Cabbage salad

This started off as a salad inspired by the “Chinese” chicken salad style recipes with a cabbage base (meaning – composed largely of cabbage). And this particular version was greatly inspired by the recipe in The Peaceful Palate by Jennifer Raymond. At first I only changed the dressing (her version was healthier and lower in fat, but didn’t quite hit the spot for me), but recently I really wanted to make this and haven’t been able to find suitable Ramen style noodles. (I used to use Soken brand brown rice noodles, but haven’t been able to find them in the last year)

That led to this version where I substituted Short, thinly slice carrots for the noodles. I know, not quite the same thing. But, I think it resulted in a delicious cabbage salad.

6-8 cup finely sliced green cabbage
1/2 cup almonds, roughly chopped
1/4 cup unhulled sesame seeds
3 to 4 green onions, thinly sliced or a few inches of chives cut into short segments, or a few Tablespoons of finely diced red onion
2 medium carrots sliced into matchstick sized pieces about 2 inches long.

Toast the almonds and sesame seeds at 375 for 6 to 8 minutes, or carefully stir them on the stove top to toast (but you have to really watch them closely with this method).

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss with the following dressing:

1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup brown rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons agave nectar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3/8 teaspoon sea salt

Place in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake well.

C

Stir-fry

Have I mentioned how easy it is to make some type of a stir-fry dish? First, I start cooking some brown rice, so it will be done in time for dinner.

Then I wash and prep. all of the veggies that will be going into our stir-fry. This is a great opportunity to use any mysterious green vegetables you have floating around the house (you know, the ones you can’t figure out how to use).

I chop onions into 1-inch square pieces, carrots into thin diagonal slices, broccoli into florets, potatoes into thin slices, greens into about 2-inch squares (the size is not at all critical here), zucchini into 1-inch cubes (because I like it that way), hopefully you get the idea.

Then you heat a bit of oil in the pan, use a med-high heat, (using some sesame oil can add flavor) and start to cook the veggies that have the longest cook time. For instance onions and carrots. Stir and cook those for a few minutes (adding a few sprinkles of sea salt), then add in the veggies with the next longest cook time, cook for a few minutes (while stirring) and add in any remaining veggies (such as those greens). At this point add in your seasonings during the last few minutes of cooking. Then remove the vegetables from the heat and serve them over the cooked brown rice.

Last night, for seasonings, I used orange juice concentrate, water, soy sauce, sea salt, and pepper, with a little arrowroot powder to thicken the mixture. I’m not sure on the measurements and I really don’t believe they are critical. To give you some idea; I think the O.J. would have equaled about 1/4 – 1/2 cup when combined with the water, then I used just 2 or 3 Tablespoons of soy sauce, less than 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, and a few grinds of fresh pepper. This was thickened with a Tablespoon of arrowroot powder mixed with a bit of water and stirred into the mixture.

C

Kitchen Mishaps

You know how you feel when you buy a new gadget for the kitchen that is going to save you time and money? I purchased a soymilk maker a while ago and eagerly began reading the manual, putting it together, soaking beans, and making soymilk. I couldn’t wait to taste homemade soymilk on homemade granola. This was a step forward toward eating (and drinking) less processed foods. However, when I strained the milk, it was much thicker than I expected it to be and it didn’t taste very good. I asked Cherie about it the next time I talked to her on the phone and we figured out that I should add the water first before the beans (I had somehow reversed those steps from the manual) and maybe add a little sweetener. I tried it. Again, it was too thick and didn’t taste very good. I sadly put away my soymilk maker and focused on other ways to eat healthy. Months later, while quilting with Cherie, she asked how my soymilk making was going. When I told her it wasn’t, she started walking me through each step to see if she could figure out what was wrong. She pulled open her cupboards and, as a side note, pointed to her soybeans. I suddenly realized that was not the kind of bean I was using! I had mislabeled my jars of beans and had been using garbanzo beans (chickpeas) instead of soybeans. : ) Once I started using the right kind of beans, my soymilk maker worked great.

When I was child living at home, my mother bought non-instant powdered milk from cheese factories. She would whisk it with water in gallon sized pitchers. One Thanksgiving she pulled a pitcher out of the refrigerator to add milk to the mashed potatoes. She held the hand mixer in the potatoes with one hand and poured the pitcher with the other hand. To her horror, the potatoes were turning purple! She had grabbed the pitcher of grape juice instead of milk. Thankfully, she quickly realized her mistake and switched pitchers before the potatoes were ruined. We still laugh about that story every Thanksgiving when making mashed potatoes.

M

Do you have any kitchen mishaps you’d like to share? We’d love to hear about them.

Kohlrabi

Years ago, when I was in college, one of my roommates pulled a weird alien looking ball out of the fridge and proceeded to matter of factly peel and slice it to eat. She replied to our questioning in a voice that indicated it was obvious, she was eating kohlrabi.
Turns out it is delicious. You can cook the leaves like any other green. My favorite way to eat the bulb is to peel and slice it and then serve it raw with a bit of sea salt sprinkled on top.

C

P.S.
This is also good for you, just in case the excellent taste (which I can’t adequately describe) isn’t enough incentive to try it out for yourself. Raw it’s an especially good source of vitamin C, potassium, and (this surprised me) it is also a source for Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids .