German Cabbage Soup


"The time has come", the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes - and ships - and sealing wax - Of cabbages - and kings - And why the sea is boiling hot - And whether pigs have wings."
The Walrus and the Carpenter - Lewis Carroll


Many of you will look and say cabbage soup, err no. But yes doubtful reader this is a soup of kings, albeit German ones, taking flavour from fennel and caraway, giving it a distinctive Germanic taste.

So dice your bacon and add it to a little butter and start to let it render, chop a leek or an onion and add, when slightly softened then add a teaspoon of caraway and fennel, keep on frying until you can smell the aroma of the spices, then add diced carrot, parsnip and spud (it's a soup so make these all a similar small size able to sit on a spoon). 

If you had a bratwurst or kabanos sausage slice and add.

Now pour over chicken stock and add parsley and thyme, add chopped cabbage and top up with a bit more stock, season and simmer till the carrots are cooked, and serve.

Feed this soup to your doubters, and as they taste the sweet cabbage and probably for the first time caraway, look at them and say, 'This is your soup of cabbage and kings, you see pigs do have wings'.