Here this Irish Cabbage Bacon and Potato Soup throws no curve balls. Back in the day, these ingredients would’ve have been some of the last foods left in a food cellar after a long winter. But frugal doesn’t mean flavorless, as this simple soup eats like a full meal. Rendered bacon adds flavor and a touch of fat which is economically used to sauté the onions and carrots. Cabbage and potatoes add texture and bulk to fill you up.
There’s no weird or shocking ingredient here. Carrots, onions, cabbage, bacon, and potatoes are the star ingredients and only ingredients. To cut back on cooking time, the potatoes are microwaved whole and with the skin on. Parcooking the potatoes while you’re prepping your other vegetables makes for a speedy supper. Once the potatoes are easy to handle (without burning), you can peel off the skin and chop them into chunks.
This one-pot meal starts by rendering bacon in a pot. You want to cook the bacon on a low heat, that way the fat renders out of the meat. Depending on the bacon, there may be more or less fat. You’ll want to leave two tablespoons in the pot.
Remove the bacon and add in the carrots and onions. As you’re sautéing the carrots and onions, you’ll want to scrape the sides and bottom of the pot, because you’ll want to get all of the flavorful brown bits off of the pot and into your soup.
