Cabbage and White Bean Soup

With cannellini beans, this soup holds you well. The beans contribute roughly 14g of protein per cup plus substantial fibre — both slow digestion and keep hunger away. Plain cabbage soup without a protein source doesn't keep most people full for long. The bean version is a different thing entirely: it sits in your stomach the way a proper meal should.

Bland cabbage soup usually skipped the aromatics and the acid. The aromatics — onion cooked until soft, garlic and dried thyme bloomed briefly in oil, smoked paprika — should be in the pot before any liquid arrives. The acid — red wine vinegar or a squeeze of lemon — goes in after the heat is off. Both are necessary. Also: use broth, not water, and salt more generously than you think you should. Vegetable soups are consistently under-salted.

5 days in the fridge. The flavour improves on day two as the beans absorb the broth. The cabbage softens further but stays pleasant. Freezes well for up to 3 months. Portion it into single servings before freezing so you can pull individual containers out on busy weeknights.

Yes. Small shapes — ditalini, orzo, small shells — work well. Add them in the last 10 minutes of simmering, using slightly less broth than the recipe calls for since pasta absorbs liquid as it cooks. If storing leftovers with pasta in them, the pasta absorbs all the broth overnight and the soup turns to stew. Better to cook the pasta fresh each time and add it to reheated soup.

The core structure — aromatics, cabbage, white beans, broth, acid — is flexible. Kale or Swiss chard replaces cabbage well. Zucchini goes in during the last 10 minutes. Cubed potatoes bulk the soup up further. Cannellini beans can be swapped for great northern beans or navy beans. Fresh tomatoes in summer are noticeably better than canned.