Cabbage with Onions

Delicious Cabbage with Onions

A question on the Avoiding Corn Forum got me thinking about one of my favorite "tried and true" recipes that got me through the early days of my allergy. Some people live in small towns with no access to organic produce or specialty staples (as I did in the beginning). In a situation like that it helps to have something that is pretty much always safe. I have found that cabbage and onions tend to be safe no matter what brand I have tried. With that in mind, I thought I would post one of my favorite veggie dishes. I call it simply:

Cabbage with Onions

Ingredients:
1 cabbage
1 or 2 onions
extra virgin olive oil and/or safe butter
sea salt and other spices of your choice

Layer veggies and seasonings in the pot

Rough chop the cabbage and onions. Layer them into a large, heavy-bottom pot with a tight fitting lid. Add seasonings for each layer. For a large head of cabbage and 2 onions, I put two palmfuls of sea salt and probably 2 or 3 tbsp. olive oil plus 1/2 stick of butter sliced over top. Don't worry if it fills the pot to the top because it will cook down quite a bit. I use my 6-quart Lodge Enamel Cast Iron Dutch Oven (if you don't have one, I highly recommend it).

Cover tightly and start cooking on medium low (3 on electric stove). Set a timer for 30 minutes, remove lid, stir, replace lid, set for 30 minutes more, remove lid, stir, if the cabbage is translucent at this point leave off lid, set for 30 minutes more to cook out liquid. You can turn up the heat at this point and stand over it stirring frequently to get a nice caramelization on some of the cabbage, but it isn't necessary. Serve with a dollop of Daisy full fat sour cream and a piece of quick bread if you like.

After one hour of slow cooking

You will be amazed how sweet and delicious this dish tastes after slow cooking for 1.5 hours. You can add any seasonings that you desire. In the past I have added one or more of the following: sliced new potatoes, caraway seeds, red pepper flakes, garlic, bell peppers, Anaheim peppers, zucchini, etc. Tonight I added diced jicama and coriander because I had a jicama and it just seemed right. Jicama reminds me of apples and pears and there is some precedence for pairing apples and cabbage in traditional recipes.

Since this is a slow cooking dish, you could probably get better than average results using a slow cooker. I don't have one (believe it or not) so I haven't tried it. This heats up beautifully so you can make a huge pot of it and eat it over the next few days. It has been a real lifesaver for us and we still eat it quite often even when we have a big variety of safe, fresh produce available.

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