Corned beef and cabbage...soup

Happy corned beef month! Is that a weird thing to wish you? Shush, now, and let me sing you a love song about corned beef. How do I love thee, corned beef? Let me count the ways.

I love to roast corned beef topped with a little brown sugar and ground mustard. I love to make a Guinness roasted corned beef. My least favorite way is boiled corned beef with cabbage in the traditional style. I think I like that way the least because even though it's the simplest, my Grandmom killed it on that dish and I have never made it so it tastes as good as hers did, even though she gave me instructions and said mine was passable...but not hers. LOL

Last year I came upon SkinnyTaste's corned beef and cabbage soup and I was intrigued. I never made it last year or any time throughout the year because every March I make corned beef and my heart sings as I eat it so I vow to make corned beef at other times of the year. Then the next time I eat it again is the following March because I have no corned beef follow through.

So on a March day in Philly that's going to get to 80 degrees, I give you an early St. Paddy's gift of soup.
p.s. fellow Americans...it's St. Paddy's. Not St. Patty's.

Ingredients
2 leeks, chopped and washed (white and light green parts only)
1 tbs garlic
4 medium carrots, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1 small head of cabbage or half of a large head, cored and chopped
2 medium red potatoes, washed and chopped
1 tsp bay leaves
1 tsp parsley
2 tbs olive oil
1.5 lb corned beef + the little seasoning packet (I got a 3 pounder, cut it in half, and baked the rest)
6 cups water

Directions
Put your potatoes in a bowl of cold water so they don't turn black in the next few hours.

Heat oil over medium low heat in large pot or dutch oven. Add leeks and saute for five minutes.

Add corned beef, seasoning packet, bay leaves, parsley, and water. Cover and bring to a boil. Cover it and simmer it over low heat for three hours.

Pull the corned beef out. You can shred it with a fork or use a food processor to break it up. I chose the latter because it was 10 pm and I didn't have time to be playing forksies.

Return corned beef to the pot, drain and add potatoes and cabbage. Add salt & pepper if needed. I think corned beef is super salty so I declined...and I am the queen of salt.

Cook about 30 more minutes until the potatoes and cabbage are tender.

Slainte!