Carrots – 2 pcs.
Onion – 2 heads.
Tomato paste – 2-3 large spoons.
Sunflower oil – 2-3 tablespoons.
Dill, salt, ground pepper.

How to cook:

Place a piece of pork in a saucepan and cover with water. Cook until the meat is completely cooked, remembering to remove the foam. Then take it out and cut it into portions.
Finely chop the onion and grate the carrots on a medium grater.
Fry the vegetables until lightly browned, adding them one at a time.
Cut the potato tubers into soup strips or cubes.
Place potatoes in the pan instead of meat. Cook for 10-15 minutes, counting the time after boiling.
Rinse the millet and add to the pan.
After 5-7 minutes, add cabbage, fried vegetables, and tomato paste. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
At the end, throw in the chopped greens, salt and pepper the cabbage.

A delicious soup can be prepared with barley, replacing traditional millet or rice with it. To do this, soak the cereal in advance as you usually do. Add pearl barley at the same time as potatoes.

Preparation

First, cook the broth according to all the rules from a small piece of pork. We immediately warn those who don’t like too much fat – this soup is just that. This can only be avoided if you cook lean cabbage. Its recipe will be given below.

When the broth is cooked, strain it for transparency (we also cook it with an onion for the same purpose). Take out a piece of cooked soft pork and chop it finely and finely. Return the chopped pieces back to the broth.

How to cook lean cabbage with mushrooms

Mushrooms can replace meat if you need to cook lean cabbage.

Take:

Roasting

Just like for borscht, to make it tasty, cabbage also needs to be fried. Place pieces of lard (undercut) into a frying pan and fry over low heat. Add the onion to the pan first, then the carrots. Stirring, fry for about five minutes. Then add sauerkraut, a little broth, cover the frying pan with a lid and simmer for another ten minutes.

Polish-style cabbage made from fresh and sauerkraut

A wonderful recipe from Polish cuisine. A tasty, satisfying and appetizing dish of two types of cabbage will make your lunch special!

You will need:

Fresh cabbage – 350 gr.
Sauerkraut with brine – 250 gr.
Bacon – 200 gr.
Semi-smoked sausage – 350 gr.
Meat broth - 2 liters.
Potatoes – 300 gr.
Onion – 150 gr.
Carrots – 120 gr.
Bay leaf – 2 leaves.
Dill - a couple of sprigs.
Sweet paprika – 2 small spoons.
Black pepper – ½ small spoon.
Salt - a large spoon.

Step by step recipe:

Cut fresh cabbage into squares.

Cut the bacon into strips.

Place the bacon slices in a pan. fry over low heat for about 3 minutes. Be sure to stir the pieces.

Cut the sausage into rings.

Follow with the bacon. Continue to fry together for another 3 minutes without turning up the heat.

Roughly chop the carrots.

Cut the onion into quarters of rings.

Place the carrots and onions in the pan with the sausage and bacon. Fry for another 4 minutes.

Peel the potato tubers, divide into medium-sized cubes, and place in a saucepan.

Immediately add the sauerkraut along with the brine. If the cabbage sticks are too long, chop them.

Pour in the required amount of broth, season the soup with paprika, ground pepper, and salt.

Let the soup boil, cover with a lid. Cook at a gentle simmer for a quarter of an hour.

Turn off the stove, throw in the chopped dill.

Stir and pour cabbage into plates.

Variations

It is believed that there is no need to add tomato to cabbage. But for tomato lovers, there are at least two variations of the basic recipe. First: we take fresh tomatoes (especially good if they are in season when they are inexpensive) and add them to the soup at the final preparation stage, having previously cut them into large pieces. Second: add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste to the fry. But then, of course, add more beets - and you can get real borscht!
If you want Cossack food, then at the middle stage of cooking (along with the potatoes) add three large spoons of millet into the pan.
Those who don’t like sourness can cook cabbage without sauerkraut. But then you need to take twice as much fresh to compensate for the thickness of the soup.
For those who are accustomed to using this kitchen appliance, you can cook cabbage in a slow cooker. It’s not difficult at all; it takes the same amount of preparation as ordinary borscht.
For those who are fasting and on a meat-free diet, you can prepare lean cabbage. Do the same thing, but not with meat broth and without the participation of lard. True, it turns out not so tasty, but it also has a right to its place on the table. Then season the Lenten soup with spices, fresh herbs, sour cream (if allowed) or melted cow butter. This will significantly improve the taste situation. Bon appetit everyone!

Ukrainian cabbage soup with fresh cabbage and millet

Real classic cabbage is always cooked with millet, but from sauerkraut. However, recently the option of fresh vegetables has become popular.

You will need:

Meat broth - 3 liters.
Boiled meat – 400 gr.
Lard – 300 gr.
Head of cabbage, medium.
Millet – 70 gr.
Carrot.
Bulb.
Potatoes – 3 pcs.
Tomato paste – 2 tablespoons.
Flour - 3 large spoons.
Sunflower oil, salt, bay leaf, pepper.

Step by step recipe:

Pour boiling water over millet, hold for 3 minutes.

Cook the broth, remove the meat. I used chicken, but you can cook it with any meat. Throw the millet into the boiling broth.

Finely grate the carrots.

Chop the meat into small pieces.

When the contents of the pan boil, add the carrots and meat to the broth.

Add lard immediately. Chop it into the smallest cubes, but ideally, it is advisable to pass it through a meat grinder.

Cook the cabbage cabbage for 10 minutes, turning the heat to minimum after boiling.

Grate the head of cabbage on a coarse grater, as in the photo.

