Sweet Cabbage of Mine - Cabbage Casserole with Raisins

Another cabbage dish that I make several different variants of. Its roots can be found in what once used to be my favourite dish: "kaalilaatikko" ("cabbage casserole") - a traditional Finnish oven dish with cabbage, rice, minced meat and syrup.

SWEET CABBAGE OF MINE

5 dl of water
2 dl of green lentils
3/4 dl of red quinoa
a small green cabbage
5 dl of thinly sliced leek
1 small fennel
3 cloves of garlic
1-2 handfuls of raisins, depending on the size of your hands
gluten-free bouillon powder
1.5 tablespoons of fresh thyme
2 tablespoons of parsley
0.5 tablespoon of oregano
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt
2 tablespoons of sunflower seed oil

0. Rinse the lentils and soak them overnight.

1. Chop the garlic finely.

2. Pour the water into a large pot and bring it to a boil.

3. Add the lentils, the garlic and the bouillon powder into the pot, adjust the heat to low, and let it simmer under a lid.

4. Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage, cut the rest of the cabbage into short stripes and add the stripes into the pot together with the thyme, the parsley, the oregano, the pepper and the raisins. Mix well.

5. Wash the leeks and the fennel, slice the leek thinly and cut the fennel into small pieces.

6. Wash the quinoa well.

7. After the other ingredients have been cooked for a minimum of 20 min, add the leek, the fennel, the quinoa and the sunflower seed oil, mix the ingredients well and let the mixture simmer until the quinoa is ready (about 15 minutes).

8. Serve either hot or cold.

My Dahl-ing Soup - Spicy Lentil Soup

I've been planning on learning to cook dahl for a while now. In India, where they have loads of vegetarians, they eat dahl (or, rather, lentils) for protein. Combined with rice, you actually get a complete protein - every vegetarian's dream come true!

Breaking news: On 2 February 2011, this dahl won Soup Contest 2011, a soup making competition against five of my Italian workmates.


MY DAHL-ING SOUP

1.5 dl of red lentils
3.5-4 dl of water
gluten-free bouillon powder
sunflower seed oil
a large onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
a large tomato
3 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of curcuma
1 teaspoon of coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon of cardamom / 4 cardamom seeds
sea salt

1. Mix the bouillon powder with the water and bring to the boil.

2. Wash the lentils well, add them into the boiling water, and let them cook for about 15 minutes.

3. In the meantime, chop the onion, the garlic and the ginger as finely as you can, and cut the tomato in medium-sized pieces.

4. Heat the oil at the bottom of a pot and saute the onion, the garlic, the ginger and the spices.

5. Add the lentils (together with the stock), the tomato and the sea salt into the pot, and let the dahl simmer for about 20 minutes.

6. Enjoy.

Annika

Leeky Lentils - Leek & Lentil Soup

So far, this has been my favourite variant of the leeky lentil soup inspired by one of our (two) followers. In fact, it's one of my favourite soups.

Leeky Lentils

5 leeks
1.5-2 cups of green lentils
2 stalks of celery
a huge bunch of parsley
gluten-free bouillon powder
loads of garlic
sea salt
black pepper
extra vergine olive oil

0. Soak the lentils overnight.
1. Let the lentils cook while you're preparing the other ingredients.
2. Wash and cut the leek and the celery into smaller pieces, peel and cut the garlic in small pieces, and wash the parsley.
3. Add the leek, the celery, the garlic, the parsley, the pepper and the bouillon powder.
4. When the lentils are almost ready, add the salt.
5. When the lentils are ready, blend the soup until smooth.
6. Serve with a bit of extra vergine olive oil.

Annika