Cheddar Cheese Pasta with Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Fried Capers

Pasta Please is one of the challenges I try to participate in every month, though sometimes the month passes before I get to it.. This was not one of those months! I’m trying to participate in all the fun round-ups that I normally do. This month’s Pasta Please was hosted by Allotment2Kitchen who also hosts a new round up I’m going to start participating in called Eat Your Greens. The idea of Eat Your Greens is to share your vegetarian dishes made with green veggies. This month’s Eat Your Greens was paired together with Pasta Please.

I decided to use cabbage in my recipe for the challenge. My quick google search tells me cabbage may have cancer fighting qualities, as it contains a good amount of sinigrin, which has been in the attention of cancer researchers in developing a cure. However, the way to get the most benefit from the cabbage is to steam it which is not how I cooked it.

For a quick cabbage story, I love cabbage but I hate the smell of it. When I was in college one of my roommates decided she was going to go on a cabbage soup diet or something. She made this huge batch of cabbage soup which just made the house reek. In the end, she couldn’t stomach the soup because of the strong cabbage scent – so that diet was incredibly short lived, but the smell has definitely made an impact on me forever.

But, I haven’t let that get in the way of eating cabbage. It still tastes good to me at least.

This cheesy pasta recipe was delicious. The fried capers were a big hit. I’d never prepared capers like that before, but I definitely will again!

Cheddar Cheese Pasta with Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Fried Capers
(source)

Ingredients
1/3 cup + 3 tbsp olive oil
1 cauliflower, cut into florets
1/2 cabbage, cut into strips
1 onion, chopped
3 sprigs thyme
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup capers, drained and patted dry
8 oz rotini pasta
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Place a baking sheet in the oven. Preheat oven to 425. Once preheated, remove the sheet from the oven. Pour 1 tbsp of olive oil over the baking sheet. Place the cauliflower on the sheet and drizzle 2 tbsp of olive oil over the cauliflower. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 30 minutes, shaking the baking sheet halfway through.

2. While the cauliflower is roasting, heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the cabbage, onion, and thyme sprigs. Saute for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, add the white wine to deglaze. Set aside.

3. In a small skillet add the 1/3 cup remaining oil. Once the oil is hot, add the capers. Fry for 2 minutes and remove with a slotted spoon to a plate covered with a paper towel to drain.

4. Cook pasta per the directions on the box. Drain, saving 1 cup of the water the pasta cooked in.

5. Once the pasta is cooked, pour the noodles into the skillet with the cabbage. Put over medium heat. Add the cheese. Add the saved pasta water, 1/4 cup at a time. Cook until you have a sauce develop. Add the thyme.

6. Serve and top with capers.

* serves 4
* besides Pasta Please and Eat Your Greens, this recipe is being shared with See Ya In The Gumbo

Slow Cooker Lentil Cauliflower Stew

 

This week’s slow cooker meal was another lentil dish. I’ve been going through a lentil thing lately. I’ve been using them a whole lot. This stew has lasted multiple days. I made it on Tuesday and I’ve had a bowl everyday since then. Tomorrow will be the day I kill the last of it.

I have a lot of problems with beans typically. I can’t eat black beans, white beans, and kidney beans among others because I get such bad stomach cramps from the gas that beans gas. You know that old song, “Beans beans they’re good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you fart?” Yeah.. I get so much gas that I feel like a hot air balloon. The point of my story about gas is that lentils don’t do that for me.

Slow Cooker Lentil Cauliflower Stew
(source)

Ingredients
16 oz dried lentils
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb cauliflower, chopped into small florets
2 leeks, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
8 cups vegetable broth
2 15-oz cans petite diced tomatoes
cheddar cheese, shredded to taste

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Saute the onions for 4 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for an additional minute.

2. Pour the softened onions and garlic into the slow cooker. Add the rest of the ingredients as well (except for the cheese.)

3. Cover the slow cooker and cook for 8 hours on low.

4. When the stew is done, serve and sprinkle cheddar cheese on top.

* serves 12
* shared with Souper Sunday at Kahakai Kitchen and Weekend Cooking

Kidney Bean Cauliflower Curry

A month ago I made a kidney bean curry and was all about it. It was the first time I had made a curry where beans were the focus of the dish. I liked it so much that I made it again. This time though I followed a different recipe that had more in it than just beans. This recipe packs the curry with cauliflower as well as kidney beans. The flavor was approximately the same  as the last one, but this curry was more filling because of the increase in vegetables.

I love curry. I served this curry over a bed of turmeric rice.

Kidney Bean Cauliflower Curry

Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp peeled and chopped ginger
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1/2 tomato, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/8 tsp cayenne
4 oz tomato sauce
1 15-oz can kidney beans

Directions

 1. Heat oil in a deep pan over medium heat for about a minute. Add ginger, garlic, onion, and jalapeno and fry for a minute. Add the tomato sauce, salt, cumin, coriander, cumin seeds, turmeric, and cayenne. Cook for an additional five minutes, and stir frequently. Add the undrained kidney beans plus 1/2 cup of water, cauliflower, and tomato. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until the curry is thick enough.

* serves 2
* 416 calories per serving
* I’m sharing this recipe with Midnight Maniac’s Meatless Mondays,  Tuesdays at the Table, and Tasty Tuesday Party.