White Bean and Cabbage Hash

I'm a little bummed.  You see, Deb, my kitchen-crush Deb, just released her book tour schedule.  This should have been a happy day for me, right?  She's even coming to the lovely suburbs of Chicago, close enough that I could even drag Ben along!  But now, this glee, this happy, excited, can't wait to just get my hands on the darn book and now may, just maybe I could get it signed too feeling, it's gone.  Cause I won't be here.  That's right.  Deb is making her way to the Midwest, and I won't even be here.  Needless to say, I am bummed.  I love Deb, you all know that.  It's weird and strange, and don't you dare go insulting my cooking superhero, because I will fight you.  And this chance I get to meet her?  Not there anymore.  My bottom lip is sticking out so far right now, I could balance a pencil on it.

Excuse me while I go and sit and pout for the next 12 minutes.  Hmmpphh.




 

Truth be told, the first cooking blog that I discovered wasn't Smitten Kitchen at all.  That actually didn't come till a few years later.  The first cooking blog I discovered was Heidi over at 101 Cookbooks.  And even though my heart and spatula belong to Deb, Heidi is pretty balling too.  Balling enough to come up with things like summer linguini, and a small stack of cookie recipes that one day I will eventually get to.

I gave my Mom Heidi's cookbook, Super Natural Every Day, for a birthday present a year or two ago.  Because I'm a needy daughter, mere hours after she had opened it, I flipped through the pages, earmarking all the ones that I needed to try as well.  This white bean and cabbage hash has been on the list since day 1, hour zero. 

I find it a little funny that I had wanted to make this recipe for over a year, and it only took my to the night before actually making the recipe to realize that it has a potato in it.  Which is good, because something needed to distinguish it from the other cabbage and bean saute recipe on this site.  I threw in some purple cabbage, mostly for you, for color, so it wasn't just mounds of pale cabbage and potatoes and white beans.  A bundle of leftover fresh thyme that I had, in an effort to minimize waste and at the suggestion of steamykitchen.com.  Head on over there, because those pictures are gorgeous.   I am still in awe that photos of cabbage could look so yummy.  And this is why my blog-love list is continuously growing...

White Bean and Cabbage Hash

Adapted from Steamy Kitchen, who adapted from Super Natural Every Day

2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil 

1 potato, medium size 

3-4 sprigs fresh thyme, bundled

1/2 red onion, diced 

1 15-oz can cannellini beans, drained 

3 cups heaping green and red cabbage 

kosher salt

Parmesan cheese

Scrub potato well.  Cut into a small dice, about 1/2 inch cubes.  Heat cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.  Add oil and heat until it begins to shimmer.  Spread potatoes evenly and brown, scrapping and tossing occasionally to get a golden brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. 

Add onion and cannellini beans.  Spread over bottom of pan and let onions cook down and beans brown.  Add bundled of thyme.  Toss occasionally, scraping browned bits from bottom of pan, browning beans on both sides.  

Toss in cabbage and cook another few minutes until cabbage is cooked down.  Remove thyme bundle.  Sprinkle salt over top to taste.  Top with Parmesan cheese. 

Spicy Sautéed Cabbage with Chickpeas and Parmesan

Before I say anything else, I need to apologize for the general horridness of these pictures.  And the fact that there are only three in the entire post.  You see, cabbage really isn't the prettiest thing to be snapping photos of.  Most especially when I haven't even seen natural day light since I've been back from Arizona (sighhh...) and the light in my kitchen isn't even bright enough to scoop my oatmeal out of the pot in the morning.  But I'm not going to be too hard on myself because even the official Bon Appetit picture doesn't look all that appetizing.  And they're professionals.  The fact of the matter is, cabbage just isn't sexy.  And if cabbage is ok with that, then really who are we to try to make it something it isn't?

This was the side to our Valentine's day steak dinner.  Again, cabbage doesn't really fall into the sexy, romantic category, but luckily Ben will eat anything I put in front of his face and doesn't get too annoyed when my reasoning boils down to: "I picked this recipe because then I can blog about it!"  He's pretty cool that way.  He even ate a full serving.

