Fasten your seatbelts: It’s time for cabbage soup!

In almost all religions around the world, believers fast on various occasions, usually in preparation for a major festival. Often there is also a social component to it, breaking the fast is often celebrated with family or friends, eating and celebrating together. For believers, fasting is therefore an integral part of their lives. Of course, people also fast for other reasons, be it for health reasons or to improve their own well-being. Especially after a sumptuous holiday meal, I'm often happy just to eat soup for lunch because I'm still full from the previous day anyway.

Many people use the period of Lent to practise abstinence for a variety of reasons and in some cases to eat more consciously and healthily. Some give up alcohol, others give up sweets and others leave the car in the garage. Fasting is often a challenge, especially if you want to give up everyday habits that have subconsciously become ‘unavoidable’.

As well as alcohol and sweets, I personally try to avoid fast food - burgers with fries, pizza, kebabs and so on. I often find this difficult, especially when I'm travelling and only have half an hour to eat my lunch and because pizza and co. simply taste good. Nevertheless, sometimes it's good to take a break, especially because things taste even better when you haven't eaten them for a while. During this time, I also come to realise how good dishes made from vegetables and the like taste, it's a good opportunity to try something new.

Mankind has been eating soups in their various forms since the Stone Age, and over the millennia the recipes have been refined to what we know today as a typical soup and still enjoy eating. The great thing about soups is their versatility - you can turn pretty much anything into a soup, whether you make it from meat, fish or vegetables or refine it with pasta and various spices and enjoy it hot or cold – there’s a soup to suit every taste. To make the transition to fasting, it is very practical that many soups are easy to digest, and every corner of the world has its own recipe for a very special soup.

Cabbage soup was already served in ancient times, even the Greek father of the gods Zeus is said to have been served a plate of Philemon and Baucis according to mythology. The polymath Aristotle is also said to have enjoyed cabbage soup, as he praises it in one of his writings. Today, almost every European country has its own recipe for cabbage soup, all of which have one essential ingredient in common: Cabbage.

Cabbage is particularly rich in vitamins, vitamins A, B, C, E and K can be found in vegetables alongside calcium, iron and magnesium. It is also anti-inflammatory and boasts important fibre, which is beneficial for healthy digestion. You could almost call it a kind of home-grown superfood, which we turn into a soup in the following recipe.

We need the following ingredients for the cabbage soup, most of which you can find at a weekly market, such as the Radstadt weekly market, which takes place every Friday morning on the town square in Radstadt.

To prepare, cut the potatoes and carrot into cubes and finely chop the onion, garlic clove and white cabbage.
Heat the oil in a large pan, as soon as it is hot you can add the chopped onions and fry until translucent. Once this is done, you can add the sugar and flour and fry lightly until the flour is golden yellow. This roux is the basis for our soup and binds it. Next, add the finely chopped white cabbage and garlic and stir everything well before adding the spices. There are no limits to your taste here, salt, caraway, nutmeg and pepper are among my favourites, you can add a few chilli flakes if you like it a little hotter. After adding the spices, pour in 0.25 litres of water and let the stock simmer until the cabbage is semi-soft.

Lastly, add the diced carrot and potatoes before pouring in the remaining 0.5 litres of water to make the stock into a soup. Leave the soup to simmer until the vegetables are soft. Serve the soup with some bread or toasted bread cubes. If you are so industrious and want to make your own bread, you can find a great recipe from Eva-Maria Nagl here on the Bloghütte.

Finally, I wish you every success in preparing your cabbage soup!

photo credits: Radstadt Tourismus - Marlene Habersatter