Frugal French Friday: Cabbage Soup

While there are plenty of opportunities for stylish meals in Door County, we prefer a more casual approach to dining when on vacation.

More often than not, we pack a cooler full of cheese, sausage, iced tea, cider, apples, and perhaps a rustic paté and augment that with a local baguette and something from a Door County deli. (I can highly recommend the baguettes at the Seaquist Orchard Farm Market, by the way.)

This time of year as the thermometer slips downward in steady fashion, it's soup that I crave. The Summer Kitchen is well-known for its soups. I found one that's easy to make and fits in with my frugal Friday theme, too. Here is a recipe for French Cabbage Soup, made with cabbage, onions and potatoes from Immerfrost Farm and carrots from Birch Creek Farm.

I made a few adjustments. I added about two teaspoons of herbes de Provence.  The broth seemed bland, so I augmented it with a packet of dried onion-soup mix. I'd certainly rather make the entire thing from scratch, but I always keep these packets on hand for when from-scratch isn't working. The chicken broth I used was from my freezer, made from whole-chicken carcasses, but go figure. I also doubled the amount of fresh thyme. The result was a mild but herby flavor, with the Polish sausage providing the spice.

Cost: The entire stockpot of soup cost about $7. I expect to get 8-12 servings from it, and I have frozen several containers of various sizes. So figure 60 cents per serving.

Wine Pairing: I'd keep it very simple, a plain white table wine, nothing fancy. Although it occurs to me that hard cider might be an interesting pairing, especially if you are serving this, as I would, with whole wheat French rolls or pain rustique.