Cabbage and Kielbasa Soup

Cabbage and Kielbasa Sausage Soup
Mom's Tray

This is something I sort of made up but it is based on the principles my husband taught me so he gets at least half the credit.  Especially for the saute instructions.

But essentially this was my answer to my sister's question: Would cabbage and Kielbasa make a meal somehow and what else would you put with it?  

It is time to grocery shop again so we were needing to make something out of odds and ends.  This is what we came up with when we put our heads together.  But she wasn't here for the payoff as she had made plans with a friend for the afternoon and evening.

The Saute Soiree

 Two medium sized onions chopped (approx 1.5 cups)
Several large cloves of garlic, minced.  (aprox 1/3 cup, or to taste)
1lb of Kielbasa sausage diced. (shown as coin slices here but cut them in quarters before putting in skillet)
approx 1 cup of mushrooms

Heat a skillet on medium with about 1/8 inch or olive oil covering bottom.  when hot enough to sizzle water drops add onion.  Season with fresh ground black pepper and red pepper flakes to taste.

Stir frequently until onions start to brown.  Add garlic and turn heat down a notch stirring constantly now as it is very important not to overheat the garlic as it will turn bitter.

As soon as the garlic turns transparent add the mushrooms and continue to stir.

Soon after I had added the mushrooms the oil I'd started with was no longer coating the bottom as it was now coating the onion and mushrooms so to prevent scorching I added a couple tablespoons of the broth from the cans I had just opened.  I had to do this again after half of the Kielbasa had been added.

As soon as the Kielbasa was browned, I poured the mixture into the soup pot that already contained the remaining ingredients as described below.  The Kielbasa was already cooked out of the package so the purpose of browning it was to mix the flavors with the others in the saute soiree.

Cabbage Cranium

Chop a moderate sized head of cabbage.  Or as in this case, this half of a very large head that was given us by our neighbor.  It was the size of a 12 year old's bike helmet.  That's a 2 cup Pyrex sitting beside it.

 I believe this is a 5 quart pot.  I'm sure a gallon milk jug would fit inside with a bit of room around the edges.  The chopped cabbage by itself took a third of the room.

To this I added:
4 cans of broth--3 chicken and 1 vegetable.
1 can of diced tomato
1 can of tomato sauce

I'm sorry but I've forgotten the ounces on each of them and am too tired to go look.  But the cans were all approximately the size of a regular coffee mug.

 Meanwhile, because this was not going to simmer for hours, I pre-cooked the baby carrots in the microwave and the chopped them up with scissors.

Once I'd added the contents of the skillet and the carrots to the soup pot the broth was nearly two inches below the top of the solid stuff.  It needs to cover so I added two cups of water.  The put the lid on and brought to a boil while on medium and then turned down to low for 30 minutes.

I served Mom's with cornbread left over from the other night.  I preferred to have two servings of the soup instead.

I put a dollop of sour cream on both of ours though.