I made a huge batch of Suze Muse’s cabbage rolls the other day. Susan’s recipe yielded so much filling, feel like I could have made five to eight more rolls if I had only bought two, not one, head of cabbage. Oh, well. I stuffed the leftovers in the fridge making a mental note to find something clever to do with them.

The next day I was playing around on my Pinterest cabbage board when I found what I was looking for in the form of soup. I don’t get to make or eat soup at home much anymore since someone doesn’t like hot liquids, and since I do all of the cooking, that means I predominately make stuff we can both enjoy. Not soup. Soup is made, maybe, twice a year around here? It’s tragic. Really, it is. I miss my soups.

Since I had all of the meat mixture and the cut up cabbage on hand, all I needed was a damn good broth. But… I didn’t really like any the broth ideas I found so I realized I’d have to make my own. It’s not hard to make a great soup broth as long as you have an idea of what final taste you’re after. In my case, I was after a somewhat spicy, slightly tomato-y base but without actual tomato chunks, and I wanted it to be clear, not creamy. So this is what I came up with:

3-4 C water (bring to a boil)
1 chicken bouillon cube (add to water from the start)
1 carrot, peeled, cut into quarters lengthwise, and then diced up
1 celery, peeled, cut into quarters lengthwise, and then diced up
1 1/2 C cabbage, chopped into small ribbon chunks
1 1/2 C leftover cabbage roll filling (meat and rice, with their seasonings)
5 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tsp dried oregano
S&P, to taste

Bring the water and bouillon cube to a boil, then add your chopped up carrot and celery.

Cook this over medium-high heat for five minutes before adding the leftover cabbage roll filling, chopped cabbage leaves along with the Worcestershire sauce and tomato paste.

Stew all of this in the pot for another ten minutes before adding your seasonings to finish it all off with another three to five minutes of cook time.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream on the side if desired.

Feel free to change this up to your liking as you make this recipe over the years. If I had thought about this properly, I may have added a Bay leaf or two to the pot at the top also.

Yields about 4 servings.