Peter Rabbit's Ham and Cheese Garden Soup

We had a huge cabbage in our garden that needed picking (see it to the left). I wanted a soup with cabbage in it and thought ham and cheese sounded like good accompaniments to it. I made up this recipe. My family loved it! If you have a cabbage that needs to be eaten, here is a delicious and quick soup. As an homage to the pesky rabbit that is getting into my garden and causing havoc, we have named the soup "Peter Rabbit".

Peter Rabbit's Ham and Cheese Garden Soup

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1 yellow onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1 carrot sliced (or 1/4 cup frozen chopped carrots)
1 celery stalk chopped
2 cups diced cooked ham
4 cups chicken stock
dash of cayenne pepper
dash of Louisiana hot sauce
3 stems of thyme (or 1/2 tsp. ground thyme)
2 Tbl. fresh parsley chopped (or 1 Tbl. dried parsley)
1 head of cabbage chopped
4 cups milk
3 Tbl. whole wheat flour
3 cups of sharp cheddar cheese
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 green onion chopped (optional but awesome)

Heat the butter in a large heavy bottom pot over medium heat. Cook and stir in the onion, garlic, carrot and celery until the onion is clear. Add the ham. Stir in the chicken stock, cayenne pepper, Louisiana hot sauce, thyme and parsley. Bring to a boil. Add the cabbage. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer for 15 minutes.

Stir in the milk. Slowly sprinkle the flour as you stir. If you add it too fast, you will have clumps. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes to allow the soup to thicken a bit. Stir in the cheese. Cook for an additional 5 minutes to allow the cheese to melt.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top each bowl with some chopped green onion. There is something magical about the combination of cabbage and green onion!  Feeds 6-8 people