I got the penultimate share from my CSA last week and with it came another huge head of cabbage as well as some potatoes (not to mention turnips, pumpkin and kale). So once again I scoured Cooking Light looking for something different to do with the cabbage and stumbled upon this recipe. I love apples and chicken and I love apples with cabbage so I thought I’d give this a go.
Some notes though
- the original recipe called for caraway seeds. I didn’t have any and I’m not a really big fan except in my rye bread, so I didn’t use them.
- It also called for yukon gold potatoes, not having any in the house, I subbed one of the large potatoes from my CSA, which wasn’t a russet but wasn’t a yukon gold either.
- I’m never sure if they want cooked or uncooked sausage. Since it’s so hard to slice uncooked sausage, I assumed cooked.
- I was nervous about not peeling the apples, but this worked out fine. However I didn’t slice them, I chopped them as I do not like long some short things and some long things on my spoon; I like uniform shapes (so they matched the size of the chopped potato)
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped carrot
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 ounces chicken apple sausage, sliced
- 5 cups fat free chicken broth
- 8 ounces chopped potato
- 3 cups thinly sliced green cabbage (worked out to about 1/4 large head. I used The Shiksa in the Kitchen‘s directions for shredding cabbage.
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (I poached two breaths in a bit of broth, and then used that broth as part of the 5 cups mentioned above).
- 2 cups chopped Granny Smith Apple
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Directions
- Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add fennel and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Place in a spice or coffee grinder; process until ground. I know people don’t get this step but it really does make the spice more aromatic and flavorful.
- Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, celery and cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic, cook 1 minute more. Add sausage, cook 1 minute. Add ground fennel; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add broth and potato; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high. Add cabbage and remaining ingredients; cook 3 minutes.
I thought this was a good, hearty soup. Other than all the veggie chopping, it came together quickly. If I had leftover chicken, it would have been even quicker. Looking forward to have some shortly for lunch!
It makes about 4 servings. Cooking Light said 1.5 cups per serving, I got way more than 6 cups out of this though so figure a 2 cup serving and for Weight Watchers, that 8 points per serving (or 4 points per cup).