Portuguese Soup

In an attempt to make lamb stuffed cabbage for a pre-Thanksgiving gathering, we ended up with a kitchen full of cabbage. The impetus for this cooking was a gift of ground lamb from our son’s Longmeadow Farm sheep.

The problem was that the recipe for the Lamb Stuffed Cabbage didn’t explain in sufficient detail how to get the cabbage leaves to cooperate. The directions were to blanch the leaves and then run them under cold water. However, after cutting off the first two leaves for blanching, the rest ganged up on us and came off in pieces and hunks.

Fortunately, the market was still open and we had the resources of our computer. While my spouse went off to secure two more cabbages, I searched the internet and eventually turned up a useful bit of instruction: submerge an entire head in boiling water for 15 minutes, then douse with cold water. It worked. So we had two heads-worth of leaves… and a head in chunks.

The result was a pot full of stuffed cabbage… and a pot of Portuguese Soup, which requires a head of chopped up cabbage. This is one of our hearty winter traditions, so it was nice to have the soup for another Thanksgiving week meal while the family was here.

The recipe for Portuguese Soup was given to us by friends years ago on Cape Cod, an area with a large Portuguese population in previous eras.  It was summer when we visited the Cape, but we make the soup in the winter as a hot and hearty meal.

All the work is in the cutting up, because once that is done, everything goes in the pot at once and just cooks until the carrots and potatoes are done.

Ingredients

15 ounce can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

28 ounce can diced tomatoes

1 medium head white cabbage, sliced

2 green peppers, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

4 cups beef broth (we have also substituted our home made chicken stock)

1 bay leaf

¼ cup wine vinegar

2 pounds sliced linguica (we have had to improvise with other sausages or kielbasa when linguica wasn’t available)

Good shot of red pepper sauce

4 cups water

Directions

Put all ingredients in soup pot.

Cook for approximately 40 minutes or until all vegetables are done.