Now, I am a cabbage fan and a recent initiate into the "woohoo! Chickpeas!" club, so my outcome was always going to be a little bias.  But I liked this, although the cabbage didn't crisp up as much as I was thinking it would.  That may have been my faulty assumption or the fact that there was a lot of cabbage in the pan.  Also, It didn't have enough heat for me and I did a heaping quarter teaspoon of the red pepper flakes.  And it makes a lot.  A lot, a lot.  Normally not a big deal, except, as leftovers, it is less than stellar. I have been gussying it up with random combinations of extra Parmesan, fried eggs, sunflower seeds and/or sriracha.  On the first go round, right out of the pan, I was a fan.  Ben was ok with it, and when forced on the issue said he would be fine with eating it again, but would never request it or be particularly excited about it.  And I'm ok with that, because after 3 servings of leftovers, I so understand where he is coming from.  Eventually I want to try it again and work out the few kinks, but only when I have some left over cabbage to rid myself of or something.

So, the moral of the story is, if you randomly have an extra head of cabbage rolling around your produce drawer, this isn't a bad use for it at all.  Just only make as much as you're going to eat and avoid leftovers...

Spicy Sautéed Cabbage with Chickpeas and Parmesan
From Bon Appetit Online, February 2012

I'm giving you the proportions from Bon Appetit, but as referenced above, I would figure out how much you are going to eat and adjust accordingly.

1 head of cabbage, shredded, about 6 cups
2  Tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt, for seasoning
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 15-oz can Chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 lemon

Toppings:  (BA suggests only Parmesan, any sort of combination of these would be tasty)
Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated
Sunflower Seeds
Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Fried Egg

In very large skillet, or wok, over medium heat, heat oil.  Add cabbage, season with salt and cook.  Stir occasionally, just as needed, until cabbage becomes "crisp-tender", about 8 minutes.  Don't stir too frequently, you want the cabbage to get some color from caramelizing in the pan.  Add garlic and toss, cook a minute longer.  Season with salt.  Add well rinsed chickpeas and 2 tablespoons of water, season with salt, and toss, cooking until water is absorbed and chickpeas are heated through, about 2-3 more minutes.  Season with pepper, red pepper flakes and additional salt if needed, toss and let warm through again 1-2 minutes.  Remove from heat, squeeze lemon juice all over and finish with whatever combination of toppings is speaking to you.

Cabbage and Sausage Casserole

Yesterday, after the fourth and thankfully last day of 5 am green belt training at work, I was exhausted.  So, I decided to try something simple.  Plus I had a head and a half of cabbage in my fridge left over from St. Patty’s day that needed to get used.  (I still have half a head, if you have any ideas)  I found this online and loved it instantly because it only has 4 ingredients, and I actually only used 2, because I forwent the sauce. 

I was good and actually cut up the cabbage on Wednesday, so when I got home, it took all of 5 minutes to throw together and into the oven.  To cook, for an hour and a half.  Which gave me plenty of time to shower and lazily watch Everyone Loves Raymond.  And enjoy the smells of my cabbage and sausage slowly roasting and getting all yummy and caramelized.  It wasn’t the prettiest thing to ever come out of my oven, but it was warm and spicy (I used hot Italian sausage) and didn’t need any additional seasonings.  It was simple and yummy and warm.  You could doctor it up with spices and sauces if you wanted, but there was something nice and comforting about the plainness of it.

I didn’t really miss the sour cream sauce, but I put it in here, in case you wanted to try it.  I halved the recipe and dropped the cooking time to 1 hour and 15 minutes, although an additional 5 minutes wouldn’t have hurt.  I was just too hungry to wait 5 minutes.  I cooked it all in my square Pyrex, with no need to grease or anything.

This probably isn’t the most exciting first recipe to have, but hell, I was tired and it hit the spot.  And I know it’s warm in AZ now so maybe not the best for you guys, but maybe you have left over cabbage too?  The original recipe is below:

Cabbage and Sausage Casserole

2 pounds Napa, savoy or green cabbage
2 pounds Italian sausage (sweet or hot)
½ cup sour cream
1 Tbsp. prepared horseradish/mustard

Preheat oven to 400°F

Slice the cabbage ½ inch thick.  Place 1/3 of the cabbage in Dutch oven or casserole.

Remove sausage from casing.  Arrange half the sausage on top of cabbage and press firmly.  Layer another third of cabbage and sausage, pressing firmly.  Spread remaining cabbage over the sausage.  Cover with foil and put in oven.

Bake until cabbage is tender, about 1 hour, 40 minutes.  Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes.

While cabbage is cooking, combine the sour cream and horseradish/mustard in a small bowl.  Slice the casserole into wedges and serve with sour cream mixture.