Cabbage Soup

I had these almost empty containers of mustard piling up in my fridge. They are designed in a way, that doesn't allow all the mustard to come out, you can shake and squeeze them all you want, it just doesn't come out.
So what am I supposed to do, throw all this good mustard away?

I don't think so. I thought I'll keep it to make mustard sauce or something. But then time flies, and suddenly I was facing not 1, not 2, but 3 almost empty bottles, with a 4th one almost there.

Why do I tell you this?

Because yesterday I was given for free a great big reusable bag filled with:

- 10 lbs of russet potatoes
- 2 nets of onions
- 1 big bag of carrots
- 1 bag of parsnips
- 2 heads of cabbage

Well, what could I do really but to decide to make soup? So I decided to make soup. Cabbage soup. I have never made cabbage soup before.

I cut up 6 big potatoes, 4 carrots, 4 smaller parsnips, 1 head of cabbage, 2 onions and 1 yam (forgotten in the cupboard) and threw it in a pot of water.

Problem: Even if you throw all these fine ingredients in a pot with water and boil it, it might still taste a little bit shallow.

That's where the mustard came in. I rinsed the mustard bottles and poured the resulting mustard-water into my soup. It gave it a nice light-yellowish color and a less-watery texture. Then I added salt, pepper, a bit of Italian seasoning and some Cajun spice for good measure.

I tasted it, and it was okay, but my mother raised me a certain way, so I threw in 10 tablespoons of sugar and half a glass of vinegar.

Perfect.

I enjoy this soup by itself or accompanied by a fried egg.