Nana’s Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup
This was my Nana’s favorite soup to make. It reflects her Polish background on the classical Russian borscht. My favorite part of eating the soup is having a second bowl.
Ingredients
2 quarts chicken broth or water
8 oz. tomato puree
12 oz. can of diced tomatoes 1 large head of red cabbage (diced)
8 medium size beets(cooked and diced)
2 yellow onions (diced)
2 turnips (diced)
2 cloves garlic, minced 2 lbs. beef short ribs Juice of 4 lemons
1⁄2 cup dark brown sugar Salt and pepper to taste 8 oz. sour cream
1 bunch of parsley (chopped)
Nana’s Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup Recipe
Place the chicken broth, tomato puree and diced tomato in a 4-quart pot and bring to a simmer. Add the cabbage, beets, onions, turnips and garlic and simmer 30 minutes more. Place the short ribs in the pot and simmer for another 2 hours.
When the meat is tender, remove it from the soup. Add the lemon juice, brown sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
Top off each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and some chopped parsley.
Meet the Chef
Mitch was raised in a traditional Reform Jewish home near Boston. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Massachusetts and focused on a culinary career. Mitch worked at some of the finest kitchens in Boston including the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, The Parker House and Le Meridien, achieving his goal of cooking with the best chefs in the world. In 1982 Mitch moved to San Francisco and cooked at some of the top restaurants on the West Coast as well. Mitch had a chance to work with other top chefs who introduced a new and lighter style of cooking to America, which became known throughout the United States as New American Cooking.
His destructive lifestyle, however, was detrimental to his career and he could no longer keep up with the high demands and pressures of cooking at the top. He was eventually fired from his job at Stars, once a top restaurant and one of the most creative kitchens in the country. He realized that his life was a wreck and prayed to God for the first time in years. The next day, he quit smoking and drinking. As Mitch began to trust God for the first time in his life, he talked with a Christian co-worker about the Bible and finally began to grasp the Gospel message. Mitch accepted Yeshua (Jesus) into his life in 1987.
Mitch now serves as Vice President of U.S. Ministries for Chosen People Ministries and oversees all recruitment, training, mentoring and leadership of the entire U.S.-based missionary staff. Mitch is married to Kina, a second-generation Jewish believer, and they have two daughters, Kaelee and Alana, and a son, Joshua.