Leftover Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup

Place the pickling spices in the center of a piece of cheesecloth. I usually don’t have cheesecloth on hand so what I often do is use my tea ball to hold the spices. This time, I grabbed 2 coffee filters I had from my old Mr. Coffee coffee pot, placed the pickling spice in the center of the top filter, gathered both filters up and around the spices and tied the small bundle with kitchen twine. What I did was leave enough string on the bundle so I could tie the end to the handle of my Dutch oven—that way I didn’t have to go “fishing” when it was time to remove it.

In a large Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring frequently, over medium heat until the onion begins to soften, 3-4 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.

Add the chicken stock, beef stock, diced tomatoes and their juice, barley, bay leaves and the pickling spice bundle to the onion/garlic mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes until the barley is tender.

Taste the broth to see if there’s enough spice flavor from the pickling spice. There was for me, so I removed the spice packet when the barley was cooked. Remove the bay leaves.

Add the pinch of allspice and coriander along with the corned beef and the leftover cooked vegetables. If you find you need more broth, add an additional 1-2 cups of chicken stock. Cook over medium low heat for 5-10 minutes more until meat and vegetables are heated through.

Dish into bowls and top each serving with a bit of chopped fresh parsley.

Note: Since this soup uses leftover meat and vegetables, amounts can vary depending what you have on hand to use up. I added a little more stock the next day as the barley soaked up some of the broth. You could add water if you don’t have stock.

Adapted from Food Network magazine and Tasting Tandem.