Miso Cabbage Soup

I'm happy to be home from my travels. Among the many joys that say 'home' are sleeping in my own bed and cooking in my own kitchen. Also, being back in the midst of the Friends in my Quaker community. My son, Ryan New, was visiting me this weekend. Last night, after we made s'mores on the wood stove, he helped me make this week's soup. He came to Meeting with me this morning and after an early morning discussion of William Taber's pamphlet 'Four Doors to Meeting for Worship', help dish up the soup that we sent home with Friends.

This week, I was working with an abundance of vegetables from the special Thanksgiving share from Hearty Roots CSA. It was full of lots of wonderful fall veggies, but most especially green cabbage... so cabbage is the star of the soup this week.

We started by heating some olive oil in the bottom of the soup pot and then adding 2 cloves of chopped garlic and a chopped onion. I washed a leek really well by cutting it up and immersing in it water and then drained it and added it to the pot. I rinsed some dried shitake mushrooms and put them in some hot water to soak while Ryan kept the pot stirred. Into the pot went some chopped carrots, celery, and a whole mess of cabbage. When the mushrooms were softened, I poured the soaking liquid (now mushroom-flavored water) into the pot, cut up the mushrooms and threw them in too. Next came a couple quarts of water and a squirt of Bragg Liquid Aminos. I let that simmer for a bit while Ryan & I watched Peter Sellers in Being There on Netflix.

When the carrots were tender, everything else was done too. I broke up some buckwheat soba and added that to the simmering broth. I only let the soba cook until pliable because this soup will need to cool and then be served at a later date, and I don't want the noodles to become complete mush by the time they are eaten. I dissolved a couple tablespoons of red miso into some warm water and poured that into the soup. I left the miso until the very end because it is a great source of beneficial pro-biotic bacteria, but only if you don't kill it with heat - so as soon as the miso was stirred through, I turned off the stove and let the soup cool.

We didn't have a big crowd in meeting this morning because quite a few Friends were traveling for the holidays. Others were dealing with their own Thanksgiving leftovers, but some were really happy to get this soup and a few others decided to take some after they smelled it.