Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup

If I had known just how easy corned beef and cabbage was to make all along, I would have made it every St. Patrick's Day, and probably a few more times throughout year.

I never connected that this Irish dish was nothing more than a simple pot roast, only made with a brisket injected with a spiced salt brine.


Originally, I had planned to put the pot in the oven, but then my oven died, or so I thought. (As an aside,the oven miraculously resurrected herself and the service man I called out thinks I'm nuts.)

So I finished it on top of the stove, which is a bit more traditional. I also threw everything into the pot at once, but after the three hours it took to cook the beef to tender, the vegetables cooked to mush, so next time, I'll cook the beef for about an hour and a half, and then put the vegetables in.

The other "revelation" is that leftover corned beef and cabbage turns into a lovely soup. I knew the leftover beef could be used for Ruben sandwiches and corned beef hash, but I wasn't sure what to do with a mountain of leftover mushy vegetables. They tasted wonderful from cooking with the spiced corned beef, but the texture was too akin to baby food.

So I put the vegetables in a pot, covered them with low sodium chicken stock and eventually pureed the whole thing with some canned chick peas for thickness. I chopped some of the beef to add as a garnish, and voila! Corned beef and cabbage soup.