Curried Cabbage

This next recipe was given to me by my friend Carol (via EatingWell), so I thought I'd give it a go. It's unlike any other recipe so far in Cabbage month and unlike any recipe I've tried. I'll be honest, it wasn't my favorite dish. However, Trevor LOVED it. This might be the best dinner I've made for him so far... at least according to his reaction.  Apparently I need to incorporate more curry in to our lives!

Curried Cabbage

Thanks Carol!

1 T canola Oil
1.5 t curry powder
1 med onion, thinly sliced
4 C shredded cabbage about 3/4 pound
1.5 t lemon juice
2 T plain yogurt

Heat oil in skillet over med heat. Add curry powder and cook until fragrant, stir in onion and cook until translucent about 3 min. Add cabbage and cook about 5 minutes. Remove from heat add yogurt and lemon.

I served it with pan fried pork chops and oven baked potato slices

Cabbage, Onion and Yogurt concoction ready to go!

Warm oil and curry powder in pain until fragrant

Add in onions and cook until translucent

Add in cabbage and cook for about five minutes

Remove from heat and mix in yogurt concoction

Rustic Cabbage Soup

There's nothing like a well thought out meal week! I finally know what that special caliber of mom feels like. The one who has thought out all meals for the week, makes their children's halloween costumes and throws amazing birthday parties (Thanks Mom!) Granted, I'm not a mom, but I felt like one this week with how organized our dinners have been!

Next up is a Rustic Cabbage Soup from 101 Cookbooks. What I enjoyed about this recipe was the fact that beans were included. Flashback to February! We've had such odd weather lately with one sunny day and one snowy day, that I thought soup was fitting. Plus I did some "doctoring" so that I used the other halves from the German Cabbage Casserole. Genius! 

Finished Product sprinkled with some Parmesan cheese

Potatoes, onion and cabbage all cut up ready to go!

Oil, Potatoes and salt warming up and browning

Meanwhile, brown the ground turkey breast

Add the garlic and onion to the pot

Add the beans and broth

Finally, add the cabbage and allow to cook down a little

Isn't it odd that you can feel like you followed a recipe to a "t" and made no mistakes, only to discover when blogging that several were made?! Amazing. I've been cutting all of the recipes in half to serve two people and I did the same with this one. With one minor exception. I didn't half the cabbage quantity. No wonder I felt like it was more stew-ish than soup-ish. Woopsy-do! The original recipe also doesn't call for ground turkey, but it was so good the night before I felt that it would be perfect in this soup. This was very tasty, but slightly bland. The original poster does talk about that the seasoning needs to be just right, so maybe I was a bit off. This did make plenty for two though, in fact, it'd probably be plenty for four. 

Happy Soup-ing!

German Cabbage Casserole "Kohl Und Hackfleisch"

March is coming to a close and I have quite a few more cabbage recipes to go! I have a feeling Trevor and I will be sick of cabbage by the end of this week.

This next recipe comes to us from Germany. It's called Kohl Und Hackfleisch. All together now... "Kohl Und Hackfleisch"... just kidding, we'll make it easy on ourselves and call it German Cabbage Casserole. It was very tasty! It's similar to the Beef and Cabbage Casserole, but the way I did it was a bit healthier. 

Kohl Und Hackfleisch (German Cabbage Casserole)

Original Recipe can be found here

1 lb ground turkey or beef

1 medium onion

1 medium cabbage chopped 

1 garlic clove minced

1 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup unseasoned bread crumbs

salt and pepper to taste

I served it with some french style green beans and a dinner roll.

Brown meat (I used ground turkey breast), onions and garlic
until onions are translucent.

Chop head of cabbage...
this photo highlights that I need a larger cutting board!

Add cabbage to meat/onions/garlic and cover.
Cook until cabbage is translucent (about 20 mins).

I couldn't help but "doctor" this up as my dad would say!
I added smoked paprika, turkey bacon bits and butter... mmm butter.

Add in cheddar cheese and sour cream. Stir well.

