Curried Savoy Cabbage Soup With Mushrooms

tigerduck's Note:

My parents grow a lot of vegetables. Although I live quite far away from them and neither of us has a car, I sometimes see my sister. Last time I saw her she gave me a savoy cabbage from my parents. Not being a big fan of cabbages, I was quite happy to find this Curried Cabbage Soup in the new edition of the Swiss cooking magazine called 'KOCHEN' (November 2005). I love spices and I enjoy nearly every dish with curry powder or paste in it. I used a recently bought Sri Lankan curry powder, which - as I found out - happens to be very very hot. The second time I prepared this soup I used half a tablespoon of the Sri Lankan and half a tablespoon of a mild curry powder. This soup makes a lovely starter or a nice meal.

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 11 ounces savoy cabbage (300g)
• 1 medium onion
• 8 sprigs thyme
• 1 medium potato
• 1 ounce butter (30g)
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 3 1/4 cups vegetable stock or 3 1/4 cups chicken stock
• 7 ounces mushrooms
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• salt
• pepper (freshly ground)
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream

Directions:

1. Cut the savoy cabbage into wedges, core and shred it. Chop the onion. Remove leaves from the thyme sprigs. Peel and cube potato.
2. Heat half of the butter in a high pan until butter melts. Lower heat and add the shredded savoy cabbage and onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add curry powder and mix. Add chopped potato, thyme leaves and stock. Increase heat, add a lid and cook on low/medium heat for 25-30 minutes.
4. Slice the mushrooms and chop the parsley.
5. Blend the soup with a hand blender. Add the cream. Check if more water or curry is needed. Season with salt and pepper if necessary. Warm the soup, but don't heat it too much, as the cream may curl (depending on the fat content of the cream and on the temperature you heat it).
6. Heat the remaining butter in a skillet and fry the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Add parsley when mushrooms are cooked.
7. SERVE:.
8. Pour soup into bowls and top with mushrooms.

Reviews

[Chef #1037817]

Never thought this would be as good as it was. The reviews were all good but had my doubts. Doubt no more. This was excellent. And very easy. Highly recommend.

[Diceydi]

"Seriously good soup" is what hubby had to say when I made this for lunch today. I used the left-over broth from a beef pot roast from the night before as a stock. My variations were to add a stalk of celery chopped which along with the cabbage and onion, I cooked al dente in the microwave oven before adding to the broth. I increased the potatoes to 2 large and added a potato sized piece of sweet potato (yam). Instead of curry powder, I used a small jar of ready-made tikka marsala sauce. Instead of the 1/2 and 1/2 cream, I used low fat evaporated milk (Carnation) and chopped coriander in place of the parsley. Excellent. Next time I want to try it with low fat coconut milk as I think it would work well with this recipe.

[kelly in TO]

Loved the mushrooms. Excellent soup!