Recipe: Quick Provincial Soup

Whew, been awhile between posts.  Sorry gang, had a trade show and a lot to do.  So now let me emerge from the Steve Cave with this lovely recipe.

Quick Provincial Soup

4 servings

This is a variant of a Mediterranean vegetarian recipe from a cookbook.  Unlike a lot of my recipes it does involve adding salt, so use low-sodium diced tomatoes.  The original recipe ALSO used pre-herbed tomatoes which I despise because of the lack of control.

  • 1 1/2 cup water
  • 2 14 oz cans diced, sodium free tomatoes drained (or about 3 cups diced tomatoes).
  • 2 tbsp mixed italian herbs
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • Half a large cabbage head, shredded.
  • 14 oz white beans, low-sodium, drained and rinsed
  • 4 tsp olive oil.

 

  1. Place water, tomatoes, herbs, salt, pepper in a pot, bring to boil, and lower to simmer.
  2. Add cabbage to mixture.  Simmer, covered, stirring every few minutes until cabbage is wilted – that’s about 15 minutes.
  3. Stir in beans and heat through.
  4. Spoon into bowls.  In each, mix 1 tsp olive oil.

The result . . .

Pretty good right out of the gate.  It’s tasty, simple, and the olive oil and cabbage make an interesting combination that vaguely reminds me of butter on artichokes.  This is not a cold-weather soup, but more of a fall/spring one.

I’m thinking a dash of lemon juice may liven it up.  I am curious if I can cut the salt down (or if the pepper is a bit much).  I’d also like to experiment with using Herbs De Province.

Going to consider this a win – and a lesson in good simple cooking.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.