Place in greased casserole dish (mine was a 8x8).
Sprinkle bread crumbs over top and bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

That's it! Another easy and delicious casserole. Please note that I halved this recipe and it made plenty for two with leftovers for lunch. Other than the "doctoring" I did, I wouldn't change anything about it. I would even omit my turkey bacon bits... but definitely keep the butter! Not sure if I could really taste the smoked paprika, but it did add a little color to the mix.

Happy German Casserole-ing!

 

Cabbage Packets

We didn't cook an entire head of cabbage for St. Patrick's Day so we had some leftover. I decided to try this recipe from Green Lite Bites. For those of you who do not know what happens to a grill when left uncovered in the rainy Portland weather, please don't try it to find out. It's not a pretty site on the inside of our grill at the moment. So like the original poster from Green Lite Bites, I too am without a grill. I thought it was perfect that her recipe is called "Roasted (Wish They Were Grilled) Cabbage". 

Her post is really wonderful and explains the process in depth, so I won't bore you. I did some things differently out of necessity. For example, I used leftover turkey bacon bits in stead of fresh bacon and soy sauce instead of Worcestershire Sauce. I think the cabbage would have been better if I had followed the recipe. I've also seen other recipes in which a whole slice of bacon is wrapped around the cabbage wedge... yum!

Corned Beef and Cabbage

AKA... Boil the crap out of everything!

Trevor and I were lucky enough to have a visit from one of my best friends. It was so wonderful to spend time with her and her boyfriend. We were under the impression that they were bonafide Vegans. Needless to say I was curious how I was going to sneak in my Corned Beef.  Lucky for us we found out that they were very loose on their definition, so we went ahead and celebrated St. Patrick's Day in style!

This meal is so easy. You literally just boil everything, and boil, and boil. The package on the Corned Beef said to boil it for 2.5-3 hours. Check. How do you make mashed potatoes? Boil. How do you cook cabbage? Boil. Hmmmm.... a-ha! A theme! Now I do know that you can combine items and boil together or even put it all in the crockpot. For various reasons we went for more of a boil-each-thing-in-a-different-pot-and-watch-it approach. I promise you there was wine and plenty of catching up while we watched our pots boil!

I did Google "Boiled Cabbage" and came up with this recipe which I followed loosely. The only trick I used was to apply the butter with a basting brush so you could really get in all those layers. Worked like a charm!

Hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!

Beef and Cabbage Casserole

I'm terribly sorry it's taken me so long to post again! This is not good blog etiquette and I will do my best to be more consistent with posting... my apologies. 

This next recipe was delicious! I really thought it was going to be bland, but I was very wrong. Well not very wrong... just wrong. It has a good taste to it and didn't require very much "doctoring" as my dad would call it! However, I'm pretty sure I saw Trevor sneak in and dash some things on the beef while it was browning.

The recipe came from my mom who would make this in the downstairs mother-in-law apartment for her mom, while in the upstairs kitchen she'd make her dad stuffed green peppers. Oh the things we do for parents! I can imagine this was a huge treat for them both and that the effort was much appreciated. The minute I pulled the casserole out of the oven, the smell transported me back to my grandparent's little mother-in-law apartment... they must have liked cabbage! I'm starting to understand why.

BEEF/CABBAGE CASSEROLE
 
Lightly brown 1 chopped onion in a little butter; add 1 lb. lean ground beef, salt, pepper and cook until slightly brown.
Put 3 cups coarsely shredded cabbage in bottom of 3 quart casserole. Spread onion/beef mixture on top of cabbage and another 3 cups cabbage on top. Evenly spread 1 can undiluted tomato soup on top. Cover and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

I was worried about liking this recipe, so I immediately cut it in half. Alright, the truth might be because I wanted to use my new Le Creuset dish again! This was the perfect size for Trevor and I and we had just a little over for lunch for one the next day. Unfortunately I made the mistake of NOT cutting the tomato soup in half. No wonder it tasted so good, it was chalked full of sodium! We liked the amount of liquid, so next time I might use the same amount, but just purchase a lower sodium tomato soup. I was also worried about it being served by itself, but it really didn't need a starch with it. However, it might go great over mashed potatoes! 

