What to do with cabbage?

When I visited my mom a few weeks ago, she sent me home with 2 head of cabbage from her garden (along with some tomatoes). YUM! Homegrown organic veggies! I already have a head of cabbage in my fridge. I love coleslaw (besides hummus it's one of the things I use my food processor the most for!) and use it for steaming Chinese dumplings instead of wax paper (get extra veggies in!)

But tonight, I've decided to fix something I haven't had for a while: Kaluski. Now, it goes by different names/spellings but it's basically cabbage and noodles. Sometimes I can find kaluski noodles- but you can use any size egg noodles that you want to. I've even made the switch to whole wheat egg noodles and it's been fine. One thing I like to do that this recipe doesn't is actually brown the cabbage. It's also good made using grilled cabbage (wrap a wedge of raw cabbage in foil with a pat of butter and grill until the package is squeezable soft). Some serve it with cottage cheese, sour cream, sausage or beef. But we like it just as it is. You can also use margarine or olive oil if you want.

June Meyer's Authentic Hungarian Cabbage and Noodles (Haluska)

Fresh Green Cabbage, that most versatile vegetable. Easy to keep for a long time in the bottom of the vegetable drawer or root cellar. Cheap and available all year long.

The farmers would bring in wagons loaded high with heads of green cabbage. They knew that their lives would depend on their putting enough cabbage away for the winter. Large crocks would be filled with shredded cabbage and salt to make sour kraut, and heads would be buried in straw bins in the root cellar.

Hungarians prepare cabbage in more different ways than any other ethnic cuisine. Cabbage can be eaten raw or cooked. Raw, in the various refreshing cold slaws, eaten in summer or winter. It is preserved and pickled with salt as sour kraut and made into many distinctive regional dishes. It is most delicate when sliced and sautéed with butter. The worst thing you can do to it, is boil it.

This dish exemplifies the delicacy of sautéed cabbage. It comes out nutty and buttery.

Regards, June Meyer.

1 stick of butter
1 large onion peeled and cut in strips
1 small head of cabbage OR 1/2 large head of cabbage, cut into strips
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 box or bag of large egg noodles, cooked and drained
1 pint of sour cream

Melt the butter in a large pan or pot, large enough to hold the chopped cabbage.
Sauté the cabbage and the onion in the butter until glossy and tender.
Now add the salt, pepper. Cover and let the cabbage mixture cook over low heat for about 15 minutes.
Add cooked drained egg noodles and mix.
Serve with bowl of sour cream. add salt to taste.

Note: There is a variation that I make often.
* 1 lb. of cooked ground beef OR 1 lb. of thinly sliced smoked Hungarian sausage.
This can be placed on top of the noodles and the cabbage.

Serves 4 to 6.

Linguine in Lemon Cream Sauce

This was dinner tonight, and it was good. I ended up using a whole lemon for the juice since I used whole wheat pasta and it needed a bit more than regular pasta probably would. I served it with garlic bread, and if I had the greens I would have fixed a salad too.

Linguine in Lemon Cream Sauce
The Italian version of this dish calls for heavy cream, which we've replaced with equally rich-tasting light cream cheese
Serves 4

8 oz dry linguine
1/2 cup light cream cheese
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, juiced and 1 Tbsp zest grated
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Cook linguine according to package directions in a pot of boiling salted water.

Warm cream cheese, oil and 2 Tbsp lemon juice in saucepan over low heat.

Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup cooking water. Stir reserved cooked water into cream cheese mixture. Add pasta, lemon zest and parsley; toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper.

Per 1 cup serving: 343 cal; 11 g prot; 14 g total fat (5 g sat fat); 45 g carb; 21 mg chol; 294 sod; 2 g fiber; 4 g sugars
Vegetarian Times September 2010

Dinner Last night: Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup (Taco Soup)

This is thanks to my sister. She makes this for her family (putting stuff out separately as add-ins for the kids). I added a can of beans and used rotisserie chicken last night since I didn't have a lot of time (got home around 8 pm). It was great! We even decided we don't even need the chicken, the beans were good enough. :)

Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup (Taco Soup)
Makes 8 (1 cup) servings
From: "Preventing Diabetes" by Prevention
190 cal, 22 g carb, 3.5 g fat, 2 g fib

15 oz diced tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 pound chicken breast, cut into 1" pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 jalapeños, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans (14 1/2 oz) reduced sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup fat-free sour cream
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
4 oz reduced fat tortilla chips, crushed

In food processor, combine tomatoes with juice, chili powder, cumin, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and hot pepper. Process to smooth thick consistency and set aside.

Warm oil in large pot over medium high. When hot, cook chicken, onion, jalapeño, and garlic, stirring frequently, 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and onion is softened. Reduce heat to low, add tomato mixture and broth and simmer, uncovered 15 minutes.

Meanwhile in small bowl, whisk flour and water until smooth paste forms. Add to soup and raise temperature if necessary to keep soup barely boiling. Simmer 5 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add sour cream and stir until well blended. Stir in cilantro and garnish with tortilla. Serve.