Red Cabbage Soup (Červená Kapustová Polievka)
Here is a recipe for a simple delicious and healthy soup made from cabbage (kapusta) and tomato paste (paradajkový pretlak). My mom used to make this soup when I was a kid and I really loved it. And I completely forgot about it. I was heading somewhere with my mom last week – probably the grocery store – when she mentioned this soup. At first, I had no idea what she was talking about. But the taste quickly came back. It’s funny how stuff like that comes back to you. She no longer remembered the recipe but it wasn’t too difficult to find it in a cookbook. So here you go, here is a recipe for red cabbage soup (or cabbage soup with tomato paste, kapustová polievka s paradajkovým pretlakom).
Ingredients: half a fresh green cabbage (~1.7 lb), oil, 1tsp caraway, 1tsp nutmeg, 2/3 cups flour, 10 cups water, 6oz can of tomato paste, 5 tbsp salt, 3 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp vinegar
Prep Time: about one hour
Here are the ingredients you’ll need: cabbage (I used half of it),tomato paste (not sauce, sauce has spices and such), vinegar, sugar, caraway, nutmeg, and butter or oil.
Remove the inner hard core from the cabbage, and also remove the outer green leaves. You can save them for later to make the popular stuffed cabbage (holubky). Cut the cabbage into thin “noodles”. At least that’s how I started. Soon I lost patience and I cut the rest into all sorts of random shapes.
Place the cabbage strips into a pot along with oil (I used half a cup). Fry the cabbage for 5 minutes while continuously stirring. Then add caraway (rasca) and nutmeg (muškátový oriešok). They both should be ground, but I didn’t have ground caraway, so I used it whole. Top this with flour and pour in a cup of water.
Stir and cover with the lid. Steam covered on low heat for about 30 minutes until the cabbage is almost fully cooked (soft). But keep an eye on it and stir every few minutes to make sure it doesn’t burn. Also add more water as needed.
Pour in the rest of the water and also a small 6oz can of tomato paste. Then finish seasoning with salt, sugar, and vinegar. I used 5 tablespoons of salt, 3 of sugar, and another 3 of vinegar. Feel free to adjust these to your taste.
And that’s it. By the way, I don’t think there is any food in the world more delicious than soup (any kind) with a slice of toasted home-baked bread with garlic scraped on top. Yum!
Of course, there is another kind of cabbage soup which is even more famous: the famous Christmas sauerkraut kapustnica.
Oh, like Kapusniak ze swiezej kapusty but not meat & simpler. Sounds delicious! Will make this maybe next week. Looove soup.
Or Kapusta pazebroda in soup form, maybe. Wow, I am really thinking to make this tomorrow instead! Yumm…
Five (5) TABLESPOONS of salt? Surely that is a mistake.
Hi Sher, do you think that’s a lot? I don’t think so. This recipe makes a big pot. The amount of water is about 2.5L. I’ll be eating this soup for at least another week, and I already gave out a big container to my mom. But as always, season to taste. I started by adding three spoons, but it wasn’t salty enough so I added more until it tasted right to me.
For me, 5 tablespoons of salt would be far too much. I used 3, thinking that I could add more later if need be, but it definitely didn;t need any more. Also, if I make it again I’ll take the trouble to grind the caraway seed. It all just sank to the bottom!
It sounds like a lot, but it isn’t! I started out with way less, but ended up adding much more. This soup is yummy, but it definitely needs the salt.
indeed! I use exclusively a sea salt. Did me good all the time, of course using any other salt, measurements (aka how many tea spoons) may not be different, after a while you use ‘a pinch of that’ measurement
ouch, that “how many tea spoons may not be different” ment to be “it makes a difference with different salt’
Sea salt? Comparing the label of sea salt with regular salt from a salt mine, I found very little difference. I don’t know what all the dialogue about salt is, bur NaCL is NaCl, but there could be an infinitesimal amour of manganese or magnesium in sea salt that would not be in regulars salt. But there probably would not be enough to make a taste or amount difference. Again and on another tack, kosher salt is simply NaCl like other salt. Are we hyperventilating over NaCl? Neci paci!
