Healthy Leftover Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Potato Soup

Healthy Leftover Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Potato Soup

Have you ever been frozen with so much indecision with what to make for dinner that you can barely force yourself into the kitchen to make a meal? That happened to me today. I waffled back and forth so many times on how to make this soup, and was so terrified of it being a complete flop, that I literally stayed out of the kitchen for hours until I was forced to just go head on into the kitchen and start doing something. ANYTHING! So I started out with the basics and began slicing and dicing. There…I started feeling more comfortable. I defrosted some homemade chicken broth. OK. I’m feeling a littler more confident. Uh oh. Should I add some tomato and carrot for flavor and color? OK add them to the photo shoot, then you’ll be forced to use it, right? Should I use the leftover boiled potatoes in this, or start with a fresh chopped one? Stop it! You like dicing. I ran and got a potato and peeled it and chopped it before I changed my mind. Oh no! What if the soup is too bland? Quick, add some allspice to it. Whew!

Healthy Leftover Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Potato Soup Served

This entire episode began with me asking hubby if I could make soup out of our leftover corned beef dinner we had a day before St. Patrick’s Day, since he was going out of town overnight and wouldn’t be around for the evening’s meal tonight. “Oh. I put six potatoes in the crock pot so we could have another meal out of it when I got back on Monday.” Hmmm. OK so there went that. But then I noticed how much corned beef was left, and knew I could pull off a soup in his absence. So then I asked my daughter. “Would you like some soup made out of the leftover corned beef?” Silence. More silence. “Well, the corned beef is just so salty,” she finally replied. We have indoctrinated our daughter into a pretty low-salt diet, which is not bad, but a crockpot dinner of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes simmered all day had put her salt-buds over the top. I agree, it was too salty for my taste too, but it didn’t stop me from devouring mass quantities of it. We restrict ourselves to this type of meal once or twice a year.

So now I present to you a “healthier” version of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes, made in soup form.

Chopped Cabbage and Veggies for Soup

Healthy Leftover Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Potato Soup

About 2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup sliced cabbage
1/2 cup sliced onion
1/2 cup sliced baby carrots
Ground black pepper, to taste
3 cups homemade or low-salt chicken broth
1 cup shredded cooked corned beef
1 small peeled potato, diced small
1 small chopped tomato
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3 tablespoons of leftover corned beef broth, or salt, to taste

In a medium pot over medium heat, add the olive oil, cabbage, carrots, and ground black pepper. Saute for about five minutes, until the cabbage starts to brown a tad. Add the chicken broth, shredded corned beef, and potatoes. Bring up to a boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the tomato and allspice, and simmer for another 10 or 15 minutes on low. At this point, taste for saltiness. I had my daughter taste it and said it was a bit bland, so then added a tablespoon of the leftover corned beef broth. She thought it needed a bit more so added 2 more tablespoons, and she deemed it fit to eat. If you didn’t save any corned beef broth, then just add salt to taste at this point.  I was very pleased with this soup, and wish I hadn’t angsted so much in just starting to make it!