Rye Berries with Roasted Cabbage

 

This recipe was driven by two factors: my desire, or rather need, to use up what’s in the overstuffed pantry closet, and my tendency to roast vegetables all winter long. There was a recipe in a magazine somewhere in which roasted cabbage was doused in a caraway-infused butter, and that just sounded so good. I had a big bag of rye berries, and they sounded like they’d make good companions to that cabbage.

Rye berries are just like wheat berries, which I’ve used in several recipes featured on these pages. If you ground them finely enough, you would have whole grain rye flour. If you cook them by simmering for a long time in water, you get chewy, starchy nuggets that are a great base for salads or pilafs, and a great addition to soups and stews. They can also be worked into breads and other baked goods. (They can be sprouted, too, but I haven’t tried that yet.) I tend to treat all of my favorite grains roughly the same in my cooking: wheat and rye, barley, farro, quinoa, rice. I love them all, but the rye berries seemed especially suited for use with buttery, toasty cabbage.

 

The result of this recipe fiddling was humble and rustic, but also pretty terrific. I sautéed cooked rye berries in some of the caraway butter with onions and garlic.  A splash of cider vinegar also went in to brighten the flavors. Once the cabbage was roasted to the point of browning on the edges, I stirred it into the warm rye berries, then covered it all in more caraway butter.

These are mild and subtle flavors that really work well together. Nothing screams, and nothing is drowned. The textures are nice as well, with the chewiness of the rye berries standing up with the tender-crisp cabbage. The creaminess of the butter covering everything adds some silky decadence to all that simplicity.

Probably my favorite part of this dish, however, was the toasty flavor from the charred bits of cabbage, the result of that extra roasting step. That nutty taste comes through in every bite. I loved it! And from now on, the making of this rustic, comforting, easy-to-make dish will be driven by me wanting to eat it again more than any other factor, no matter what’s in the pantry!

Rye Berries with Roasted Cabbage and Caraway Butter

I served this as a main dish, but you could serve is as a side dish with roasted meats or sausage or ham.

½ medium-size head green cabbage, coarsely chopped, about 5-6 cups

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt, divided

 ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon caraway seed

½ cup diced onion

2 medium-size cloves garlic, finely minced

3 cups cooked rye berries

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage, canola oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Transfer to a roasting pan. Roast at 400 F until the cabbage is tender, with a bit of bite to it, and gently charred on the edges. This should take about 30 minutes, but remove from the oven if it seems to be getting too dark.

2. While the cabbage is roasting, melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the caraway seeds and cook, stirring frequently for about 1 minute. Pour all but about 1 tablespoon of the melted butter and most of the caraway seeds into a bowl. (It’s okay if some of the seeds are still in the pan.) Keep the caraway butter warm until needed.

3. Return the pan to the heat and add the onion and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook and stir 8-10 minutes, or until the onion is soft. Add the garlic and saute about 1 minute more. Add the rye berries and the remaining salt and pepper and cook to heat them through. Stir in the cider vinegar. Keep warm until the cabbage is done.

4. When the cabbage roasting is completed, stir the cabbage into the rye berry mixture in the skillet. Pour the reserved caraway butter over the mixture and stir to coat well. Taste for seasoning and add additional salt or pepper if desired.

Makes about 4 main-dish servings.

Other recipes like this one: Sauteed Cabbage with Caraway and Cider Vinegar; Wilted Savoy Cabbage with Warm Walnut-Butter Vinaigrette; Spaetzle with Cabbage, Bacon and Onions

One year ago: Beet and Carrot Burgers

Cabbage and Turnip Soup

 

One of the soups I’ve enjoyed returning to over the years is this Creamy Cabbage and Potato Soup, originally adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special. I like the way I made it in the post, but I also varied it depending on what was on hand, especially when it came to the type of onion, the source of the creaminess, and the broth. What I put together recently was a decidedly different soup that still was extremely satisfying in an earthy kind of way.

It’s hard to characterize potatoes and cabbage as especially flavorful vegetables, but when I decided to add some turnips, it was more out of a need to use them than a way to enhance the flavor of the soup. For me, turnips don’t so much represent an absence of flavor as a flavor vacuum, one that can render other ingredients around it flavorless as well. That being said, it’s also hard to argue that turnips don’t mingle really well with other humble ingredients. Like cabbage and potatoes, for instance.

 

I really did enjoy the subtle bitterness of the added turnips here. They seemed to increase the cabbage flavor of the soup, lending a hand for once, rather than just sucking flavor away. It didn’t hurt that I based this version of the soup on beef broth, which brought more flavor of its own, and the garlic and caraway were great team players as well.

Rounding everything out with a generous swirl of sour cream, plenty of black pepper, and a good handful of nutty cheese (I used Comte, but Gruyere, a milder Swiss, or even cheddar cheese would be good) brought this possibly bordering on dull soup to delicious, creamy, sharp heights. The soup is pureed and the resulting thick and creamy bowlful is even better with an additional dollop of sour cream and more shredded cheese.

