Steak Soup

4 servings

This recipe I created goes back many years when I wrote a weekly recipe column for the Jerusalem Post.

• 1 tablespoon margarine or 2¼ teaspoons of olive oil
• ½ chopped onion
• ½ pound cubes steak or stew meat
• 1 minced garlic clove
• ½ cup sliced carrots
• ½ cup diced celery
• ½ cup cut green beans
• 2 cups stewed tomatoes
• ½ cup diced potatoes
• ½ cup red wine
• ½ cup water
• 1½ teaspoons chopped parsley
• ¼ teaspoon dry basil
• 1/8 teaspoon thyme
• 1 bay leaf crushed
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt margarine or heat oil in a soup pot. Brown onion, meat and garlic.
2. Add vegetables, wine, water, parsley, basil, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Simmer 2 hours.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup

4 servings

I got this recipe from my mother (z”l) many years ago.

• 1 small cut up head cabbage
• 1 pound short ribs
• 1 chopped onion
• 1½ cups water
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• ½ cup tomato sauce

1. Place cabbage, short ribs, onion and water in a soup pot, Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
2. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper, brown sugar, white sugar and tomato sauce. Simmer for 2 more hours.

Old Fashioned Vegetable-Beef Soup

8 servings

This recipe is a real classic and came from a newspaper many, many years ago.

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 crushed garlic clove
• 1 diced onion
• 1 pound chunks of beef stew meat
• 1 28-ounce can tomatoes
• 2 cups beef soup or 2 beef bouillon cubes with 2 cups hot water
• 2-3 sliced carrots
• ½ pound sliced mushrooms
• ½ pound 2-inch pieces green beans
• 3-4 sliced celery ribs
• pepper to taste
• 2 diced potatoes

1. In soup pot, heat oil then lightly brown garlic, onion and beef stew meat.
2. Add tomatoes with juices, beef soup or bouillon and hot water, carrots, mushrooms, green beans and celery. Season with pepper.
3. Cover and simmer 45 minutes. Add potatoes and cook until tender.

Sybil Kaplan is a Jerusalem-based journalist, author and compiler/editor of nine kosher cookbooks. She is a food writer for North American Jewish publications, and she leads walks of the Jewish food market, Machaneh Yehudah, in English.