Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup

What are you having for St. Patrick's Day dinner?

We used to always have corned beef and cabbage with carrots, onions and potatoes. 

Now we're having Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup, a much lighter dinner.

 I posted this corned beef and cabbage two years ago. My husband wants to eat less meat, so we went from this--

To this.

It's also a great way to use up corned beef and cabbage leftovers.

Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 head small cabbage

2 stalks celery with leaves

2 large carrots

6 small red potatoes

1 lb. mushrooms 

1/2 large onion

2 cups chopped, cooked corned beef

6-8 cups cooking liquid from corned beef, defatted

Chop the cabbage, onion, potatoes, carrots, celery and mushrooms.

Add them to a large pot--this one is an 8 quart pot. Add the defatted cooking liquid from the corned beef and add water as needed to cover the vegetables.

I bought a 3 lb. flat-cut boiled corned beef. It yielded about 4 cups shredded/chopped corned beef after I trimmed away all the pockets of fat. I used 2 cups for the soup and froze 2 1-cup portions to use later.

Add the corned beef pieces to the soup pot and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

Season to taste. I used a little cracked pepper, but didn't add any salt. There was enough salt from using the cooking water from the meat.

Garnish with a little fresh thyme if desired.

Itadakimasu!


***


I made a board book for my granddaughter, Rachel.

I've made photo books before, but this is my first board book.

We live far away, and I want Rachel to know us, so I thought a book about us would be helpful.

Take a peek...

It was a lot of fun putting the pages together. I used Pint Size Productions for this book and used their Simple Photo Board Book I, which made it really easy.

I plan on making an extended family version photo book for her in the future, so she'll know how we're all connected.

They grow so fast!

Take lots of pictures!


***

Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 head small cabbage

2 stalks celery with leaves

2 large carrots

6 small red potatoes

1 lb. mushrooms 

1/2 large onion

2 cups chopped, cooked corned beef

6-8 cups cooking liquid from corned beef, defatted

1. Place corned beef into a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to boil, then cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 2 hours or until tender. Remove meat from pan and defat the liquid by skimming off oils floating on top of the liquid. Shred/chop corned beef and remove visible fat and set aside.

2. Chop all vegetables and put into a large pot. Add 6 to 8 cups of the defatted cooking liquid from the corned beef and add water if necessary to cover the vegetables. Add chopped corned beef and simmer for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

3. Season to taste; garnish with fresh thyme if desired.