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If you’ve ever lived in Germany or even just visited for a short time, you know that sauerkraut is everywhere, especially as you go further South.
Sauerkraut is surprisingly versatile. At some time not too long ago, before fridges and freezers were found in every household, cabbage was one of the few vegetables which were available abundantly year-round. During the first few months after the fall harvest, there was fresh cabbage available, cheap and healthy. Then, as the months went on, fermented cabbage (Sauerkraut) took its place, also cheap and even more healthy (It helped that every house usually had a big cellar to store all these goodies). Therefore, while sauerkraut in Europe is certainly eaten with foods like sausages and roasted pork, you’ll also find sauerkraut in casseroles, savory pastries, breads, meatballs, pasta, fritters, salads, quiche, sandwiches, pizzas and stews. And of course in soups, such as today’s recipe, “Sauerkraut Soup”.
Sauerkraut soup comes in a myriad of variations, being different from house to house, restaurant to restaurant, region to region and country to country. My favorite is of course the one which reminds me of my Mom’s version, mild, creamy and chock-full of smoked meat. This can be smoked meat from any part of the pig or a combination of different smoked meats.
But, whatever you do, whatever variation you prepare – DO NOT USE INFERIOR QUALITY KRAUT.
If your butcher prepares and sell’s his own sauerkraut, use that. If you can not get fresh from your butcher or, even better, make your own (I do not advise this if you live in a small place without separate storage space – (fermenting cabbage does NOT smell too good in the house), buy the best you can in a can or glass.
For commercial Sauerkraut, I usually choose Kühne, Paulsen or Hengstenberg. There are many more available all over the world, but if you don’t want to gamble, stick with these three.
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Bon Appétit !   Life is Good !
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Excerpt from Wiki :
“Cabbage soup may refer to any of the variety of soups based on various cabbages, or on sauerkraut and known under different names in national cuisines. Often it is a vegetable soup. It may be prepared with different ingredients. Vegetarian cabbage soup may use mushroom stock. Another variety is using a fish stock. Traditional cabbage soup is prepared using a pork stock.

Cabbage soup is popular in Polish, Slovak and Ukrainian cuisine. It is known as kapuśniak or kwaśnica in Polish, kapustnica in Slovak and капусняк (kapusnyak) in Ukrainian. It is also found in Czech (Czech: zelňačka or zelná polévka), German (German: Kohlsuppe or Krautsuppe), French (French: soupe aux choux) cuisine, and Swedish (Swedish: kålsoppa) cuisine.

The Swedish cabbage soup is usually made from white cabbage, which is browned before being boiled, and seasoned with generous amounts of allspice and sometimes served with boiled meatballs.

A variety of the soup called shchi (Russian: щи) is a national dish of Russia. While commonly is it made of cabbages, dishes of the same name may be based on dock, spinach or nettle. The sauerkraut soup is called “sour shchi”, as opposed to “fresh cabbage shchi”.“
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Click here for more  Soup  on  ChefsOpinion
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Click here for more  Kraut  on  ChefsOpinion
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Preparation :
To read instructions, hover over pictures
To enlarge pictures and read instructions, click on pictures

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