Snow update and soup questions

Snow:
As of 10 a.m., there's 20" of snow in Washington, DC. By the end of the storm, another foot is expected. The conditions aren't quite white out, but they were last night before bed, and I still can't see the cupola of the Capitol or the Botanical Garden both of which are usually easily visible during the day. Last night, I couldn't see the other buildings in my complex.

I'm lucky not to be one of the people with a power outage. 210,000 people are without power mostly due to the weight of the snow causing tree limbs to break off and bring down the lines.

Food:
Most of the cabbage soup recipes I've looked at don't have beans in it. They mostly recommend cooking for about an hour and a half. Most of the bean soup recipes recommend three hours of cooking -- plus not adding salt at the beginning to keep the beans from getting tough.

Therefore, after soaking the beans overnight, I have cooked the beans for an hour and a half with black peppercorns, a couple of cloves of garlic, kombo, and cumin.

Kombo helps add body to vegetarian soups, and I think I'm falling a little in love with it. It also, supposedly, helps make beans more digestible. Cumin has similar properties.

Seriously, leaving meat out of soups wouldn't be difficult if it weren't for the richness that the meat adds to the texture.

The cabbage soups I've looked at on-line seem to fall into two broad areas: those with tomatoes and those without. Since I have a whole head of cabbage, I'll make a second cabbage soup at some point either tomorrow or Monday if we haven't dug out (or Tuesday when we expect more snow). I think with the white beans, I'm going to make this a white soup and save the tomatoes for the other half of the cabbage.

This means I need to add more body to the soup. The kombo can only do so much on its own. I thought I'd cook the onions, carrots, and spices in some olive oil and add it to the beans before adding the cabbage, salt, and water to make the soup.

Does deglazing the pan with a Belgian beer sound like a good flavor enhancer?
Would red wine be better?
Should I just trust in water and oil?
Add a little vinegar while cooking? Or squeeze a lime in just before serving?

Right now, I'm leaning toward rosemary and juniper for the spices. Any suggestions? Amendations?

I promise to write up the recipe if it turns out well.
These are important questions. I promise to let you know how it comes out.

Soup recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup Navy Beans
1/2 strip of kombu
2 Tablespoons of cumin, divided
1 teaspoon black peppercorns, divided
1/2 head of Cabbage
2 carrots
1 old apple (optional)
1/2 a large onion
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of Belgian beer (Chimay)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon grains of paradise
about 10 cubebs
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

Here's what I did.

Last night:
I soaked a cup of navy beans with the intention of making a bean and cabbage soup today.

This morning:
I drained and rinsed the beans, then I added three cloves of garlic, half a strip of kombu, and a tablespoon of cumin to them in the pot I intended to make soup in. I covered them with water, brought it to a boil, and then turned it down to a slow simmer. Let it simmer, covered, for 90 minutes. Turned off the burner and let it cool. Removed the strip of kombu.

This afternoon:
Added another 1/2 tablespoon of cumin and a teaspoon of salt to the beans.

I heated a heavy cast iron skillet and added the carrots (peeled and roughly diced), final clove of garlic (chopped), the rest of the cumin, and diced onions. I added 1/2 teaspoon of salt. As they sauteed, I ground together the other spices with the rosemary and added it to the mixture. When the carrots were soft, I added the sugar and let it carmelize for a minute before adding the beer. That cooked for about five minutes while I diced the apple and cut up the cabbage.

I put the contents of the skillet on top of the beans, added the apple, vinegar, and cabbage and covered it with water. It cooked for another 90 minutes.

eta: This is my best vegan soup to date. It really had great flavor and texture.
Am I allowed to be proud of myself?