Tomato Cabbage Barley Soup Recipe that's been requested....
 

Tomato Cabbage Barley Soup

4 stalks celery, sliced
1/2 medium green cabbage, sliced
1 cup shredded or diced carrots, optional (I've never used them)
1 large onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced
2 - 15 oz cans tomato sauce
1/3cup barley
2 tbsps flour (You could do without it, I use it as a thick-ner. My kids like very thick soup)
2 vegetable or beef bouillon cubes
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 - 2 tsps canola or olive oil

In a 5 quart pot, saute' onions, celery, cabbage & carrots (if using) in oil till soft and almost browned. Add garlic and saute a minute further. Add the flour and cook about 45 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the remaining ingredients and enough water to almost fill the pot. Bring to a boil (I like to boil the water in a tea kettle before I put it in, makes everything go faster)
Cover pot, reduce to a simmer and cook about 1 hour or until the barley is soft.

Yumm beyond belief. It freezes nicely. Enjoy! I know everyone here sure does. I've even served it for company. It gets rave reviews.

Thanks!

Mug, I just edited the recipe. Since you already saw it, I wanted to post this to point it out. I changed the celery from chopped to sliced.

that sounds delish. I'm going to have to get the ingredients for that when I go to the grocery store, and make up a batch this week. I will probably take some over for my Grandma too, she's housebound. So I like to go over and visit her, even when I'm not the designated caregiver for the day.

Sounds delish! I am gonna make it this week I think. Do you know about how many calories are in 1 cup of it?

OT:

but, diva, I love yer avatar! :)

Why Thank you Lottie! Those are my fav shoes! :D

Thank you, Robin. Soup season is approaching, isn't it? I plan to have soup made up and on hand in the fridge this winter for when I "need" a little something.

Alana it's always soup season in our house, even when it really ISN'T if you know what I mean. I make a different large batch of soup every week. It's a great "piece" of a meal that I can make one time and have for many meals. It's delicious, satisfying, low calorie and healthy. And the whole family enjoys it thoroughly.

Thanks, Robin. I was thinking about putting a beef stew into the crock pot because it's rainy and chilly here today, but beef stew sounds a little heavy so I think your soup may just fit the bill! I like cabbage but don't use it much because I don't feel that I know how to prepare it, so this looks like a good "starter" recipe. Where do you find the barley? Is it in the same aisle as rice?

I was wondering the same about the calories myself.... that's the one thing I'm still struggling with is figuring out how many calories (approx) would be in something made/mixed together like that soup. Anyone have any advice on how to do that?

YUM!!!!! I just made the soup (with a few minor changes, the grocery store I was at didn't have any bouillion cubes, so I just omitted it. Took a good chunk of the sodium out of the soup, the only remaining from the tomato sauce.

It is thick and amazing, very filling, paired with a salad and some low fat crackers it was a perfect light dinner. Thank you for such a great soup.

I can't WAIT to make it!

I love soup! I will pick up the cabbage tomorrow.

Mom has grown about 200 acorn squash so I'll be making soup out of some of them, my favourite :D

Oh and I have three LARGE green cabbages FRESH from my friends garden. Picked today! You were saying you also loved cabbage and apples... what do you do with those?