Meat soup with apple sauce and olive

Soup is one of the areas where wonders come in the most unexpected ways. Here is a soup that brightens up another of our dark winter nights at home. The two flavors that stand out in this soup are the apple and the olive. I like using the juices from roasting turkeys and hams to make soup (after skimming off the fat). They provide plenty of flavor. However, because they are so salty, I use them only to enhance the homemade unsalted meat stock. To give the soup a rich aroma, I use some extra herbs. Rice is added to make it more filling.


Recipe: Pork rib soup with apple sauce and olive (serve 3-4)


Ingredients:
- 2 quart of stock of pork ribs
- 1 cup of juice from roasting turkey
- pieces of meat (trimmed of fat) from the cooked pork ribs and ham
- 1/2 head of a medium cabbage, shredded
- 1 medium carrot
- 1/2 medium onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 Spanish green olives
- 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce

- 3 bay leaves

- 1 tablespoon (TB) dried herbs mix of rosemary, savory, thyme, and marjoram
- 1 teaspoon (tp) dried oregano
- 2 tp dried basil
- 2 TB cooked rice
- salt to taste (optional)
- water


Procedure:
Boil onion, cabbage, carrot, garlic, olives, bay leaves, apple sauce in pork rib stock in a 3 quart pot. for 1 hour or until cabbage is soft. Add meat, rice and the remaining herbs. Season with salt, if necessary, and mix well. When adding salt, note that saltiness should not be the dominant taste in this soup. Instead, allow the sweet and sour taste of the apple stand out. Let the soup sit for 1 hour without heat on stove top. This will let the aromas of the herbs blend in with the soup. Warm up at serving time.