Sauerkraut & Bratwurst Soup
There are days when I just need to cleanse. But not like juice cleanse because I don't have the will power to just not eat anymore, so when I say cleanse I really mean a day to just power my body up with super foods. Going through one day a week where I try to keep things pretty liquid and low cal is what I feel allows me to hit a reset button. I mean, in my mind it's what allows my body the opportunity to flush out all the bad stuff & keep my shit on track.
I was especially in need of a reset day yesterday for two reasons. One - we're prepping to go on another little weekend getaway to visit some friends, and those are the times when the diet gets a little loosey-goosey. A couple glasses of wine every night, a few day time ciders, I'm probably going to eat something smothered in cheese. So you know not my typical days worth of eating habits, so I'm trying to be extra health conscious in the days leading up to this trip. But also, I just had such a . healthy day I'm trying to keep it going! I woke up knowing I needed a bit of an easy day at the gym - maybe a little light elliptical or a walk. My legs are dead from the last two days of intervals. So when my mother-in-law asked me if I wanted to walk Cushman Trail with her, I was like perfect! I totally anticipated being there for an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Well 8 miles, many hills, and about 2 hrs 40 min later, our morning walk was complete. Not exactly the rest day I had planned for, but it felt good & according to my Apple watch I got quite the burn going. We then ended our morning berry smoothies from Costco (which are surprisingly low cal), and it was a delightful little healthy morning. So the last thing I want to do is sabotage the day I've got going with some bulky dinner. I'm stuck with my gut instinct to have a refresh day and made a superfoods soup.
First of all, I have the BEST soup cookbook. 365 Days of Soup purchased as Williams Sonoma years ago, and literally all the recipes always turn out so good. To be clear, I'm not plagiarizing and passing along what's directly in there - I use these soups as inspirations, make some adjustments that suit my tastebuds (which everyone should do with every recipe!), and pass along my versions. Anyways, one of the soup featured in this book a sauerkraut soup. A brothy soup filled to the brim with sauerkraut and lots of other shreddy veggies. & if you don't already know, sauerkraut is soooooo good for you. I mean google the health benefits - so many! But I would have never thought to put pickled cabbage in soup, and to be honest even cooking it I was thinking to myself "what's your plan B because this is sounding a little crazy and borderline gross." & low and behold it was nothing but delicious, and eating this soup gave me the same comfort I get from eating chicken noodle or pho.
I think my biggest concern is that the soup would taste pickle-ish, or at least that flavor would be a little off-putting when heated up. I don't know what else to say except it just didn't even taste like sauerkraut. The other main ingredients in this soup are onions and sweet potato, and they all cook in loads of chicken broth. So even though there's a pound of sauerkraut in this recipe, it's well blended and pretty masked thanks to all the other veggie friends in the pot. Each spoonful tastes salty, meaty, and kind of sweet thanks to all the sweet potato and tomato paste, and it's like a happy little Octoberfest soup.
The other fun ingredient is sausage - Bratwurst. A pound that stuff too. So hence the Octoberfest. You cook the sausage up first, & slice it fairly thin so you get a little hunk of sausage with each spoonful of veggies and broth. The brats just make the soup a little bit heartier, and help bring that meaty flavor to the whole thing. I'm pretty sure that's the ingredient that brings the chicken noodle soup vibes to the whole thing.
But really thats totally what you get with this soup - a German chicken noodle soup, and it is fucking delicious especially for a low calories cleansing option. I mean as I write this the morning after sauerkraut soup consumption, I feel great and can't wait to eat my leftovers for dinner again tonight.
For the Soup
1 lb Bratwurst, uncooked
2 tbsp EVOO
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 onions, thinly slices with a mandolic
1 sweet potato, shredded
1 lb sauerkraut
8 c. chicken broth
Salt & pepper
1/4 c. fresh parsley
Sour cream
Toasted baguette, optional and for dipping
Start by placing a large soup pot over medium heat. Once the pot is hot, add in all of the bratwurst link, and cover the pot. Let the sausages cook for 8 minutes, and then uncover the pot and flip the sausages to brown on the opposite side for another 8 minutes. Once the sausages has been browned on both sides, remove the sausages from the bowl and set aside on a cutting board.
Keep the same pot used to cook the sausages over medium heat, and add in the olives oil and garlic, letting the garlic toast for 2-3 minutes. Then add in the tomato paste and let that cook with the garlic for another 2 minutes. Next add in the onion, stir the onion with the garlic and tomato paste, and let the onions cook until soft, so about 10 minutes. After the onion have softened, add in the sweet potato, the sauerkraut, and all of the chicken broth along with one cup of water. Also add in a teaspoon of both salt and pepper. Increase the heat to high and bring the heat to a boil. Once the soup is boiling, let it continue to boil for 10 minutes.
As the soup boils, thinly slice the cooked bratwurst. Once the 10 minute cook time for the soup is up, turn the heat to medium low and add in the bratwurst slices. Cover the pot and let it cook for one more hour, letting all the flavors get to know each other.
Once the cook time is up, and your ready to eat, ladle the soup into bowls. Top each bowl with about a tablespoon of sour cream each and a pinch of the fresh parsley. The soup is extra delish when stirring the sour cream into the soup. Serve with a piece of toasted baguette to soak up all the yummy broth for a crusty bite.
