Spicy Cabbage + Spinach Meatball Soup (paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free)

Soup was made and it was delicious.

It started out with me wanting to tackle a common food in paleo that was somehow intimidating to me: bone broth. All you have to do is simmer leftover chicken bones (or any animal bone) with garlic and a splash of raw apple cider vinegar in water for 8-24 hours in a crockpot and you are left with a yummy and extremely good for you broth. Now that I made some it's not intimidating and I feel awesome for making something that was essentially free since I was going to just throw away the leftover bones from dinner!

After the broth had simmered for 24 hours, I made some soup with it. The broth had simmered down to half the amount of liquid I started with, so I added more water to make the crockpot almost full again, with enough room to fit veggies and meat still.

Spicy Cabbage + Spinach Meatball Soup (Crockpot or Stovetop)
Paleo, Grain-Free, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free
Prep Time: 20 minutes      Cook Time: 2-4 hours      Servings: 6-8

6-8 cups broth depending on size of crockpot/pan
1 head of cabbage
1 white onion
3 potatoes
1/2-1 container mushrooms of any kind (I used baby bellas)
4-8 cloves garlic
3-4 cups spinach
1/2 pound ground pork (or turkey, chicken, or beef)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons coconut oil (or olive oil)

Optional Seasonings (I used all three)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (it was spicy, so if you don't like spice, omit or add less)
sprinkle of white pepper
sprinkle of lemon pepper

Meatball Directions: Put the meat in a bowl and add any seasonings you want (ie, white pepper, lemon pepper, salt, etc) and mince half of the garlic cloves. Mix together, then roll into 1 inch balls. In a large sauté pan (I used my cast iron) add the coconut oil or olive oil and panfry the meatballs on med-high until lightly cooked on all sides. Don't worry about the inside being fully cooked. This is just to keep the meatballs together as they cook in the crockpot without having to use something like egg or breadcrumbs. Once browned, add to crockpot.

Soup Directions: Dice cabbage, onion, potatoes and mushrooms up and add to crockpot. Mince the oter half of the garlic cloves and add that and spinach to crockpot. Finally, cover everything with broth until the pot it full. Let simmer on high for 1-2 hours or on low for 3-4 hours. If cooking on a stovetop, put everything in a large pot and simmer for 45-60 minutes.