Cabbage, Leeks, Limas, Lemons? A star is born with this winning, fresh combination

Not easy being green? At least EATING green is easy when you help yourself to this recipe for Cabbage with Lemons and Limas (and Leeks, too). This suggestion sprang from our hometown newspaper, The Dallas Morning News, in its food feature section, which recommended to readers, “Paint your plate with produce.” 

Cabbage, the star of this dish, is high in vitamins A, K, and C, and is rich in fiber and folate. Cabbage has calcium for sturdy bones, antioxidants to keep cancer away, and even contains protein. Best of all, one cup of cooked cabbage contains only 33 calories. Who can argue with that? 

Combining the green all-stars of cabbage, limas, and leeks (I used the leeks in place of onions in a recipe because I had some leeks on hand) was most unusual; adding the lemons for seasoning was a good idea (remember that I’m still rich in fresh lemons from my visit to the West). Since lemons are bright with acidity, they bring up the good flavor of the cabbage and banish the “cabbage-gone-bad” taste and aroma. In other words the lemony-fresh aroma is all you smell when this dish is cooking.

I like the touch of grated Parmesan on top—makes it seem like more of a veggie casserole in its little casserole dish. Best of all was the addition of the sprig of fresh thyme.

Anyone who thinks cabbage is flavorless will have another thought after digging into this tasty, easy-to-prepare menu item. We loved it and were sorry to see the last bite disappear from our serving bowl.

Cabbage with Lemons and Limas

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion sliced fine (I substituted 2 leeks, sliced fine)

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups cabbage, shredded or thinly chopped

juice of 2 lemons

2 cups cooked large limas, well-drained

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (roughly 1 sprig)

salt substitute and pepper to taste

grated Parmesan for garnish

In a large stock pot heat oil over medium-high heat. Add sliced onion and minced garlic. Stir to coat vegetables in oil; cook for about 3 minutes until garlic and onion just soften. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes to let vegetables carmelize. Raise heat to medium. Add shredded cabbage and lemon juice. Toss gently; allow cabbage to wilt. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes or until cabbage is tender. Add limas, zest, and thyme, Stir and heat about 5 minutes. Season with salt substitute and pepper; serve with a sprinkle of grated Parmesan. Makes 6 servings.

Kid-friendly sloppy joe mix helps sneak veggies past the unsuspecting

OK, here it is, friends--the recipe I've been mentioning for the past several blogs. Wonderful- tasting, quick, ample--and best of all, a way to sneak veggies down the unsuspecting (aka, kids).

The recipe for Cabbage Sloppy Joes was like so many of the others--discovered in desperation when Hubby, a few years back, brought in from our garden more heads of cabbage than we could even get our minds around.

I began hunting (yes, Internet searches help immensely at such times) for offbeat uses for this bounty. That's when I found the instructions for cooking Cabbage Sloppy Joes. Whoever would have thought? The author of the recipe mentioned that the cabbage gave the mixture a slightly sweet taste and of course made it more full-bodied than was the average means of preparing sloppy joes, to be served over buns.

The addition of brown sugar, ketchup, lemon juice, and mustard make a nice sauce to wind around the browned ground turkey and tender cabbage. Other than chopping and shredding the cabbage, enough to make 1 1/2 cups, you can make quick work of this on-the-table-fast dish. Earlier this week a friend was on hand to help me get this recipe pulled together (I'm cooking and freezing some meals to take to our little expectant couple when they bring our grandson into the world later this month; my friend was helping me with this assembly-line enterprise.) She was absolutely incredulous at how quick this meal materialized. I knew she also was thinking the same thing that drew me to Cabbage Sloppy Joes--this is something her kids might like.

Every summer at cabbage time, I always start salivating for Cabbage Sloppy Joes (recipe also found in my new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden) and know that they are only a few days around the corner. Throw a few carrot sticks and a few grapes on the plate, and it's a summertime, don't-have-to-heat-up the kitchen meal that will stick in your memory for a long time.

Cabbage Sloppy Joes

1 pound ground beef or ground turkey

1 1/2 cups finely shredded cabbage

1 medium onion, chopped

1 celery rib, chopped

1/4 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup ketchup (we use the no-salt variety)

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

1 teaspoon salt (we use salt substitute)

dash pepper

8 buns, split

In large skillet cook the ground beef (or turkey), shredded cabbage, onion, celery, and green pepper over medium heat until meat no longer is pink and vegetables are crisp-tender. Drain. Stir in the ketchup, brown sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until cabbage is tender. Spoon 1/2 cup onto each roll. Makes 8 servings.

