Shopping Around the World

Welcome my friends for another great edition of Shopping Around the World.

This month we have a suggestion from my cousin Sammy on highlighting soups for January.  Now is the time to start making some wonderful hot soups for dinners that make us feel all cozy and warm.  Is there a special soup that you fix?  A soup that your finally raves about and requests?  It does not have to be five items or less this month.  Share your recipe and picture of your soup!

Mom’s soup of choice is her Spicy Cabbage Soup.  Doesn’t that sound good just reading it?  You can make it as spicy or not as you like.  And what’s better than that?  It’s simple!

2 cans of mixed vegetables, $2.38

1 can of roasted tomatoes, $1.12

1 package of sirloin, about a pound.  On this date it was cheaper to buy it as a small piece of sirloin instead of it already being cubed.  It was $6.50 for the pound – which was plenty because dad likes a lot of meat in his soups/stews.

1 head of cabbage, $0.99 for the head.

2 boxes of beef broth, $4.98

Seasoning in the form of pepper, flour, salt and pepper flakes.

Directions:  Plug in your crock pot and put on low in the early morning before leaving for work.  Pour in the two boxes of beef broth.  We get the low sodium kind.  Chop up the entire head of cabbage and put in the crock pot. Stir the cabbage in to make sure the broth is covering it.  In the meantime, cut up your sirloin into small cubes.  You can buy the sirloin that is already cut up – whatever you prefer.  This date it was cheaper to buy it whole.  Salt, pepper and toss the beef in a light powdering of flour.  Put a little bit of olive oil in a pan over the oven and lightly color the beef to brown it.  This step of coating the sirloin in flour and coloring it helps to ‘thicken’ your soup a bit and is optional.  When this is done, put the beef in the crock pot.  Remember to scrape the bottom of your pan with all of the bits and pieces of yummy.

Then add in your canned vegetables, roasted tomatoes, black pepper to taste and pepper flakes to taste.  Remember, pepper flakes are spicy.  Less is best if you are not sure what kind of spice you want.  You can always add more in when you serve the individual bowls.  Mom likes to serve it with cornbread or a crusty type bread for dipping.  Goes great on cold rainy days or cold winter nights.