Tuesday: Oktoberfest Stoup

This just flat out sounded awesome!  I don't care if it's the end of March...I'm making this!  Our one bad meal of the week.  I'm going almost all Rachel Ray this week...(I was perusing her cookbook that I pilfered from my mom)  Hoping this tastes as good as it sounds!

Oktoberfest Stoup

Ingredients


2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons butter, cut into pats

3 knockwurst, diced into 1 inch cubes (or substitute 3 extra brats)

3 bratwursts, diced into 1 inch cubes

1 red onion, quartered and thinly sliced

2 lbs red cabbage, quartered and shredded

1 teaspoon caraway seed

salt and pepper

1 (12 ounce) bottle dark beer or 1 (12 ounce) bottle beef broth

1 quart veal stock or 1 quart beef stock or 1 quart vegetable broth or 1 quart chicken stock

2 cups tomato sauce

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 fresh bay leaves or 1 dried bay leaf

3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

2 red delicious apples or 2 golden delicious apples, peeled and diced

1/2 lemon, juice of

Directions:

Heat a big soup pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 table­spoon of the vegetable oil and half the butter.

When the butter melts into the oil, add the cubed wursts and brown them on all sides, 5 minutes. Remove the browned sausages and add the remaining tablespoon each of oil and butter.

When the butter melts into the oil, add the onion and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cabbage and car­away, season with salt and pepper, and stir. Cook the cab­bage for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the beer and cook down 1 minute. Add the stock, tomato sauce, Worcestershire, and bay leaf and stir to combine. Add the wursts back to the pot. Cover the pot and bring the soup up to a boil, 2 or 3 minutes.
Remove the lid and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes longer, until the cabbage is tender. Remove the bay leaf.
Combine the parsley, apple, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Ladle the soup into shallow bowls and top with generous spoonfuls of the flavored apples to stir into the soup as you eat it.