The cabbage recipe that launched a new cookbook and spawned a significant discovery

My hubby asked whether I knew the whereabouts of his plastic vitamin case.

"It's over there on top of the recipe box," I absently instructed him. Then remembering, and with a chuckle, I teased, "You know, the little brown box that launched a new cookbook."

Very true. This innocuous-looking brown wooden box, devoid of any kitchen decor but strictly practical and utilitarian to suit her purposes all those years, contained the discovery that prompted me, quite unexpectedly, to write my new Way Back in the Country Garden cookbook--the cookbook that prompted this blog, The Newfangled Country Gardener--and that started the dizzying promotion events that now swirl around me and my family.

The recipe box belonged to my Aunt Frances, our family's 102-year-old treasure and the last surviving member of Hubby and my parents' generation. Widowed for decades and childless, she doted on all her nieces and nephews; we, her primary caregivers, doted on her in return.

When she passed from us a year ago in May, the recipe box that for years she had kept fell into my possession. One day late last summer I casually thumbed through it. I was convinced I'd find nothing new. After all, my first book, Way Back in the Country, released in 2002, had mined every family standout family recipe that I could collect from my relatives and from my mother's recipe grouping that I also inherited on her passing.

As I dug into Aunt Frances' brown box, however, the first item that surfaced was the recipe for Cabbage Rolls, with Aunt Frances' notation that she often prepared this for Sunday-school covered-dish luncheons. That's strange, I thought to myself. I don't remember knowing about this one.

Then other new items began to crop up among the familiar. Okra Creole; Brown Sugar Apple Pie; Sauteed Okra, Corn, and Tomatoes. I began to realize that all these newly discovered recipes had a common theme--all were to be prepared with items that are homegrown--just the theme that I'd been contemplating with the rise in interest in home gardening that the Great Recession and other issues have spawned.

Besides my recipe-box find, I had been scribbling down some new stories that had poured off Aunt Frances' lips like rainwater during the last few years of her life. Even when her advancing age impaired her short-term memory slightly, our aunt always could be lightning-sharp about events that happened in days gone by. Vivid details about the legendary Oak Cliff Tornado which passed frighteningly near her Dallas home in 1957 and about Grandma Harris' serving Tomato Preserves when Aunt Frances and her sisters were schoolgirls were part of our aunt's clear recall in those latter days. As fast as she could reel them off, I recorded them--and then realized I had another book of family lore--lore beyond what I'd already captured in Way Back in the Country eight years ago--in the making.

When, recently, our 2010 garden brought forth its first cabbage head, I hauled it in and immediately had to turn it into Cabbage Rolls--admittedly a bit tedious to assemble (I can just imagine meticulous Aunt Frances carefully stuffing each individual cabbage leaf and then fastening each with a toothpick to secure). The actual cooking occurs for an hour in a covered skillet (you also could use a crock pot), with the pungent aroma filling every crevice of my kitchen as the mixture bubbles throughout the day and makes all the effort worthwhile.

When we at last dined on Cabbage Rolls, the delicious meal--combined with the fun I'm having seeing my new cookbook get in others' appreciative hands--made me immensely grateful for Aunt Frances' little brown box that spawned it all. Besides, the box does make a great spot on which Hubby's plastic vitamin case can rest.

Cabbage Rolls

8 cabbage leaves

1/2 cup brown rice

1 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt (we use salt substitute)

1 pound ground beef (we used ground turkey)

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

1 (1/2-ounce) envelope spaghetti-sauce mix

1 (1-pound) can whole tomatoes, undrained

1/4 cup evaporated milk, undiluted

Steam cabbage leaves in water for 8 minutes or until they are slightly softened; drain thoroughly. Combine rice, water, and salt; cook covered 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Mix together cooked rice, beef, onion, and 1 tablespoon spaghetti-sauce mix. Fill each leaf with approximately 1/3 cup meat mix. Fold leaf over meat; tuck in ends; fasten with toothpicks. Place rolls with overlapped side down in large skillet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Mix together tomatoes and remaining contents of sauce-mix envelope; pour over cabbage. Simmer covered for 1 hour. Place rolls on platter; remove toothpicks. To tomato liquid in pan add evaporated milk. Simmer until thick but do not boil. Serve cabbage rolls steaming hot with sauce. Makes 4 servings.