Goulash Soup with Red Peppers and Cabbage:ARF/5-A-DayFrom the Recipe Archives

Once again it's time for ARF/5-A-Day, Sweetnicks Tuesday blog event designed to motivate us to eat more fruits and vegetables, particularly those high in antioxidants. This soup has red peppers and tomatoes, and this time I added some cabbage to make it even more healthy, since cabbage is one of The World's Healthiest Foods. The soup is reminiscent of Hungarian Gulyas, but without any potatoes. If you're not interested in lower carbs, you could certainly add a few diced potatoes. Serve with a good sized dollop of sour cream.

The soup bowl used in this food photo was a gift from my sister Laurel, who lives in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, with her husband and three brilliant children. A few years ago Laurel undertook an amazing project where she scanned all our old family photos and put them on a CD for everyone in the family.

Goulash Soup with Cabbage
2 onions, cut half both ways, then in thick slivers
2 tsp. finely minced garlic
1 T olive oil
2 T sweet Hungarian Paprika (I recommend Penzeys)
1 T hot Hungarian Paprika (I recommend Penzeys)
1/2 tsp. crushed caraway seed (optional)
4 cups homemade beef stock (or 3 cans)
3 cups roasted tomatoes (or 2 cans diced tomatoes - I recommend Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes if using canned)
2 cups finely diced cabbage
1 lb. lean ground beef (ground chuck is best)
1 jar (12 oz.) roasted red peppers, diced into 1 inch pieces
sour cream for serving (I use light, do not use fat free)

Heat large heavy frying pan, add oil, and saute onions about 5 minutes, until barely starting to color. Add garlic and saute 2 minutes more, then add paprika and caraway if using and saute 1 minute more.

Put onion/spice mixture into large soup pot. Deglaze pan with 1 cup of beef stock, then add that and rest of beef stock to soup pot. Add roasted tomatoes, cabbage and 2 cups water to soup pot and start to simmer.

Brown ground beef in frying pan until quite brown, breaking into small pieces as it cooks. When browned add to soup pot. Let simmer on very low heat one hour. (Taste for seasoning and add more paprika if desired. I personally think you can never have too much paprika in a soup like this.) After one hour, add diced red peppers and simmer one hour more. Serve hot, garnished with sour cream. This freezes very well.

I served this for lunch with a freshly baked loaf of 100% whole wheat bread. (Ok, I confess I used a bread machine and a mix from Bob's Red Mill to make the bread, but my friend was still quite impressed.) For dinner, add something like Arugula and Sweet Mini-Pepper Salad for even more great antioxidants.

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