Cabbage soup with small meatballs
65 min · 34 g protein · 407 cals / serving
Old-fashioned Swedish cabbage soup: white cabbage browned in butter with a drizzle of syrup until sweet and nutty, simmered with carrot, swede and whole allspice in a clear beef broth, with soft little meatballs poached right in the pot. Cosy, peppery and even better the next day.
Ingredients
- 1/2 large head cabbage, in 2 cm squares
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp canola oil
- 1/2 tbsp light syrup (golden syrup)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 medium carrots, sliced
- 1/4 swede rutabaga, diced
- 6 cups beef broth
- 10 whole allspice berries ground allspice
- 1 bay leaf
- 3/4 tsp salt
Frikadeller
- 11 oz ground beef (95% lean), 5 % fat
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
- 3 1/2 tbsp skimmed milk, 0.5% fat, fortified
- 1/2 small onion, very finely grated
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
To serve
- a handful fresh parsley, chopped
Steps
- Heat the butter and oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown the cabbage and onion in two batches, stirring now and then, 6–8 minutes per batch, until soft with golden-brown edges. Drizzle the syrup over in the last minute; it caramelises and gives the soup its gentle sweetness.
- Return all the cabbage to the pot with the carrot, swede, broth, allspice, bay leaf and salt. Bring to a boil and simmer, partly covered, for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile mix the beef, pork, egg, breadcrumbs, milk, grated onion, salt and white pepper into a smooth, soft mince. With wet hands, roll it into small balls the size of a walnut. Drop them into the simmering soup and poach for 8–10 minutes, until they float, are firm and reach 160°F in the middle.
- Taste for salt and pepper, and serve in deep bowls with the parsley on top.
Good to know
Do I have to brown the cabbage?
It is what makes kålsoppa taste like kålsoppa. Pale boiled cabbage gives a thin, sulphurous soup; browned cabbage turns sweet and deep. Use your widest pot and do it in batches so it fries rather than steams.
Without meatballs?
Sliced lean sausage (fläskkorv or a chicken sausage) is the other classic, added for the last 5 minutes.
Does it keep?
Three days in the fridge and it improves every day. It also freezes well for up to three months.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 52
- Protein
- (34%)
- 4 g
- Fat
- (34%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (32%)
- 5 g
- of which sugar
- 3 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 279 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 1630 kcal goes into the pot and 3466 g of ingredients comes out as about 3140 g of food: 52 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.