Cold weather and comfort food go together like bacon and eggs, peanut butter and jelly, spaghetti and meatballs.

That’s why it wasn’t surprising to me to see a billboard ad this morning touting all the soup you can eat from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays at a local restaurant. After all, what’s more comforting when the temperatures are below zero than a bowl of hot soup?

The following recipe, for Czechoslovakian Cabbage Soup, is my standby when winter temperatures dip into negative territory. It’s a hearty soup that contains cabbage (of course),  sauerkraut, tomatoes and carrots, among other ingredients.

I once brought the soup along on an ice-fishing trip to Lake of the Woods in northwestern Minnesota on a day when the temperatures were well below zero — somewhere between minus 10 and minus 20.

I can’t think of anything else that would have been more comforting.

Czechoslovakian Cabbage Soup
1 head green cabbage, coarsely chopped
1 quart sauerkraut
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
6 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes
2- to 3-pound chuck or buffalo roast or stew meat
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
½ cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
2 bay leaves
4 quarts water
Cook meat in water in soup pot until medium. Remove and cool. Put the rest of ingredients in water and bring to boil. Chop the meat into bite-size pieces and add to soup. Cook for 2 hours and serve.