Mike, a big factor in play is the density of a type of saly. For instance, a teaspoon of kosher salt is much less dense than a teaspoon of sea salt; therefore, a teaspoon of added sea salt will result in more salt and salt flavour compared to kosher salt.
thanks a bunch Ron, you are right and that’s what I was trying to say in my corrected post, aka “it akes a difference with different salt” … cheers
I thought 5 tablespoons was a lot…. the broth tastes like pure salt… if I make it again, I think I would use 1 tablespoon and then salt to taste while I eat it.
you should make the holubky comment a link to the recipe. also, there is a technique for slicing cabbage where if you cut it the right direction it always ends up as the strips and is pretty easy – at least until the wedge gets really small. you can also use a grater and that works ok.
I came across your site from the foodieblogroll and I’d love to guide Foodista readers to your site. I hope you could add this cabbage widget at the end of this post so we could add you in our list of food bloggers who blogged about cabbage recipes,Thanks!
I cook chopped cabbage in small amount of water, add salt, caraway seeds, pepper corns. When cabbage is done in small pan have about 2 Tbs oil, small chopped onion, saute, add 1 Tbs flour, cook for few min.stir,pour small cane tomato sauce into flour mix and add all in cabbage,should be on thick side, add sugar to your taste, simmer for 5 more min. vinegar is optional.
This cabbage I made as side dish (prívarok) if we have a beef soup, cabbage was served with meat from a soup.
Or make cabbage and serve with a little sour cream a bread.
Dobru chut
This recipe is so similar to a side dish they used to make for Slovak Weddings and Church Socials when I was a child. It was called Wedding Cabbage. The ingredients are as follows:
4lbs head of cabbage, chopped fine; 1 large onion, chopped fine; 5 TBSP butter(or oil). Fry onion in butter until soft. Add: 1 small can tomato paste; 3 cups tomato juice; 3 TBSP sugar; 1 tsp. salt. Cook until well done, about an hour.
Absolutely delicious! I didn’t change a thing.
This soup is wonderful. The only change I made was to use olive oil to cook the cabbage
Oh my, I made this and it’s absolutely wonderful! I haven’t had it for many years, since my Grandmother passed away. Thanks for this recipe. I will keep it and make it often.
Hi Lubos. . .
I emailed you awhile back about pugach.
Came back to the site for stuffed peppers and noticed this recipe.
My friend’s mother used to cook this and we called it as “poor people soup” because of how cheap and simple it is to make.
She’s from Jennings, Kansas. She was born in 1922 and she makes this with two hamhocks simmered in water for two hours. The rest is exactly the same EXCEPT taste when finished and it might not need any additional salt. Skim the fat and eat the ham separately or in the soup minced. I love my mother.
Mmmmmmmmmmm taste strange, but very good!!
This is unlike anything I’ve tried before. I love it! The contrast of the vinegar and nutmeg is really interesting and simple wonderful. Glad I tried it! And, as suggested, I think I’ll try making cabbage rolls with the leftover leaves… It will be a late (but fun!) night. 🙂 Thanks for the awesome recipes!!!
Glad you enjoyed it! It is one of my favorite soups, and yes, it has quite a unique taste. Not sure if you have tried the lettuce soup yet, that’s another one you may enjoy.
We made this very similar to how we make the green bean soup. With a roux made from bacon drippings and the crisp bacon added also. And then as with the other soup we add vinegar at the table. I think you’ll find if you do it this way you won’t need all the salt. The bacon adds saltiness and lots of flavor that compliments the cabbage nicely.
jedna z najlepsich…..the one of the best!…:-)
my Mom would fry bacon, add flour to make a rue and add it…..the best
Loved this soup, my Nana made this and beet soup all the time she was from Lithuania as a young, She came to NYC, No recipes , she did not put nutmeg in it or caraway seed in it ,lots of vinegar, Looking for recipes . Thank you will try to make this let you know how it goes.
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This soup is delicious; thank you for the recipe and the memories that bubbled up as I read your introduction, and then as I enjoyed the soup. Some 75 years ago, my Baba made another, but similar, soup for fast days, especially from late autumn to early spring. It was meatless, of course, and in English we called it Cabbage and Red Kidney Bean Soup.
Both my grandmother and mother died young, 56 years, and I have spent much of my retirement trying to find those wonderful foods that they knew by heart but never wrote down. Thank you for bringing sweet memories alive through your recipes.