We had dinner plans last night that didn’t involve eating any of the rapidly aging produce in my fridge, so I decided to cook a couple things that I could bring to work this week.
First up: Yellow Borscht! What could be more exciting than a cabbage and beet soup?
I picked this one partly because it was a good fit for the things I happened to have in my fridge, but also because it was recommended by a friend lately, and sounded tasty. I adapted a recipe from seriouseats.com (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/02/dinner-tonight-vegetarian-borscht-recipe.html) for vegetarian borscht. The biggest difference with mine was that I used yellow beets instead of the standard inky red ones. The soup tastes very similar, but the look is entirely different. I also added a pinch of turmeric to make the yellow color even more intense.
The Ingredients:
– drizzle of olive oil
– 4 small yellow beets (about half a pound with the greens chopped off)
– one medium yellow onion
– four very small carrots
– about half a head of cabbage (roughly 6 oz)
– 2 cups of vegetable stock
– salt and pepper
– pinch of turmeric (curry powder would work too, but add more flavor)
I started by heating up the olive oil in the bottom of a large saucepan, on medium-low heat, then peeled and chopped the onion, beets, and carrots, throwing them into the pan as I finished chopping. I made them vaguely matchstick shaped. Once they were all in the pot I thawed some veg stock in a small saucepan on another burner. While that was heating, I chopped the cabbage into small pieces (about an inch square). I stirred in the cabbage, then poured on the stock once it had started boiling. I let this simmer for about 15 minutes, seasoned with salt and pepper, and packed it up for lunches later this week. It made 3 lunch sized servings. I’ll probably put a scoop of sour cream on top if I eat them at home.
Workday lunch #2: Cabbage Tofu Stir-fry
This is a favorite of mine, and varies a little each time I make it. The basic elements are just cabbage, tofu, and onion. Then I season it based on what sounds good at the time. Below is today’s version. I know this sounds too healthy to be good, but it’s really quite delicious. The cabbage gets a silky texture from sauteeing with the olive oil, and the tofu gets just a bit of a crisp texture. Definitely doesn’t taste like rabbit food.
Ingredients:
– generous drizzle of olive oil
– about a pound of chopped cabbage (one small head)
– half a yellow onion
– half a block of firm tofu (today I used the organic 365 variety)
– drizzle of tamari (fancy soy sauce)
– generous shake of garlic salt
I threw the onion and olive oil in a large saucepan (the same one I’d used for the borscht, rinsed out) to start softening on medium heat, and added the cabbage and tofu about 5 minutes later. Then shook on the garlic salt and soy sauce and stirred it all up. I spread it over the base of the pan and left it for 2 or 3 minutes, then continued to repeat that process until the tofu had started to brown. It needed a little scraping to keep the tofu from sticking to the bottom, but otherwise didn’t need a ton of attention. It took about 20 minutes all told, then I packed it up. It made 2 lunch sized servings, which I’ll very likely eat cold. Yum.
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