Asian-Inspired Cabbage Soup

Try out this nourishing and healthy Asian-inspired cabbage soup chockful of fresh vegetables with strong flavor cues from pho.

Cabbage soup gained popularity through the ‘cabbage soup diet’, a radical short-term weight loss diet through the consumption of low-calorie cabbage soup for a seven-day period.

While the diet was written off as a fad diet, cabbage soup as a natural diuretic is beneficial to the health outside the confines of a diet and should not be dismissed by mere association. So today, let’s make some Asian-inspired cabbage soup.

It’s a flavorful and healthy an easy savory vegetable soup to put together with cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, celery and fresh basil. Pair that with a lightly savory and sour broth flavored with onions and garlic, cinnamon, star anise, cloves, soy sauce and fried shallots.

The cabbage soup is slightly improvised to add a flair of Asian flavors to the broth, inspired by both Vietnamese pho and Malaysian soto. It tasted great! The spices really work to bring a little something special to what is essentially a boring vegetable soup.

I’m pretty happy with this creation so if you ever find yourself in need of using up a whole head of cabbage or just want something different, try this healthy soup and see if it works for you.

Happy cooking and enjoy the soup! For another healthy soup, try out one-pot chicken noodle soup.

Asian-Inspired Cabbage Soup

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• Author: The Cooking Jar
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 6 1x

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Description

Try out this nourishing and healthy Asian-inspired cabbage soup chockful of fresh vegetables with strong flavor cues from pho.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, sliced
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 can (14 oz.) diced tomatoes / 5 Roma tomatoes, diced
• A handful of sweet/Thai basil leaves
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons vinegar / 1 lime, cut into wedges
• 2 tablespoons fried shallots
• Salt and pepper to taste

Spices:

• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 star anise
• 3 cloves

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Instructions

1. Over medium-high heat, pour the broth into a dutch oven or stockpot.
2. Add cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves.
3. Add in onions, garlic, cabbage, celery, carrots and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Don’t worry if there looks like there’s too much cabbage, it will boil down.
4. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until the cabbage is tender.
5. Add vinegar in increments of 1 teaspoon, adjusting to your preference or skip this step if you prefer to use lime juice.
6. Season with soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste.
7. Add basil leaves and simmer for 1 minute.
8. Dish and serve hot with lime wedges and fried shallots.

• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins