The art of making soup was a mystery to me as a child. Though my mother cooked well and often, whenever I had a bowl of soup to nurse a cold or for a quick meal, it came from a can. (Sorry to out you like this, Mom.) Of course, I’ve since learned that slurp-worthy soups are easily within reach as long as you take your time to build flavor and know how to properly season them.

A prime example is this humble, comforting soup of cabbage, fennel, tomatoes and white beans.

The star is an entire (small) head of cabbage — one of my favorite vegetables. My first instinct was to throw an onion into the mix, but I instead opted for the mild, sweet anise flavor of fennel to switch things up a bit. Fresh fennel looks a little bit like celery’s cooler cousin, with its layered bulb, protruding stalks and frilly fronds. It may seem unwieldy if you’re not used to handling it, but there’s no need to be intimidated.

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To slice fennel, I start by separating the stalks from the bulb. I cut the bulb into quarters through the root end, remove any dry or hardened outer layers (if present), trim the tough core, then slice the bulb against the grain. The fronds can be treated like herbs, so pick them off and save them for a garnish. With the stalks, you can simply slice them as you would celery and cook them along with the sliced bulb, or save them for stock.

Get the recipe: Cabbage, Fennel and White Bean Soup

Once the cabbage and fennel are prepped, the pair go into a pot with a bit of dried thyme, salt and pepper, and slowly begin to melt into submission, mellowing and sweetening with time. Then come the beans for earthiness and protein (there’s no need to drain and rinse them, by the way), tomatoes for a touch of acidity and umami, and vegetable stock for the requisite liquid. A few extra minutes, and you’ve got a pot of soup ready to be savored — almost.

At the end of just about every stovetop recipe is a key directive that seems to elude some: Taste, and season with more salt and pepper, as desired.

Also known as seasoning to taste, this instruction is paramount in recipes, because everyone’s taste buds are different. What’s delicious to one person may be bland to another, and often most critical to this perception is salt. “Not only is salt one of the five tastes, it also affects others,” my Washington Post Food colleague Becky Krystal wrote in an article about salt myths. “Salt reduces bitterness. It enhances aromas, which play a big role in our perception of flavor aside from just taste.”

7 myths about cooking with salt

Due to health warnings about consuming too much salt and a fear of making something overly salty, I was once very cautious of the mineral. But in culinary school, I conquered my fear. During one session, we started with a simple soup and were told to keep adding salt and tasting to see how the flavor changed. After a certain amount of salt had been added, all the ingredients seemed to fall into place, and the flavor just clicked. It was like a lightbulb went off. I recommend you try this at home with a soup or stew that you make often.

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How to properly use salt is my go-to answer when people ask me what’s the most important thing for home cooks to learn in the kitchen. Exactly how much salt to add to make a dish taste good is based on the individual, but most dishes can take more salt than you might think. (Of course, you need to be judicious, because there is a difference between well-seasoned and salty.) And for those who want to limit their salt intake, you can still season to taste by adding more of the other seasonings called for in a recipe, or acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar.

As much as I preach about the benefits of following recipes as written, this is my edict to not skip the last step. And if — or rather when — you make this Cabbage, Fennel and White Bean Soup, don’t forget to factor in the sour cream added at serving time when you’re seasoning to taste.

Get the recipe: Cabbage, Fennel and White Bean Soup

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