Garbure is a thick French soup, almost a stew, based on cabbage and beans with some form of meat and other vegetables, often with bread added. It originated in the south-west of France, around Bearn, the Pyrenees, Gascony and Landes. It may vary from household to household and season to season, depending on what is available. The basic principle behind this dish is the lengthy simmering of an assortment of vegetables and meats, generally meats preserved en confit. As far as vegetables go, anything is possible. The cabbage may be accompanied by any kind of beans, potatoes, turnips, celeriac, kohl rabi, nettle tops, borrage, leaf beet, beetroot, in fact just about anything that can be grown in the area.
I started with an enormous home-grown cabbage. I didn’t use all of it; this cabbage weighs more than an average baby, and is about the size of a basket ball. I just shaved off about a quarter of it.One word of warning: this involved a lot of chopping and I used a very large pan.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 small cabbage (or part of a larger one), coarsely shredded
- 3 tbsp goose fat
- 2 carrots, diced, or use celeriac
- 1 turnip, diced, or use kohl rabi
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 1 large leek, split lengthways into quarters and then chopped
- Parsley, thyme, bayleaves
- 1 stick of celery, finely chopped
- A good pinch of salt
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2.3 litres of stock or water
- 1 can of borlotti beans (you could use any sort of bean, especially canellini beans.
- 350g potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 250g butternut squash or pumpkin, peeled and cubed.
- 1 serving of meat per person, for example ham hough, sausage, confit of duck or goose. If you cooked the hough yourself, use the stick in the soup.
METHOD: - Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the cabbage, simmer for ten minutes and then drain well.
- In a large soup pan, heat the goose fat and add the carrots, celery, turnips, onion and leeks, and stew very slowly for fifteen minutes, stirring from time to time.
- Add the drained cabbage, and cook for another ten minutes
- Add herbs, salt, cayenne and the stock, then stir in the beans, potatoes and pumpkin and cook, uncovered, at a very slow simmer for around 40 minutes. You may need to top up with water as required.
- Submerge the meat in the soup and continue to cook for another thirty minutes.
- To serve, line each bowl with a slice of home-made bread, ladle the soup over the bread, and top with a portion of meat.
There are other versions, which include cloves, or garlic, or other ingredients. You can make the base soup, cool before the step where the meat is added. Then, when you need to, reheat what you need.