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Cabbage soup in a slow cooker

Fresh Cabbage Shchi in a Slow Cooker

Rich, nourishing, and downright delicious! This fresh cabbage shchi (a classic cabbage soup) in a slow cooker is incredibly easy to put together — any cook can handle it. Grown-ups and kids alike love this soup. Serve it with sour cream and fresh green onion!

Pearl

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Cabbage

0.25

Chicken

300

Beans (canned)

200

Carrot

Onion

Potatoes (medium, or a few more if they're small)

Vegetable oil

Salt

Ground black pepper

Dried spices

Water (or a little more to taste)

1.5

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 29 % 4 g

Fats 21 % 3 g

Carbohydrates 50 % 7 g

75 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make fresh cabbage shchi in a slow cooker? Gather everything on the list. You can use a whole chicken or any parts of it. For this recipe I used a soup pack of chicken backs. You can leave the beans out, but with them the finished dish turns out heartier and more colorful.
Step 2:

Peel the carrot, potatoes, and onion. Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage. Rinse all the vegetables in clean water. Chop the onion and carrot however you like — I diced the onion small and grated the carrot on the coarse side of a grater.
Step 3:

Shred the cabbage into thin strips, cut the potatoes into small cubes or sticks, and drain the liquid off the canned beans.
Step 4:

Heat a small amount of vegetable oil in the slow cooker pot. Add the carrot and onion to sauté. On the "Fry" setting, cook them to the level of browning you want (5–10 minutes is plenty).
Step 5:

Add the potatoes, the chicken cut into small pieces, the beans, and the cabbage to the sautéed vegetables.
Step 6:

Season everything with salt and pepper and add your favorite spices to taste. Pour in hot water. How much water? If you want a thick first course, add enough water to cover the contents of the pot by about half an inch. If you'd rather the shchi not be too thick, pour in more.
Step 7:

Stir everything together. Close the slow cooker lid, set the "Stew" setting, and leave it until fully cooked.
Step 8:

The shchi is ready! Sprinkle with fresh herbs and ground pepper, and serve!

Every slow cooker has its own wattage, so the cooking time can vary from one appliance to another. If you're using a young cabbage, add it to everything else only 10–15 minutes before the end of cooking, or it may turn to mush. Enjoy!
Important! Whether or not the recipe gives an exact amount of water for the soup, it's best to go by your own preferences (whether you like a thick or a more brothy soup), as well as the size of your pot and the ingredients you're using. Keep in mind that the author has their own take on how much meat, potatoes, grain, and other ingredients belong in the soup, which may not match yours. In practice, this means that if you're making it for the first time, don't cook a whole pot at once. Make a tasting batch — for one or two people. To do that, scale all the recipe ingredients down to 1–2 servings, and figure the water at roughly one cup per serving for a very thick soup, up to 1.5–2 cups for a more brothy one. Don't forget that some of the liquid will boil off during cooking. After tasting a small portion, you can adjust both the amount of liquid and the proportions of the ingredients to your taste. Down the road, like most experienced cooks, you'll be able to pour the water and add the ingredients by eye.
You can swap the chicken for turkey or any other meat you like. Just keep in mind that the cooking time and the calorie count of the dish will change.
Bear in mind that the cooking time and setting given in the recipe are approximate. Every slow cooker works differently, and even identical models from the same maker can have their quirks. Before you make a dish that's new to you in a slow cooker, read its manual carefully, then in practice start with dishes you already know before moving on to new ones, dialing in the setting and time to suit your own machine.