This soup was inspired by my preparation of concentrated red cabbage juice for a lab I had planned for my 8th grade science students. I boiled half a head of red cabbage to obtain the dark purple juice, which we used as an acid/base indicator. I used the remaining half of the cabbage to create this soup.
The soup was very easy to prepare using chopped red cabbage, one chopped onion, one package of light kielbasa (sliced), one carton of low sodium chicken broth, caraway seeds and pepper to taste. I simply combined all ingredients in a large soup pot, and simmered until it was heated throughout. On the first evening, the cabbage was still crisp. While we ate our soup, the other half of the red cabbage boiled on the stove top to make the red cabbage juice for my lab. After dinner I poured the cabbage juice through a strainer and bottled it for the lab. Since I do not like to be wasteful, I added the remaining cabbage bits to my leftover soup.
When we reheated the soup on the stove top on another evening, the broth took on a much deeper purplish-blue shade. Prior to having my students use the cabbage juice indicator in the lab, I ate some leftover soup for lunch at school. Since I ran out of time to finish my lunch, I brought my soup to my science class with me where students whispered and commented about the “weird stuff” I was eating… I asked one of my students to take a picture of my soup, which created further whispers and pointing, but it certainly got the students’ attention as we started class! That picture will be featured on a classroom blog post on KidBlog, which will be used for post-lab discussion…
