Cabbage Deliciousness

Cabbage pie tastes good and it’s super cheap to make. With salad it makes a nice light meal and leftovers are easy lunch next day. If you want to make a pie as big as a baking sheet, double the recipe.

Cabbage Pie

Filling:

1 onion
1 shallot
2 tbsp oil
2l shredded cabbage
1 tbsp molasses or brown sugar
1 tsp marjoram
0,5 tsp thyme
2 tsp parsley
0,5 tsp freshly ground black pepper
0,5-1 tsp salt

Dough:

2,5 dl water
25 g yeast
2 tsp molasses or sugar
pinch of salt
1 dl rye flour
2 dl whole wheat flour
4-5 dl wheat flour
1 tbsp oil

Brushing:

cold water

Start with the filling. Chop the onion and shallot coarsely. Heat the oil in a large pan (wok is good) or pot and sauté the onion and shallot couple of minutes. Add shredded cabbage, cover with lid and simmer until the cabbage is soft. Stir now and then.

While the cabbage is simmering, put the lukewarm water, yeast, molasses and salt into a bowl. Stir until yeast is dissolved. Add rye flour, whole wheat flour and about 3 dl wheat flour. Mix well and start to knead. Add more flour while you knead and in when you’re nearly done, knead the oil in. Cover with tovel and let rise until doubled.

Season the softened cabbage with molasses, herbs, salt and pepper. Punch down the dough and divide in two parts, one should be slightly bigger than the other. Take the bigger piece of dough and roll out about 25 cm x 35 cm rectangle. Spread the cabbage filling on it, but leave a 2-3 cm border of dough on each side. Roll out the smaller piece of douhg to a rectangle that is same size as the filling and cover the pie with it. Turn the edges of bottom dough on the edges and on top of the upper dough. Secure with fork. You may need brush some water between the doughs to make them stick well. Brush the pie with water and make few holes with fork. Bake about half an hour in 200 celsius degrees.

Starring: The Chickpea Loaf

In Finland we have a cooking magazine called Maku. I haven’t found many interesting recipes from issues I’ve read, most of them are for omnivores and vegetarian recipes are usually so basic recipes that I could whip them up any time (could be good recipes for beginners, though). This loaf from issue 6/08 is exception. It’s easy to make and it’s best loaf I’ve ever eaten. This time I baked it in star shaped dish, but usually I use an elongated dish.

Chickpea Loaf

600g cooked or canned chickpeas (3 dl dry)
150g chopped onions
1 tbsp canola oil for frying
2dl rolled oats
2 dl oat cream
1 dl canola oil
4 tbsp potato flour
2 tbsp curry paste (less if it’s strong)
2,5 tsp salt
2 tsp ground aniseed or ground fennel seeds
2 tsp basil
0,5 tsp ground black pepper
150 g grated parsnip
2 dl sunflower seeds

to the dish:
margarine
1 dl sesame seeds (bread crumbs can be used too)

Fry the chopped onions in oil.

Put everything except parsnip and sunflower seeds to a big bowl and puré them with a hand held blender. Add grated parsnip and sunflower seeds and blend a little longer. Some of the seeds should be crushed and some should stay unbroken.

If you’re not using a non-stick dish, cover at least the bottom with piece of parchment paper. Grease the dish (and paper) with margarine and coat with sesame seeds. Pour the chick pea mash to the dish and even out. Bake in 175 Celsius degrees for about an hour. Let the loaf cool down a bit and flip over. Can be served hot or cold.

Smoky Patties

I saw this bean patty recipe in Chocochili and had to try it. I did some minor changes with spicing, because I didn’t have cajun spice mix the recipe called, but otherwise I followed the original recipe. We had these with mashed potatoes and cabbage and carrot salad. The leftover patties made a great lunch with home made buns and ketchup, mustard and other burger fillings.

Black-eyed Bean Patties

(makes about 8 )

1 dl textured soy protein
1,5 dl hot water
1 tbsp vegetable broth powder (or 1 tsp lovage + some salt)
4 dl cooked (or canned) black-eyed beans
1 tsp smoked paprika
0,25 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp paprika
0,5 tsp cayenne
0,5 tsp thyme
0,5 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp oil + more for frying
0,5 dl wheat flour
0,25 dl dry bread crumbs

Put soy protein, vegetable broth powder and hot water into a small bowl and let sit about 10 minutes. Put the beans into a bigger bowl and mash with fork or blender. Mix everything together and let sit in the fridge for half an hour. Make patties with wet hands and fry on oiled pan until they are golden brown.

Home Made Bread

I should bake breads more often. Hot, fresh bread is so delicious and it’s much cheaper than store bought bread. Bread making is easy, but it takes a while, because you have to let the dough rise. But it’s worth waiting. Here’s a recipe for carrot and garlic buns I made yesterday.

Carrot and Garlic Buns

3 big carrots
25g yeast
5 dl water
1 tbsp molasses (or sugar or honey)
4 (big) garlic cloves
1 tbsp dried parsley
1,5 dl rolled oats
4 dl whole wheat flour
8 dl wheat flour
2 tbsp oil

Grate the carrots and mince the garlic cloves. Mix them with water, molasses, yeast and parsley in a big bowl. Add rolled oats and whole wheat flour and stir. Add about half of the wheat flour, start to knead and add more flour while you knead. In the end of kneading add the oil. When the dough is kneaded, cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise until it’s about doubled in size. Punch down and make 18 buns. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper, put the buns on them and cover with towel. Let the buns rise 10-15 minutes and bake in 225 Celsius degrees about 15 minutes.

Almost Instant

As far as I know, Japanese ramen always contains some kind of meat. My vegan version of ramen is made of whole wheat noodles, tofu and vegetables. This time I used carrot, bamboo shoots and red cabbage, which dyes everything pink, but you can use any vegetables you have.

Tofuhead’s Ramen

8,5 dl water
1 vegetable bouillon cube (preferably MSG free)
2 tsp miso powder
7,5 dl vegetables, cut into strips (cabbage, carrot, onion, green beans, bamboo shoots etc.)
350g tofu
100g whole wheat noodles
soy sauce for serving (optional)

Bring the water to boil and dissolve the bouillon cube and miso powder in it. Add the vegetables and tofu and simmer 2-3 minutes. Add noodles and simmer 3 more minutes.