My next post should hopefully be about the awesome Corned Beef and Cabbage we'll be making for St. Patrick's Day!

Halushki

First cabbage dish! 

A family friend, Teresa suggested this recipe on Facebook to me. Teresa and her family have been joining the Pelto's for Christmas for years. The best part about it?! Her homemade raviolis... yum! Needless to say, I'd trust Teresa with any cooking idea she throws my way!

From the Googling I did, it appears that Halushki is an Eastern European dish (possibly primarily Polish) that is popular in Pennsylvania. It seems that everyone has their own recipe and that there is a lot of leeway in ways to make Halushki. The four basic ingredients are cabbage, noodles, onion and butter. How can you go wrong with this combo?!

But wait... there's more!

I added bacon... bam! Remember how I said that cabbage is often paired with bacon? Well here is a prime example. I figured there wasn't quite enough butter in this dish so why not add some bacon grease to the mix? 

This is one of those times that I just used multiple recipes found online and made it my own. It doesn't happen often. I've put down what I did last night, but at the end I talk about the changes I would make next time.

Halushki

4 cups of dry wide egg noodles

5 strips bacon

1 head of green cabbage-chopped or shredded

1 medium yellow onion-chopped or sliced

1 tsp of minced garlic

3 tbl of butter

Garlic Powder, Onion Powder and Salt to taste

Fry up the bacon and save the grease. Add 1 tbl of butter to the pan with the grease and mix in the chopped onions on medium heat. After about 5 minutes (once the onions are getting soft) mix in the cabbage and garlic. You'll want to stir frequently. Cook the cabbage mixture for about 20  minutes on the stove. You'll notice changes, everything will get soft and more yellowish. Apparently the goal is to let it brown a little and sort of carmelize. While the cabbage is cooking, cook the noodles and drain. Mix in 2 tbl of butter in to the noodles and the garlic and onion powders and salt to taste. Once the cabbage mixture is ready, mix in with the noodles. Crumble the bacon and add to the pasta and cabbage. Serve warm.

Finished Dish! I served with
Roasted Green Beans with Parmesan from this post.

Shredded/Chopped Cabbage before cooking.

Cabbage after cooking... can you see the brown?

Mixed in with the noodles and bacon

Things I'd do differently:

-add more bacon! The bacon worked great with the cabbage and noodles and really gave it a pop. I would definitely add more bacon next time... like double it.

-maybe add in mushrooms?

-maybe try ham?

Other than those things this dish was delicious! I can't wait to go home and have some more. What a successful first cabbage post, thanks Teresa!

March is Cabbage Month!

I spent a while debating about what the vegetable will be for March. I'm starting to get a lot of suggestions and help, which I LOVE! Something new I've decided to incorporate in to the decision making process is what vegetables are in season each month. I originally had slated Asparagus for March because I heard they are one of the first vegetables in season. However, after talking to Carissa who works at Whole Foods (which posts a convenient list of harvest periods of vegetables on their bags) I discovered that Asparagus is best in April, not March. Plus Asparagus and April make a nice alliteration pair.

Last St. Paddy's Day I enjoyed Cabbage for the first time after the boyfriend's mom made it for us. I thought it would be a perfect vegetable for March so that I had an excuse to make Corned Beef and Cabbage... as if I needed one! So let me make it official and announce that March is Cabbage Month!

The positives of Cabbage:

-great source of Riboflavin or Vitamin B2 which I already take in large quantities to fight tension and migraine headaches (sidenote to all the women who get headaches: you should definitely check out Vitamin B2... changed my headache life)

-often paired with bacon (Bacon is so good, to improve other food, they wrap it in bacon. Jim Gaffigan)

-frequently added to soups and stews (great winter dishes)

-easily identified and found at grocery stores

I've been busy looking up recipes for Cabbage and am really looking forward to experimenting! If anyone has a great recipe involving cabbage, please send it my way!