Have you ever heard the story of the woman who had “nothing” in her cupboards and made stone soup? There are several versions of it floating around for, well, who knows how many years.  I think of it every time I have vegetables in the fridge that are looking a bit wilted or when I have “hardly any food in the house”.

I don’t start with a stone.  All the work I would have to go to sanitizing the stone first isn’t worth it so let’s just pretend. The whole idea behind stone soup is to take the little bit of this and that you have and throw it all together. If I am home all day I occasionally use the stove but   today’s Stone Soup simmered in the crockpot.  Recipe will be posted below.

I start with  my vegetables. I choose these before meat because the whole point is to use up the vegetables going bad in my refrigerator.  I almost always use garlic and onion. They are staples in our house and make a great natural flavoring while being healthier.  Today I used garlic, onion, and cabbage. The poor head of cabbage amazingly survived 3 weeks in my fridge.

Next I choose my base liquid. I use water, beef, chicken, or pork broth. Today I went with beef. The cabbage needs all the flavor it can get!

Lastly I figure out if I am using meat. Today I used 1 lb. ground beef. The beauty of stone soup is that a little goes a long way.  I don’t need to use big ticket items ot get delicious results.  Sometimes I just skip the meat altogether.  

Stone Soup: Cabbage

1 medium head cabbage, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 lb. ground beef
32 oz. beef broth
1/2 cup barley
salt and pepper

Put the cabbage and barley into  the crockpot and sprinkle some kosher salt over it. Pour the beef broth over it.  Brown the burger with the onion and garlic then add it to the cabbage.

I mixed it together and stuck it in the fridge overnight.  This morning I started crockpot on high for 4-5 hours, then set it on warm for the rest of the day.

I had a snack this afternoon and cannot wait for dinner.