For this week’s veggie subscription we are sharing more March favourites – with a hint of summer! We thought a pick me up from the standard programming might do us all some good with a reminder of warm summer days. So, this week we are sharing frozen wild Nova Scotian blueberries! Otherwise, we have some delicious favourites like cabbage, turnip, and carrots. It’s come to my attention that a large head of cabbage can be a struggle for some folks to get through, and I get it. I’ve been there, so this week I’ll be sharing 2 meals that will use up your 3lb head of green cabbage.
This week the small share also has:
White Mushrooms – Valley Mushrooms, PEI spray-free
Russet Potatoes – Elmridge Farm, spray-free
Super Sweet Carrots – Elmridge Farm, spray-free
Bramble Hill Microgreens – Bramble Hill Farm, spray-free
Hot House Tomatoes – Den Haan Greenhouses, conventionally-grown
Green Cabbage – Noggins Corner Farm, conventionally-grown
Wild Blueberries – Bonnymans’, spray-free
The large share has everything above, as well as:
A full lb of blueberries instead of ½ a lb
Buttercup Squash – Noggins Corner Farm, conventionally-grown
Gala Apples – Noggins Corner Farm, conventionally-grown
This time of year the green cabbage we get tends to be big, which is great because it means you can use them for multiple meals! Cabbage can be eaten in so many ways, it keeps well and it soaks up whatever flavours you cook it in. As an example of how to use it across multiple dishes, I have 2 recipes for cabbage this week. First is for a Ukrainian noodle dish called Halushki (Eastern European cultures have great cuisines to draw recipe inspiration from for cabbage recipes). Then, use the leftover cabbage to make a great side dish – Curry Roasted Cabbage Wedges.
Halushki is comfort food at its finest! The thick, soft, bite- sized noodles are reminiscent of Italian gnocchi. The dumplings are traditionally served with crispy bacon, mushroom, and onion fried in butter. The recipe also recommends lots of fresh dill and sour cream for serving. I added cabbage to the toppings, which you will see in regional variations of the meal. To make the Halushki I followed this recipe here: https://momsdish.com/recipe/617/ukrainian-dumplings-aka-galushki
It has instructions for how to make the dumplings fresh, it took about an hour from start to finish to make the dumpling dough, roll them out, and cut them into bite sized pieces. I made them the night before, froze them, and cooked them at dinner time the next day (as she suggests if making ahead). This made dinner time easier as it was only a matter of boiling the Halushki (make sure you do it from frozen), and frying up the toppings. It makes a large batch, so I had enough to serve 6 adults and save 2 servings in the freezer for a quick meal another time. If you’re intimidated by making fresh pasta/dumplings, I encourage you to give it a try! It came together easily with a bit of time, and the Halushki are very forgiving of being a bit misshapen. To add the cabbage, I first discarded the rough outer leaf, then peeled the next 6-8 leaves off the head of cabbage and cut them into small strips to fry with the mushroom and onion.
If you don’t want to make the dough fresh, you could substitute store bought gnocchi (available in our freezers!) for a non-authentic, but similar meal. Though the simple flavours of the crispy bacon, fried veggies, and fresh soft noodles won’t shine as much as with store bought noodles.
After using many of the outer layers of the cabbage for the Halushki, you’ll be left with a smaller head of cabbage. This is perfect for Curry Roasted Cabbage Wedges. This recipe typically asks for a smaller 2lb cabbage since a larger wedge is harder to get crisp, so using up some of the outside leaves first is perfect. This recipe is from The Complete Plant-Based Cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen. It is one of my favourite ways to eat cabbage and always impresses anyone who tries it!
- 7 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 1 tablespoon curry powder, divided
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 2lb head green cabbage
- Adjust oven rack to lowest position and preheat oven to 475 degrees. Combine ¼ cup oil, 2 teaspoons curry powder, sugar, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
- Halve cabbage through the core and cut each half into 4 approximately 2-inch-wide wedges, leaving core intact (you will have 8 wedges).
- Arrange cabbage wedges in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet, then brush cabbage all over with oil mixture. Cover the sheet tightly with aluminum foil and roast for 10 minutes. Remove foil and drizzle 2 tablespoons of oil evenly over wedges. Return cabbage to the oven and roast uncovered, until cabbage is tender and sides touching the sheet are well browned, 12 to 15 minutes.
Serve these wedges with anything and everything! Marinated Cogmagun chicken thighs and roasted potatoes would be delicious. As would a Vessel Meats sausage, Nova Kraut Beet Kraut, and mashed potatoes. I’ve even added them to falafel plates, the curry flavour is great with hummus.
That’s a wrap on this week’s meal ideas. I hope you enjoy the blueberries, they’re a nice treat to have around and a lovely teaser of the summer produce season to come!
Until next week,
Robin
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