I love soups. Not only do they make great freezer meals but they are easy and usually inexpensive to make.
Several months ago we made a huge batch of corned beef and after eating all the Rubens we could handle, it became a challenge to find creative ways to use this delicious protein. Of course we made hash, chili, cottage pie, pastas, and even pizzas with it but I felt like I needed more. I happen to be doing some unrelated freezer meal research when I ran across a blog post at skinnytaste.com. Here she took the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner and incorporated it into a lovely soup. Brilliant!! The soup looked elegant, hearty, and delicious.
I had to make it, and I am so glad that I did because it was great. Our entire family loved it and it made for a perfect freezer meal with no loss in quality. I made a few alterations to the recipe and as you’ll notice this recipe has lots of room for creativity (If you have extra vegetables that you want to sneak in there, don’t be shy!!)
The tricky part is the corned beef. We prepare my own, and you can watch us make it here: Making Incredible Corned Beef. The beauty of making your own corned beef is that you get to control the flavors and the salt content (as store bought corned beef tends to be a little salty). The other thing I love about making your own corned beef is that you get to keep all of the cooking liquids that render out of your meat. These liquids are full of rendered fat, collagen, spices, and best of all FLAVOR!
In this recipe we balance the flavors of corned beef stock with chicken stock as to not make this soup so overwhelming and the combination of the two stocks turned out to be a perfect delicate balance, but if you really like those corned beef flavors you can simply add more corned beef stock and less chicken stock to suite your tastes!
If you buy pre-made corned beef and you don’t have any reserved cooking stock that’s ok too. Just add chicken stock or beef stock to your soup and I guarantee your dinner will still be delicious!
Have fun, enjoy the video, and I hope you get to make this awesome freezer meal!! If you have any questions be sure to let me know
If you want to see the different things that we use in our kitchen be sure to check out our new Amazon Store.
Easy Freezer Meals Amazon Storefront
This recipe is an adaptation from Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup Recipe (skinnytaste.com)
Corned Beef & Cabbage Soup
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup oil
- 12 oz onions diced
- 1.5 pounds potato peeled and cubed
- 12 oz medium carrots chopped
- 8 oz yellow or red bell pepper chopped
- 3 tbsp minced garlic 9 cloves
- 24 oz cooked corned beef brisket (3 pounds raw)
- 3.5 quarts chicken stock
- 1.5 quarts corned beef cooking stock
- 3.5 pounds cabbage cored and chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley chopped
- season to taste
Instructions
To prepare Corned Beef
- Follow the package directions on how to make corned beef. Once finished reduce the cooking liquid and strain out the extra spices. Reserve for later use.
Preparing the Soup
- Chop your corned beef into thin slices
- In a large stock pot on a medium/high heat begin by sautéing the diced onions.
- Once translucent add the diced potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, and minced garlic. Cook for 5 minutes stirring occasionally.
- Add the sliced corned beef along with the reserved corned beef cooking stock and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and reduce the heat to medium. If you don't have reserved corned beef cooking liquid you can substitute for chicken or beef stock. Also you can adjust the stock level to your preference.
- Add the sliced cabbage to your soup and cook another 45 minutes till the potatoes and carrots are tender.
- Finally add the parsley and adjust for seasonings.
To Freeze and reheat
- Cool soup down and store in freezer friendly containers
- To reheat, thaw soup and heat on the stovetop. If you are using vac seal bags that are sous vide friendly you can just place the bag in simmering water for 10 minutes to heat the soup up.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
- You can add pretty much any vegetable you have on hand to fill this soup in. With that in mind you can also adjust the amount of stock that you add to make this more hearty or soupy.
Nutrition
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Sounds great, do you think omitting the potatoes will be okay? Could you please simplify the recipe and instead of ounces and pounds on the vegetables you could say “1 head of cabbage or 1 pepper etc.” It would simplify it definitely. Thank you for the recipes!
Hi Holli. The recipes are written for consistency. By using weights one can make this recipe over and over and it will taste exactly the same every time. Hope that won’t deter you from making more of these tasty freezer meals.