Add the cabbage to the soup, continue cooking for 20 minutes with a quiet gurgle, covering the pan with a lid.

At the end, add salt and pepper to the soup and add tomato paste. Stir, boil.

Peel the potato tubers. Grate using a fine mesh grater. Add to soup.

At the same time, fry. To do this, fry a diced onion. When it browns, add flour. Mix well and fry for a couple more minutes.

Place the roast in the pan and cook for another 10 minutes. Place a bay leaf in the cabbage plant.

Bring to a high boil, turn off the burner.

Ingredients

Since there are many cabbage recipes, the ingredients may vary. But all of them can be divided into several groups:

Base for broth. The basis can be meat (almost any), lard or greaves, and even fish. Lenten options do not involve the use of such ingredients.
Sauerkraut. It can be used directly with brine (it is added to the broth), but some cabbage is washed so that the dish is not too sour. Fresh cabbage is also used, but the taste in this case will be different and not so rich and bright.
Filling. Most often, potatoes are used to fill the soup, but they are usually supplemented with various cereals: rice, buckwheat, millet, pearl barley, and so on. And some people add mushrooms.
Herbs, spices. All this will give the dish a unique taste. But don’t overdo it with spices, otherwise you will ruin or drown out the taste of sauerkraut.

Cabbage pies

Perhaps most often, culinary experts use this word for pies: small ones fried in oil, huge and fluffy baked pies, open and closed, very different, united by only one thing - the filling. Not every cabbage recipe involves the use of fresh cabbage; often the main ingredient is sauerkraut.

Russian pie

To prepare such a dish you will need a minimum of time and the most affordable products. Grind a small head of cabbage (about half a kilo), preferably using a food processor, so that the pieces are thinner. Add a couple of large eggs, 3-4 tablespoons of sour cream and mayonnaise, pepper and salt directly into the cabbage. We will need about a glass of flour for the pie, but we will add it in portions so that the dough turns out like thick sour cream. At the very end, add a pinch of baking powder or slaked soda - then our cabbage soup will be lush. Bake the pie in a preheated oven until golden brown.

Yaroslavl pancake pie

This simple and tasty dish will decorate even a holiday table. Yaroslavl kapustnik is a pie whose recipe involves the use of pancakes and yeast dough. Both can be prepared independently, or you can simply buy them in a store, significantly reducing the cooking time. We will need exactly half a kilo of dough, and 3 pancakes. For this quantity you will need a small forkful of fresh cabbage (500 g), 2-3 boiled eggs and a little butter. Divide the dough in half and roll it into layers according to the size of the mold (preferably round). Place a layer of finely chopped cabbage mixed with boiled eggs on the dough and cover with a pancake. Alternate cabbage and egg layers with pancakes, covering the last layer with dough. Pinch the edges and place in a preheated oven. You can prepare pancakes and yeast dough for cabbage soup yourself, according to your favorite recipe.

What kind of food is this?

Kapustnyak, kapustnitsa or kapustnik is a traditional soup of the national cuisine of the Slavs. Its main ingredient is cabbage - pickled or fresh. The hot first course has an original taste and special aroma. It is very simple to prepare, and due to the introduction of new products - mushrooms, various vegetables, seasonings, cereals, sour cream, butter, egg yolk - the “geography” of the dish has expanded significantly. Now, for example, you can cook cabbage (the recipe will follow) in Moldavian, cabbage in Bulgarian or spicy cabbage soup in Italian. In general, there are many varieties of this dish. The article will offer several ways to prepare the dish, and which one to choose is up to you.

Zaporozhye cabbage

The Cossacks have their own version of preparing the famous soup.

Ingredients:

Pork with bone – 400 gr.
Lard – 50 gr.
Cabbage (sauerkraut, white cabbage) – 600 gr.
Millet – 2 tablespoons.
Carrot.
Onion – 2 heads.
Parsley root, parsnip - 1 pc.
Celery root is a small tuber.
Butter – 40 gr.
Dill.
Bay leaf, pepper, salt.

How to cook:

Place a piece of pork in a saucepan and add 2 liters of cold water. Cook the meat for about an hour. Then remove the pork, cut it, return it to the broth.
Cut all the roots specified in the recipe into strips. Chop one onion and coarsely grate the carrots.
Fry the vegetables along with the roots in a frying pan.
Squeeze the sauerkraut and cut into short strips. Place in a separate saucepan. Add some broth. Simmer over low heat until soft.
At the same time, pass the second onion and lard through a meat grinder. Mix thoroughly with finely chopped dill. Add the millet and stir thoroughly again.
Place chopped potatoes in the broth and cook for a quarter of an hour.
Add stewed cabbage, millet with lard and vegetables, bay leaf, pepper, roots, salt. Boil for a few more minutes.

Cabbage pancakes

Many people like to cook vegetable cutlets from batter. The recipe for cabbage pancakes is very popular among gourmets. What's surprising? Crispy, crispy crust and tender center - a combination loved by absolutely everyone!

When preparing such cabbage soups, you don’t have to adhere to strict proportions of products. The recipe is based on a dough made from finely grated cabbage, eggs, flour or semolina. If desired, you can add a little carrots, herbs, and onions to the pancakes. Approximate amount of ingredients:

cabbage - 500 g;
egg - 2 pcs.;
flour - 5 tbsp. l.;
slaked soda - a pinch.

Cabbage pancakes are fried in hot oil, like regular pancakes. They can be served both hot and chilled. This recipe for cabbage soup can be varied. For example, pour tomato and sour cream over prepared pancakes and simmer - this will make them even more tender.