Two Soups for St Patty's Day

Suitably green: Broccoli Cheddar Soup

If you’ll be celebrating St Patrick’s Day, or St Patrick’s Weekend as I heard it referred to on TV this week, here are two soups for the occasion. Neither soup is what you would normally think of as Irish cuisine. In fact, my linking them to this Irish holiday could be seen as a little tenuous. For the record then, here’s my logic: the cabbage and sausage soup honours the Irish association with cabbage and potatoes, and the broccoli cheddar soup, well, it’s green. At any rate, both would go down well with a large glass of Guinness, so give one or both a try.

Cabbage and Sausage Soup

The cabbage and sausage soup is my own creation. It’s easy to prepare and will fill your whole house with a heady cabbage aroma while it cooks. I’ve used sweet Italian turkey sausage in mine, but do try whatever kind of sausage you like (and let me know how it worked). If you look closely at the prep photo, you might notice the icy sausage had been taken out of the freezer minutes before and went into the soup frozen. It cooks up very nicely by the time the soup is ready to serve, which is good news if you decide to make this soup on the spur of the moment.

The broccoli cheddar soup is a minimally altered recipe from Ken’s Soup Krazy cookbook. Ken is Ken Kostick - Winnipeg-born, north ender, cook, cookbook author and TV personality who died almost two years ago at age 58. I bought my copy of the book directly from him in Winnipeg Beach where he was promoting it at a cooking demonstration. Ken was a regular visitor to Manitoba’s Interlake, often seen with his dog family. Many of you may remember his long running cooking show “What’s For Dinner?” that he co-hosted with Mary Jo Eustace. It was always fun to watch. This book is still widely available and has many tasty recipes. It's a good one to have in your collection. This particular broccoli cheddar isn’t one of those heavy cream soups that your spoon will stand up in. It’s a thinner, lighter version rich in flavor and colour.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all my Irish friends and to the rest of us who wish we were!

Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Original idea from Ken’s Soup Krazy by Ken Kostick)

Ingredients for Broccoli Cheddar Soup

6 cups vegetable stock

4 cups broccoli florets

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

½ tsp basil

½ tsp oregano

½ tsp thyme

½ tsp pepper

1 cup skim milk

½ cup half-and-half cream

¾ cup cheddar cheese, shredded

In a large soup pot, bring stock to boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.

Add the vegetables and spices.

Blending the soup

Simmer 15 minutes or until the broccoli is cooked and softened.

In a blender or with an immersion blender, puree until smooth and then return to soup pot.

Stir in the milk, cream and cheese.

Simmer gently until the cheese melts. Be sure to stir with lots of love so that the soup doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.

Makes 6 servings.

Printable Recipe for MA's Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Cabbage and Sausage Soup

Thawed enough to cut

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp minced garlic

2 cups onions, diced

2 cups celery, diced

10 cups vegetable broth

2 cups potatoes, diced

2 cups carrots, diced

1 tsp caraway seeds

Simmering the soup

500 gram package (that's 5 or 6) Italian Turkey Sausages, cut into 1 ½ “ pieces

In a large soup pot over medium heat, place oil, garlic, onions and celery. Cook for 10 minutes.

Add broth, potatoes, carrots and caraway seeds. Cook for 30 minutes.

Add sausages and cabbage. Cook over medium to low heat for 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Printable Recipe for MA's Cabbage and Sausage Soup

So good ... I made dinner rolls to enjoy with the soup

Pasta with an Oniony Sauce from the Slow Cooker

Pasta with Caramelized Onion, Feta and Italian Sausage

I think I buy more onions than I do any other single vegetable. Every time I make dinner it seems I am chopping onions for something. I am sure I am part of the reason that onions are the second most important horticultural crop after tomatoes. But I don't worry about how much onion I consume. It's said to be effective against many bacteria and even the World Health Organization supports the use of onions for the treatment of poor appetite and to prevent atherosclerosis.

Last spring I cut a recipe out of the newspaper for a slow cooker caramelized onion pasta. It was stuck to the fridge, forgotten until a few days ago when I was looking for something to do with the two bags of yellow onions I bought on sale. I won't share that recipe with you because I didn't have a spare container of creme fraiche or arugula in the kitchen to make it with. But I liked the idea of the recipe, so I tried making it with what I had on hand: spaghetti, some sweet Italian turkey sausages, goat's milk feta, and a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil. I think you could safely substitute any pasta or sausage and try another type of meltable salty cheese and get a good result. You can drain some of the olive oil from the tomatoes if you like. I didn't drain all of it when I added my tomatoes and I rather liked the creaminess of the dish.

This turned out to be very tasty. In fact, my husband said it was one of the best things I've ever made and was still raving about it the day after I made it. He's such a fan. I love him.

Here's my recipe.

Use processor to make quick work of onions

MA's Pasta with Caramelized Onion, Feta and Italian Sausage

3 lbs yellow onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb (or 6) Italian sausages, cut into 1” chunks
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
500 grams pasta
1 ½ cups feta cheese, drained, divided into 1 cup and ½ cup
fresh ground pepper

In a large slow cooker, place onions, olive oil, sausages and tomatoes. Cook on high for 5 ½ hours.

When onion mixture is cooked, prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain well.

Add pasta to onion mixture. Mix in 1 cup of the feta and season with pepper. 

Crumble remaining feta on top of each serving. 

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Printable Recipe for MA's Pasta with Caramelized Onions, Feta and Sausage