This version of a pureed cabbage and potato soup is still quite humble, but it’s totally delicious and hearty enough to be satisfying in the dead of winter, let alone these cool and dreary early spring days. I’m thinking that a brothy version with the veggies left whole, featuring young turnips and spring peas might be my next variation. It’s looking like the warm spring weather with its more delicate green ingredients may be a long time coming. Soup can warm us until then.

Cabbage and Turnip Soup with Beef Broth

This soup is great accompanied by Dark Rye Bread, Beer and Onion Rye Bread, or Rye Soda Bread

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 cups finely chopped onion

½ teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

4 cups chopped green cabbage

2 cups chopped peeled turnip

2 cups chopped peeled potato

4 cups beef broth

½ c sour cream, plus additional for serving

1 cup shredded Gruyere or Comte cheese, plus additional for serving

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and ¼ teaspoon salt. Saute briskly until the onions are tender, about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and caraway seeds. Cook and stir about 1 minute.

2. Add the cabbage, turnip, potato, and remaining ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook and stir for about 10 minutes or until the cabbage has wilted.

3. Pour in the beef broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low to low so that the mixture is simmering gently. Cover and cook until the vegetables are very tender, about 30-45.  Stir occasionally and add some water if the mixture seems too dry.

4. Remove the pot from the heat and cool slightly. Puree the soup in a blender in batches until it is all very smooth. (You can use an immersion blender, but I find that the cabbage is still very fibrous if I do.) Add more water or broth if the soup is too thick.

5. Return the soup to low heat. Add the sour cream, cheese, and black pepper, stirring until the cheese melts. Taste for seasoning and add more salt or pepper as needed. Serve with an additional dollop of sour cream and sprinkling of cheese if desired.

Makes about 8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Creamy Cabbage and Potato Soup, Celeriac, Potato and Wild Rice Soup, Curry Carrot Soup, Potato and Garlic Scape Soup with Chives

One year ago: Chocolate Cookie Butter 

Spicy Cabbage and Noodle Stir Fry

Yes, it’s time for cookies. But until I can carve out some time (and get some decent photographs), I’ll have to talk about other things I’m eating. There have been some more really good muffins that I’ll post later, and I hope to dive into the butter-and-sugar food group for some more treats before January brings austerity calorie legislation, but a particular stir fry supper is worth spending some time on right now.

Of course, stir fry is just about right for busy nights, and there have been a few of those around here lately, but the real reason I like to make one this time of year is to star in a dinner-and-a movie night with A Christmas Story. You can eat anything you want – candy, cookies, turkey or ham or prime rib dinners – with any other Christmas movie, but you’ve got to have Chinese food with A Christmas Story!

 

This satisfying vegetable-based dish is quick and easy, especially if you have a food processor to shred the vegetables. I like to use the slicing blade on my Cuisinart to shred cabbage and the shredding blade for the carrots. I kept this pretty simple and used what I happened to have on hand. You could use or add other vegetables, such as bok choi or daikon radishes or scallions, but I really recommend starting with a good quantity of cabbage.

The sauce for this stir fry is spicy, and I love it that way. I used Sriracha for the bulk of the zing, with some Thai sweet chile sauce (which I adore). All those need to carry them in sauce form is some soy sauce (I used tamari) and an acid (I loved lime juice here). The combination of this spicy sauce with cabbage cooked over high heat and noodles is almost addictive, leading you to munch more and more and more, leaving no room for cookies, cocoa, or eggnog. Proceed with caution.

I added some beaten eggs to this dish for some protein. You could add some cooked chicken, beef, shrimp, pork or if you want it vegan, use tofu, seitan or finely chopped peanuts or cashews. I suppose you could even serve the cooked vegetables over rice instead of tossed with noodles. I really loved the way this whole dish came together, though. I liked this so much, in fact, that I may be watching A Christmas Story several times this year, just to have more excuses to make it!

Spicy Cabbage and Noodle Stir Fry

I cooked the scrambled eggs in the same wok as everything else here, but you could cook the eggs in another pan and add them to the pan just before the sauce.

¼ cup soy sauce or tamari

juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon Sriracha or other hot chile sauce

2 tablespoon Thai sweet chile sauce

2 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

½ medium green cabbage, shredded

2 medium carrots, peeled and shredded

2 celery stalk, thinly sliced

3 large eggs, beaten

8 ounces cooked fettuccine noodles or wide rice noodles

1. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, lime juice, Sriracha, and sweet chile sauce. Stir to combine. Set aside.

2. Heat the oil over high heat in a wok or large skillet. When very hot, add the onion. Cook, stirring constantly until softened and beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook and stir 30 seconds.

3. Add the cabbage, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring often, until the cabbage is wilted and tender-crisp.

4. Push the vegetables to one side of the wok, leaving a space to cook the eggs directly on the pan surface. Add the eggs. Cook eggs, stirring frequently, until soft curds form (like scrambled eggs). Mix the cooked eggs in with the vegetables.

5. Add the noodles and mix in with the vegetables (a pair of tongs works well for this). Pour in the soy sauce mixture and stir to coat. Remove from the heat and serve.

Makes about 4 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Root Vegetable and Cabbage Stir Fry with Ginger and Lemon, Pork and Tangerine Stir Fry

One year ago: Mint Chocolate Cookies and Rum Raisin Oatmeal Cookies