Archive / Vegetables

Crispy Cabbage Salad

Here is a recipe for cabbage salad I made this last weekend that I think you’ll really enjoy. The cabbage is lightly cooked so it retains its crispness and isn’t mushy like so many cabbage dishes. The seasonings match well with the cabbage; the juniper berries add a mildly pungent flavor.

CRISPY CABBAGE SALAD

Ingredients
½ c Butter, unsalted
1 c Stuffing, seasoned *

½ t Salt, kosher
½ t Pepper, ground
½ t Caraway seeds
1 t Celery seeds
1 t Onion powder
¼ t Mustard, dry

1 head Cabbage, shredded **
6 Juniper berries
1 T Salt, kosher
1 T Sugar

Instructions
Melt butter in pan and add stuffing. Stir to blend. Mix dry seasonings together and add to butter/stuffing in pan and heat until aromatic. Allow to cool.

Fill an 8 quart stock pot half full with water. Add salt, sugar, and juniper berries to water and bring to boil. Once water comes to a boil add shredded cabbage and cook for exactly three minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drain in colander and rinse to stop cooking. Remove juniper berries and place cabbage in salad spinner to extract as much of the liquid as possible. Cool the cabbage.

Toss cooled stuffing mixture with the cooled cabbage and serve.

* I used Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Stuffing

** Every weekend I clean out and take stock of my refrigerator. I had 1/2 head of red and 1/2 head of green cabbage that needed to be used, so that was one of the incentives for creating this dish.

Plantain Chips

A common ingredient in Jamaican Cuisine is Plantain Chips. These are actually very easy to prepare and delicious.

Plantains look a lot like the bananas we are familiar with and usually peel and eat raw. Although they are related to this kind of banana, Plantains are not eaten raw, but are cooked. Plantains can be found in most grocery stores in the produce section. Choose a Plantain with a yellow skin which indicates it is ripe and has become somewhat soft and sweet.

To prepare Plantain Chips, peel the Plantain by first cutting off the ends then slice through the peel and remove it in segments.

In preparation for cooking, you may either split the fruit of the Plantain lengthwise and then cut into smaller segments or simply slice it crosswise. Sprinkle salt over the slices then fry for 10 – 15 minutes in hot oil, turning frequently to soften. Be careful not to burn them, which can be easily done due to their high sugar content.

Once the pieces have softened, remove from the oil and press them flat using a spoon, rolling pin, or other implement. Return the flat pieces to the hot oil and fry for an additional 10 minutes, or until crispy. Be sure to turn them while cooking so they brown evenly. Remove from the oil, drain on paper towels, and sprinkle with salt.

These make a delicious snack, appetizer or a delightful complement to your authentic Jamaican meal.

If you like this article, check out my previous post on Jamaican Cuisine about making Jamaican Rice and Peas.

Healthy Baked Vegetables

Personally, I am more of a sweets girl than a vegetable fiend, but every once in a while I get this silly notion that I am going to eat healthier. Especially around the first of the year, I get on this kick that “I am going to look like a super model by summer” and start working out more, along with every other person who wrote this on their New Years Resolution, and I will do this by eating more fruits and vegetables.

Hmmmm....

Fruits aren’t usually a problem for me, but unless I am forcing myself to drink my V8 with more meals than breakfast, I am not getting my daily required servings of vegetables. I’d grab a roll, a piece of chocolate cake, a cookie, or a milkshake first. Who wants a vegetable when you can have a decadent piece of chocolate? It has antioxidants, right? Better yet, if it’s chocolate ice cream, it also has calcium. Yeah, well, I have finally given into the battle won by my waistline, when the world according to Tiffany (chocolate ice cream is healthy) was creeping my scale to new heights and my dreams of looking like Cindy Crawford or Niki Taylor by summer were dreams of 6 months too late.

It was time for operation veggies. In an effort to getting myself back on track, I found a very simple way of cooking vegetables that was low in calorie, very simple to do, and I actually like them! They taste great!

All you need are:

Vegetables of choice (I chose some yellow and orange carrots, broccoli, snap peas, and green beans)

Cooking spray (I like to use the store brand, butter flavored cooking spray. It has zero calories.)

Baking sheet (I used two of them because I had a lot of vegetables I wanted to bake, but how many you need, really depends on how many vegetables you want.)

Seasoning (I don’t normally add anything because I like the vegetables baked with the butter flavored cooking spray, but you may prefer to add some salt, pepper, maybe some rosemary, fresh basil, garlic…)

Parmesan Cheese (Sometimes I like to sprinkle a couple of teaspoons on top when I make a bowl of baked vegetables. It adds some nice flavor.)

Broccoli, Snap Peas, Green Beans

First, you set the oven to 400 degrees. Second, you clean and prepare your vegetables in slices or dices of your choosing. I tend to cut the florets from the broccoli, leave the beans and snap peas whole, and peel and slice carrots into 1 inch chunks. In the picture below, you will see that I used the small bags of baby carrots this time. In that case, I did not need to peel or cut up the carrots. However, it did take longer because I didn’t. I would recommend cutting them up a little bit more so they cook quicker.

Green Beans, Carrots

Third (optional step), place the vegetables in a bowl and toss them with the spices of your choosing. You may want to add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to every 2 cups of vegetables to help blend and adhere the dry spices to your vegetables. Fourth, you lay out your vegetables on your greased baking sheets, I just spray the pans with cooking spray, then lightly spray the tops of the vegetables with cooking spray as well (you can skip spraying with cooking spray on top if you added the extra virgin olive oil in step three). Fifth, when the oven is ready, place the baking sheets in the oven for 20 minutes. At the 10 minute mark, you may want to mix the vegetables around on the pan a little bit, then put them back in the oven for the remaining 10 minutes.

Off to the oven

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Tips:

Make sure the vegetables are a single layer on the baking sheets to ensure even cooking.

Frozen vegetables take less time to bake than fresh vegetables. Some fresh vegetables, such as carrots, take closer to 30 minutes to bake.

The smaller the vegetable and the thinner the vegetable, the quicker the vegetable will cook.

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When I make my vegetables this way, I tend to make a ton of them because they make a great snack for later as well. If I was to add Parmesan cheese, I would add it to the vegetables just before eating and after they have been baked. I hope you enjoy this quick and healthy recipe. Bon Appetit!

Healthy Baked Vegetables

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