Cabbage soup for lunch

After I started this one, I thought I'd check google. Hmm. Cabbage soup doesn't seem to be a hot topic. Here's what I had. A very tired, half a head of cabbage. I trimmed off all the brown and limp, and chopped it up with a medium onion, and put it on the stove with home homemade chicken broth. I usually keep a lot of broth on hand, but the other day decided it looked a little pricey, so I just cooked some chicken and froze some of the broth. That's what I'm using. The recipes I looked through all used beef broth, some included potatoes and carrots. I have that. And I also have some green peppers and some tomato juice that needs to be used up. I looked through Granddaughter's Inglenook Cookbook, but that wasn't old timey enough.

I'm sure my mid-19th century Great grandmother Nancy (near Dayton) and Great-great grandmother Mary Ann Elizabeth (Dandridge, TN) must have kept this kind of food around the house--not having refrigeration and huge families. By the end of February, carrots, potatoes, turnips, onions, and cabbage must have become pretty boring and probably looked as limp and tired as what I had in the frig this morning.

I looked in More-with-less cookbook and found something called "Good Friday Vegetable Soup," which uses chicken broth, carrots, onions and cabbage, as well as green beans. I don't want to add any beans. I'd throw in some corn, but my husband hates corn. One of the recipes I googled was sort of a sweet-sour flavor using a touch of brown sugar and lemon juice, so I tossed in a little of that.

I'll let you know. . . but it sure smells good.

Update: It was fabulous with some crackers and cheddar cheese. That sweet-sour touch did it. Also I sprinkled in some bacon bits.