Renata's Cheap and Cheerful Vegan Curried Cabbage Stir Fry
(RECIPE FOLLOWS STORY)
If there is one thing I am always trying to do, it's save money without losing my integrity. Basically, that just means I wanna go cheap, but not so cheap that my chosen battles are compromised.
The one battle I have chosen for our family is home cooked food. Although we eat out occasionally, I get in a really bad mood when I do eat out, because I can't ever seem to get my belly full of flavors that are as good as the ones I grew up tasting (and hence cooking.) On top of the flavor factor, my dad grew up in WWII Italy, and let me tell ya, that guy does not like to waste stuff. He once stood in my kitchen in London with his coat on, suitcase at the door, ready to go to the airport, when he insisted I cook him an egg which I was about to throw out (it passed its sell by date).
"Oh my GOD-O!" my dad said, because the word "God" always ended in an "O".
"Dad," I said, "you're not responsible for ALL the wasted food in the entire world."
"Don't throw away that beautiful brown egg!" He said, taking no notice of what I said. "Fry it up, I'll eat it now!"
"But Baba!" I said, using his nickname, "You've got your coat on and the taxi is gonna be here in 5 minutes!"
"That's alright-O," he said with authority. The brown egg was fried in a little olive oil, sprinkled with salt, and wiped clean in the pan with a piece of Italian bread in the nick of time before the taxi service arrived. He never took his coat off.
He also never got sick on the egg. I never overbought eggs again.
So! That's me in a nutshell. Or in this case, in an eggshell. I have been trained, conditioned and persuaded not to waste food.
Another cost cutting feature in my background is the fact that I grew up in an Italian restaurant. OK, I didn't actually grow up behind the counter, in the walk-in freezer, or under the sausage grinder. We did have a lovely home. But somehow when I recall my youth, I always think of myself as the daughter of a sausage maker. And when you have restaurant, you are always planning menus in your mind. And they have to be cost effective!
So when my daughter Sophie announced that she was going vegan, I instantly started calculating costs. I'm not a big fan of all the frozen patties and such, mostly because I feel I can whip up some rice, beans and veggies for much, much cheaper and I know where it all came from. What's convenient about food that costs so much you can't retire...ever?
Since I like to cook vegetables, and Sophie eats about 10 servings a day (her nickname is Baby Baba, after her grandpa 'Baba'), I had to work fast to figure out how to keep this girl floating in produce without breaking the bank.
So hunting I go for water soluble low-cent solutions. One of my all-time favorite veggies? Come to Mama, humble cabbage heads. They aren't just nutrient rich vegetables, they are nature's beautiful art! If I could paint, I would use these colors. But I don't do art outside of the kitchen so this stir fry will have to suffice.
"You can eat organic cabbage like it's going out of style! Even the most expensive cabbage is cheaper than the least expensive meat." At Wholefoods, a head of organic red cabbage won't set you back much more than a couple bucks.
What else does red cabbage have to offer? It is a nutritional powerhouse loaded with vitamins C and K, folate and antioxidants. In short, color me happy!
So today's recipe is a tribute to my dad, Enzo, who taught me that you don't have to spend a fortune to eat beautiful, home made, vegetable-laden family meals. And that eggs are almost always just fine a little past their sell-by date. If your name is Baba.
(My kids' Grandma Nita and Grandpa Baba)
This is one of those dishes that Sophie, my husband Peter and I went "mano a mano" for leftover rights at lunch the following day. (Sophie won, duh.) You will end up with a mountain of delicious slop, and can either add cooked rice at the end, or if you want a lower calorie option, simply serve as is.
I like to use curry to sex up just about any vegetable dish, a trick I learned living in England, where Indian and British culinary cultures live in glorious harmony. I found a pretty good prepared curry in a bag at Pete's Fresh Market on Roosevelt Road in Lombard, IL. (Swad Madras Curry Powder). I love it so much, one day I may put a teaspoon of two on my shoe and eat it.
Renata's Cheap and Cheerful Vegan Curried Cabbage Stir Fry
1 small head red cabbage, chopped
1 small head regular white,green or savoy cabbage, chopped (or sliced brussels sprouts, which are just like teensy cabbages)
1 small onion, and/or the upgraded shallot, chopped
3-4 (or 20) cloves garlic smashed and chopped
1 grated carrot
a healthy dose of olive oil (I used about 1/4 cup for this amount of food)
1/8 cup vinegar (Any type, I use rice wine vinegar, it never hurts my tummy. White wine vinegar would be slurp.)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup water
1-2 teaspoons of curry
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp paprika (optional but I love the color)
1 tsp or enough salt to taste good to you
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In your largest saute pan that has a lid, (or a giant wok,) saute onion (or shallot), garlic, in olive oil until fragrant, then add all the rest of the ingredients above, working to combine without all the chopped bits of veggies going all over your counter. When all is combined nicely, put cover on and cook on medium-high until everything is soft, or just the way you like it, about 15 minutes or so. Taste and adjust salt, sugar, curry if you wish. You want the whole mixture to have enough liquid at in it to combine and soak into the rice if you are adding. If there is too much liquid, leave lid off and let the water cook out. Not enough liquid? Add a little water and a pinch of salt.
Then toss in and combine:
1-2 cups cooked rice, whatever kind you are into (I like Basmati,again, because of my sensitive tummy)
a handful of walnuts
a handful of raisins
a little chopped cilantro if you wish
This dish is a complete vegan meal loaded with fiber, protein and complex carbs. I served it to the rest of the meat eating family with a side of roast chicken (which soaked up the raisin/curry sauce nicely).
Slurp!
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