Stuffed cabbage soup is not the most photogenic dish I've made recently. While it lacks the prettiness or sophistication of other meals, it makes up for it in flavor and comfort. I love stuffed cabbage, but it takes too long to make on a workday. So I took all the ingredients of stuffed cabbage and transformed it into an easy to make soup.

I basically made a cabbage soup with ground beef and served it over rice. The steamed rice is made separately and not cooked in the soup. A typical Vietnamese family-style meal usually consists of bowls of rice, a meat or fish dish, stir-fried vegetables and a bowl of soup (canh). The soup is ladled over the rice. Two examples of canh are bitter melon soup and sour shrimp soup.

Naturally, I applied this canh concept to my stuffed cabbage soup and had the rice on the side. The soup is a cinch to prepare and can be ready in thirty minutes. I wanted to use ground turkey in the soup, but my butcher ran out early, so I used ground sirloin instead. To allow the cabbage to shine, I only put a small can of diced tomatoes in the recipe. Remember, I have a low tart tolerance and I love cabbage.

The end result is the flavors of stuffed cabbage in the form of a hearty soup. Hungry Bear and I enjoyed it immensely, and it kept us warm and comfy for a few meals. If you ever get a craving for stuffed cabbage, but don't have the time or energy to make the traditional rolls, definitely give this soup a try.

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I love cabbage! Stuffed cabbage, cole slaw, corned beef and cabbage, kimchi, cabbage soup... I love all things made with cabbage. If I'm at a restaurant and I see a dish made with cabbage on the menu, it's usually the one I order. I'm not sure how or when my admiration of cabbage developed, but it runs strong and deep.

Several years ago, I was enjoying some Thai larb and it suddenly occurred to me that I wanted to create a dish with similar flavors. But, I wanted to add a vegetable to balance it out and also make it healthier. Naturally, I immediately thought of using cabbage.

So I turned it into a stir fry dish served on rice. I wanted something simple, healthy and easy to prepare. The outcome was stir fried cabbage, ground beef and mushrooms. The flavors that I borrowed from Thai larb are the saltiness from the fish sauce and the tanginess from the lime.

I added some kick with Vietnamese chili garlic sauce. And over time, I added sweet petite peas and mushrooms. The end result is a really good dish that goes nicely with jasmine rice. The highlight is the crunchy, salty shredded cabbage that is complimented by spicy, tangy ground beef and sweet peas.

There's nothing fancy about this dish, but it has turned into comfort food for Hungry Bear and me. When I make this dish, I usually stir fry a very large quantity of it so we can have leftovers for the next few days. It's a common practice for us to make mass quantities so we don't have to cook every day.

I love this dish because it has healthy cabbage in it, takes less than 45 minutes to prep and cook, and is prepared in "one pot"... ok, wok. If you want to make it more posh, use flank steak or ground Kobe beef. Better yet, just call it Deconstructed Stuffed Cabbage. 

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