Jack Soup… Fat Burning if you want it… and a protein to cancel the healthy soup.

Eric left a comment on I Cooked Topchii Ukrainian Borscht:

Eric:
Cabbage soup is now a hot topic on the NYTimes web site. Have you ever done an Eats article on Jack Nicklaus’s cabbage soup? Do you still make it?
Marcus:
I haven’t made the Jack Nicklaus soup for years, but it was published in the eats iv installment of the original eats4one. Actual title: Barbara Nicklaus Fat Burning Cabbage Soup… For Jack I gleaned the recipe from Sports Illustrated April 1996. It was part of a cabbage soup diet where one would eat the soup every day for a week along with fruit and vegetables. Beef was allowed on Friday and Saturday. It’s actually good soup and I did the diet once or twice, but eating the same soup every day is a chore – even when it’s good. Patricia Unterman wrote a “cleaned up” version in the SF Chronicle. Now that you’ve got me started, maybe I’ll make some soup and do an eats treatment. dad

It took a couple weeks to get around to it, but I made the soup. It seems that my fabulous Frenched Pork Chops from GG Meat were in the freezer. Not only that, but Carol was in the process of being “crowned,” so soup would be good for that.

The “Jack Soup” as I call it was meant to be eaten every day for a week, so it makes a prodigious amount. I’m not going to eat it for a week, so I revised the recipe to scale it back. I also substituted a couple ingredients, based on my current tastes, but I kept the Lipton Onion Soup Mix — gotta have some ties to authenticity.

So here’s what I did:

Barbara Nicklaus Fat Burning Cabbage Soup… For Jack
Gleaned from Sports Illustrated April 1996; as I cooked it February 2011

1 large can San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes
2 leeks or 6 green onions
about 2 quarts beef, chicken or vegetable broth
1 package Lipton onion soup mix
1 small head cabbage (about 14 ounces)
1/2 pound frozen green beans or fresh (not canned)
1 green pepper (Jacques says peel your green pepper)
1 pound carrots
1/2 bunch celery
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped

Cut vegetables into medium pieces (bite sized).
Put tomatoes in a pot and break with your hands or a wooden spoon. Add everything else to the pot. Season with salt, pepper, curry or if desired, hot sauce or chili flakes.
Boil fast for 10 minutes, reduce to simmer, cook until tender.
Makes about 14 cups

The protean component of the meal was bacon and cheddar cheese wrapped tater tots, a recipe my brother Tom sent me to make for my Super Bowl Party, but we had enough bacon at that party to go ‘round.

I must say, the soup was real good, worthy of multiple eatings — in fact, I had it for lunch the next day, after I got “crowned.”

I can’t say too much in favor of the Tater Tot deal, except it’s pretty hard to screw up potatoes, bacon and cheddar, but that comes close. The prep is messy and labor intensive and takes almost 2 minutes per tot. I surely wouldn’t do those for a party. They kind of lost their classic snail-like shape in the baking and melting of the bacon and cheese, although they tasted OK.

April 01, 1996
Jack’s Soup Diet
Tim Rosaforte
Earlier this year, when Jack Nicklaus noticed that he weighed more than 200 pounds—”I hadn’t been that heavy since I was a kid,” Jack says—he decided to do something about it. Several weeks later, thanks to a diet that features cabbage soup (all you can slurp), Nicklaus has dropped 17 pounds and now weighs in at 185 (left), one pound less than when he won the Masters in 1986. Nicklaus received so many requests from other players at last week’s Legends (even from his partner, longtime health nut Gary Player) that Barbara Nicklaus had copies of the diet, and her recipe for cabbage soup, passed around the locker room. “I’m thinking of charging a dollar,” she says.
The Daily Meal Plan

Day One: Eat only soup and fruit. (Any fruit except bananas. Cantaloupe and melon are the lowest in calories.)
Day Two: All the fresh, canned or raw vegetables and soup you want. No fruit. At dinner, reward yourself with a buttered baked potato.
Day Three: Eat all the soup, vegetables and fruit you want. Do not have a baked potato or bananas. If you have eaten as directed, you should have lost three to seven pounds.
Day Four: Eat at least three bananas and drink as much skim milk as you can, along with the soup. Your body will need the potassium, carbs, protein and calcium to lessen a craving for sweets.
Day Five: You may have 10 to 20 ounces of beef and as many as six tomatoes. Eat the soup at least once.
Day Six: You can have as many as two or three steaks if you like, with green leafy vegetables. No potato. Be sure to eat the soup at least once.
Day Seven: Brown rice, vegetables and unsweetened fruit juices. Again, be sure to eat the soup. You should have lost 7-14 pounds by now.

Fat-Burning Cabbage Soup

1 or 2 cans crushed tomatoes

6 large green onions

1 large can beef broth

1 package Lipton onion soup mix

1 head cabbage, chopped

2 cans green beans

2 green peppers

2 lbs. carrots

1 bunch celery

Season with salt, pepper, curry or parsley if desired, or hot sauce. Cut vegetables into medium pieces, boil fast for 10 Minutes, reduce to simmer, cook until tender.

Bacon & Cheese Wrapped Tater Tots with Tabasco
Here’s the how-to:
The key ingredients:  frozen tater tots, Tabasco sauce, sharp cheddar cheese and center-cut bacon. (photos from the recipegirl web site)

These are so easy to assemble.  Lay out a half-slice of bacon on a working surface.
Place a partially defrosted tater tot onto the bacon.
Cut a slit into the center of the tater tot.

Slide a chunk of sharp cheddar cheese into the middle.
Give it a good sprinkle of Tabasco Sauce.
Wrap the bacon tightly around.
Secure with a toothpick and place on a baking sheet.

Bake at 450 for about 15 minutes, until tater tots are cooked through and bacon is crispy.  Drain on paper towels to rid these little bites of any excess fat.

NOTES:
1) I made the soup on Thursday for dinner. 2) Lunch on Friday. after dentist. 3) Breakfast on Saturday with crumbled sausage. 4) Lunch on Sunday with crumbled sausage. 5) Today is Monday… no plans, but who knows.