The Cabbage Soup Experiment

I was experimenting with the cabbage soup, and would probably not make it exactly the same way. But here's the basic outline.

INGREDIENTS:

-a head of cabbage
-an onion
-some celery
-some other green stuff if you desire, in my case I had a handful of leftover Brussels Sprouts, so I chopped 'em and threw 'em in.
-Tomato base of some kind. I would have preferred a can of tomato sauce, but all I had in the house was two Soup In Hand's of Campbell's Creamy Tomato. I have also heard that one can use tomato JUICE.
-A couple beef-flavor pareve Telma soup cubes. You could also use actual beef stock or something crazy like that, in which case you definately need to use something other than Campbell's Creamy Tomato, which is dairy.
-a lot of garlic and paprika, some pepper
-white sugar to taste
-garlic rice vinegar to taste

This sounds a bit complicated, but isn't.

1. Chop all the vegetables reasonably fine until you've basically got a soup pot half full of salad.

2. Add the tomato stuff, the beef cubes, and enough water to just barely cover. Add garlic, paprika and pepper. Cover.

3. Put on very low heat, and start to simmer. Continue to simmer. Go on simmering. After about an hour of simmering, begin to add vinegar and sugar, until the flavor seems right in intensity and balance. Add some more garlic and paprika. Let the whole thing go for another half-hour or so.

4. Eat.

This is really mark one, but it came out pretty good. I think next time I want tomato sauce or juice, not the creamy stuff. It might be possible to speed up the process by bringing it to a boil before the simmering--I may try that. Also, wouldn't mind trying it with a bit of real stock and some stew beef.