It seems odd to be thinking about hot, hearty soups in August, but here in Ottawa the turn of the calendar to the 8th month has brought about a distinct change in the weather. Last week we had daytime highs in the high 30’s, this week it barely tops 20. Overnight you can feel the incoming Autumn, lows near 10 and heavy dew on the grass each morning.
As the weather changes my thoughts turn to heartier Fall dishes with lots of ground and root veggies – cabbages, carrots, potatoes, squash and pumpkin. Here is one of my go-to recipes, almost a signature dish for the soon to be colder weather. This one uses the crockpot so it won’t heat up the kitchen in Summer and is an easy ‘fill and forget’ recipe for the busier school season.
Ingredients:
Vegetables:
• 1/2 head large Cabbage
• 1/3 large Green Pepper
• 1 lb. peeled Carrots
• 1 medium Onion
• 1 – 284 ml. (10 oz.) can of Beef Broth
• 1 – 796 ml. (32 oz.?) can of Whole or Stewed Tomatoes
• 3 Garlic cloves
Meat:
• 1 lb. Ground Beef
Spices:
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons Black Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Paprika
• 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
• 1 Glug Soya Sauce
• 1 Glug Worcestershire Sauce
To me the secret of good crockpot dishes is in the layering of ingredients
in the pot. You can follow along in the order I use or use whatever you
feel works best for you.
Making:
• Haul out the crockpot, your favourite cutting board and a hefty
knife.
• Dice the Green Pepper into about 3/8 to 1/2 inch pieces and drop in
the bottom of the crockpot.
• Dice the Carrots into about the same size and toss them into crockpot
on top of the Green Pepper.
• Next up is Mr. Onion, same size pieces and nestled snug on top of the
carrots.
• Whack the head of Cabbage in half and put the ‘other half’ back in
the crisper for another day.
• Julienne the Cabbage still sitting on your cutting board (yup I write
my recipes in obvious steps ‘cuz one day my teenager might want to
make this recipe ‘Nuff Said…’) and toss it into the crockpot on top
of the other veggies.
• Now for my own twist. Haul out the blender and dump the contents of
the can of Tomatoes into the blender. Add the spices and give it a
good whirr until you have something that looks like REALLY runny
pizza sauce. Gently pour the liquid over the top of the cabbage and
poke it around a bit so that it finds its way down to the bottom of
the pot.
• Add the can of Beef Broth on top (and the obligatory can of water).
• Now dice up the 3 cloves of Garlic and float them on top of the
crockpot.
• NOW and ONLY NOW do you put the lid on the crockpot and turn it onto
HIGH. deep dark Kwee secret shared only with you – and the other 125,000 people who have been here looking for this recipe
• Toss the cutting board and the hefty knife into the sink for Junior
to wash (gently as those knives are expensive and have been known to
jump back out of the sink and spear yer toe).
• Haul out your favourite skillet, a wee dram of good oil and set it up
on medium heat (at this point a wee dram of Point Pelee Pinot Noir is
nice too).
• When the skillet is up to heat crumble the ground beef (we call it
hamburger around our place…) and brown it thoroughly.
• Drain off the excess oil (I am lying here, but mostly for health
reasons, since most folks are a good 10 to 15 pounds overweight while
I can use all the extra fat in my diet I can get).
• Open the lid of the crockpot and layer the cooked Ground Beef on top
of the other ingredients. Put the lid back on.
Cooking and Serving:
Cook on HIGH for about 2 – 2 1/2 hours depending on whether you have a BIG or a HUGE crockpot (Mama gave away my HUGE one so I am using the BIG one
now), then turn down to LOW for about 3 – 4 hours until dinnertime. In my
experience after 5 or 6 hours in crockpot most everything is just about
crematorium hot so you might want to serve in bowls and let sit for a few
minutes before dinner, especially if you have small children or infirm
adults who like to snorfle their dinner (my teenager qualifies as well…).
This recipe should yield about 8 darned good sized bowls and can be doubled or even tripled (I once made a multiple batch in a 5 gallons stock pot and
it actually was even better than the crockpot version, but I digress…).
Options:
Gosh I miss James Barber…
The guy could make a feast fit for a king just out of whatever was in the
cupboard.
For our non-Canadian friends James Barber was this most wonderful little gnome who went by the moniker of ‘The Urban Peasant’. His books are simply a joy, with lots of options and squiggly drawings in the margins. James
Barber passed away in 2007 at his home in Chemainus BC (gosh he would be 100 years old now!).
The spices are all optional of course and open to your own variations (Curry powder might be nice… hmmm…) and health concerns (Salt especially).
My wife has a bit of a stomach issue with Tomatoes which is why I put in
the Cinnamon, but it does add a wonderful unique flavour to the soup. Also
if you want to spice it up a bit try extra Glugs of the Soya Sauce and
Worcestershire Sauce or even an epileptic jiggle or two of Frank’s Red Hot
Sauce.
I tend to serve my soup with hot biscuits, but crusty bread or black bread
or even a nottoofussy salad works. I also have been known to drop a slice
of cheddar cheese in the bottom of the bowl before ladling in the soup
(marvelously gooey, cheesy treasure at the bottom of the bowl). On top, of
course, can be a dollop (or 3 if you are my teenager) of Sour Cream or unflavoured Yogurt or even some French Onion Chip Dip (the premade stuff in the little tubs).
Go wild! It’s the middle of the winter and darnit we all deserve a lil warm
comfort food…
Now where is that bottle of Pinot…