Deconstructed Cabbage Rolls and Beet Salad

I knew I had a head of cabbage and half of another on the fridge so I was pondering that and struck on this idea.

I’m gonna give a shout out to a couple of my favorite brands here—just because the products are always here.

Penzey’s Revolution. I used this in the cabbage

Eden Organica Kimchi Sauerkraut I used this in the cabbage.

Stonehouse Olive Oil OMG spice This was perfect on the beets

Butler Soy Curls

This is 1/2 bag of soy curls soaking in water for 10-20 minutes

The rest is brand neutral.

This is most of the mise en place..

Beets

  • Beets, I had five small baby beets that I roasted and peeled at 350 for like 30 minutes
  • Carrot, radish, daikon…I thought I had carrot for the cabbage but instead had three small daikon so the salad got half and the cabbage got the other half—about 1/2 cup
  • Onions, 1/2 small onion chopped
  • Garlic, 3-4 cloves chopped
  • Pickles, Dill, 2 Tablespoons chopped
  • Olive oil, about 1/2 tablespoon
  • Vinegar, just a splash
  • Pickle juice, about 2 Tablespoons
  • OMG spice liberally – so you can add a mix of similar types of seasonings
  • Dill, chopped to serve

Just mix it all up!!

Cabbage

  • Cabbage, 1/2 head
  • Protein—hamburger, soy curls, tvp. I used 1/2 bag of butlers soy curls.
  • Carrot, 1/2-3/4 cup. I subbed daikon
  • Celery, 1/2-3/4 cup.
  • Tomatoes, 1 can chopped
  • Sauerkraut, 1/2 cup. I used kimchi kraut
  • Penzey’s Revolution, liberal shaking
  • Garlic, about 5 chopped cloves
  • Worcestershire, splash on soy curls
  • Smoked paprika, to help add some Smokey meatiness. Just a few shakes
  • Chives, chopped to garnish for serving. Mine looked bad so I used micro greens
  • Sour cream for serving

Sauté the soy curls in two swirls of olive oil just to fry out a bit and then add feelers garlic onions and carrots

Once it’s softening up some add the can of tomatoes

Let that cook a bit and add the cabbage

That cooks until everything is not raw crisp and the juice has been released. Then I add the sauerkraut and turn off the heat so it gets incorporated and heated but you don’t kill the probiotics.

Serve it with a dollop sour cream.

Advertisement

Pulled Jackfruit and Coleslaw

I’ve made this a few times but haven’t really written it down. I’m sure I have some pics poking around the blog. This is definitely a measure by feeling and throw stuff in dinner but it’s gluten free and meat free.

For the coleslaw….

Super easy. I’m not a huge fan of the heavy creamy slaws so I lean toward vinegar and oil types. This one has:

  • 1/2 head coleslaw, cored and sliced
  • 1 green onion, sliced
  • 3 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
  • 1/2 jalapeño, sliced
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 Tbl olive oil
  • Teaspoon dried onion
  • Tbl dried shallots
  • Salt to taste
  • About a teaspoon black pepper
  • About a Tbl of sugar

Mix it up and let it sit at room temp a couple hours.

For the jackfruit….

  • 1 can jackfruit with the fleshy part pulled apart and the solids finely chopped
  • 1/2 onion
  • 1/2 jalapeño
  • Garlic
  • 1 Tbl honey
  • 1 Tbl molasses
  • 1 Tbl mustard
  • 2 Tbl olive oil
  • 2 Tbl sugar
  • 1 Tbl Worcestershire
  • 1 Tbl soy sauce, tamari or coconut aminos
  • 1 small can tomato paste
  • I used flatirons dark and smoky pepper blend—like 1/2 teaspoon. You can use and nice yummy smoky pepper to add some depth and smoke.

I sautéed all ingredients except tomato and beans until onion nice and wilted.

Then I stirred in the paste…and it need some liquid to thin it out. I used about 1/2 cup of leftover bean cooking broth.

//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js

Nabak Kimchi

I haven’t made Nabak Kimchi aka Water Kimchi in like a decade…it’s more liquidy, less funky than your typical Napa kimchi you see around.

I started chopping the vegetables—I used daikon for the radish, carrot, green onion, napa cabbage, 1/2 an Asian pear, and garlic.

The daikon and Napa have been rubbed with salt

Added the other veggies to sit with the salt

Meanwhile I steep some gochugaru in a strainer in 10 cups of water and some salt.

Once wilted the veggies go into the jar. To be joined by the gochugaru “tea”

Where it sat for 4 nights and 3 days on the counter. To relocate to the fridge and get sampled.

I ended up using the following:

  • The inner yellowish leaves from one medium head of Napa cabbage
  • About a four-five inch slice of daikon cut into squares
  • 2 Tbl gochugaru
  • 1/2 Korean pear
  • 1 medium to large carrot
  • About an inch slice of ginger
  • 3-4 green onions
  • Garlic to taste 4-6 cloves
  • About 8 cups of water
  • 2Tbl salt to run the veggies and 2 Tbl for the water/gochugaru mixture

This experiment was inspired by this water kimchi recipe

This is definitely a repeat. It’s been years since I made this from scratch and I really enjoy it’s lightness.

The Lazy Gastronome

Kimchi and me

Jim bought me a new cookbook after we heard the authors on the radio


Amongst the treasures was a doable looking kimchi recipe.


And after a trip to the korean market and the farmers market i went to it:


Salted soaked and drain my veg…

Then combined the flavor:

Korean red pepper flakes

Tamari (gluten free soy sauce–aka soy sauce made with so not wheat)

Gochujang

Plus some rice wine vinegar, garlic and ginger


And there she sat for a day at room temp, then six in the fridge.


And today we are making


Stinky tofu will ferment at room temp for 48 hours. Then it will get fried…so monday is probably rice and stinky tofu night

Meanwhile, i totally made another batch of kimchi, and have a jar saved from batch 1 for kimchi fried rice during the week.

Everything gets roasted Wednesday!

Wednesday is clean out the produce day before tomorrow/tonight’s produce delivery.  And magically was inspired by an email from Bon Appetit today: Surprising roasted vegetables

What does the cabbage say?  “Roast me!”  

(I promise that I’ve only had one beer…)   
Leek, tomatoe, squash, broccoli, fennel and tomato…everything with its own penzey spice—curry for the squash, sea salt for fennel, tarragon for broccoli, roasted garlic on the tomato, and mural of flavor for the leek

 
I bought a case of these in my Amazon subscription this month so thought I’d roast them like I do garbanzos and cannelini 

   
Look good…olive oil and penzeys rogan josh blend

 
Fail!    They exploded in about five minutes so they got added to the original blight tomato sauce I was simmering with the San Marizanos below that Amazon sent instead of my subscription garbanzos today

  

The sauce tastes better with the addition of the beans …just not as attractive

Midway through:   
 

Almost final

   
I removed the broccoli and leaks, flipped the fennel and squash and gave the tomatoes a hint of Asiago/parm 

  This is how they looked on the platter (need to

Keep them heated for when Jim best home)  
Plated 

 

This was better than I dreamed!

The sweet dumpling squash was perfect with curry and the fennel was excellent with just the sea salt.  The cabbage was also good and would be perfect with some roasted apple (and sausage if I was being flexitarian :-))….frankly it was all good…..when I was 14 I thought I was cutting edge because I broiled everything—tomatoes, grapefruit…now I realize I was just on the verge of becoming a roasting fan.  I’m serious that roasting may be better than grilling…so I’m guessing that I need to start trying to grill my veggies low and slow..

Worry not friends…roasted turkey will not replace my  grilled bird for tday!