Quick Fix Cabbage

When I'm not cooking for my husband, I don't care much what I eat.  It's usually just nibbling food - cucumbers and hummus, chips and salsa, apples and peanut butter.  Super healthy, right?  But I'm just being real with you, because that's what I promised to do here.  Every once in a while, though, I feel like cooking something healthy for myself, like when my body starts yelling for some nutrition.  But it can't be just anything.  It has to take under 15 minutes to make and have only 2 main ingredients (or less!) or it won't happen.

Today it was:

Cabbage & Squash with Flax Seed Oil and Plum Vinegar
Serves 6 as a side dish


2 Tbs olive oil
1 small head green cabbage, thinly sliced
2 small squash (yellow or green), diced
flax seed oil
ume (plum) vinegar (available at most grocery stores)
soy sauce
sesame oil
black sesame seeds

Heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add cabbage and squash and saute for 5 minutes.  Lower heat, cover, and let simmer for 10 more minutes.  Turn off heat and drizzle generously with flax seed oil (4 or 5 tablespooons?  Taste and adjust) and ume vinegar.  Add a few splashes of soy sauce and sesame oil and toss gently to coat vegetables.  Top with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds and enjoy!  This is great both hot and cold.

Sprinkle flax seed oil and ume vinegar on almost any vegetable and it will make it taste like butter!  Alicia got me into this.

Where's the BEEF? I mean...the BEETS!

I love beets.  But growing up, I always thought they only came in a can.  Don't laugh.  My mom is Japanese, okay??  Not a lot of communication in the pantry department!  Anyway, when I started working for Be Wise Ranch, a local organic grower in San Diego, they would give me a box of produce every week as a bonus.  One day, that box included beets.  So...I get it now.

I made this the other night.  It was so warming it made me wish it were colder out...

Vegan Borscht


1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced thinly into half-moons
4 medium sized carrots, grated
5 small beets, peeled and grated
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1 bay leaf
2 Tbs brown rice syrup
6 cups Low Sodium Vegetable Broth (or Water + 4 tsp Better Than Bouillon Reduced Sodium Vegetable Base)
1/2 large head or 1 small head of cabbage, thinly shredded
3 large red potatoes, skin left on, diced
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
juice of 1 lemon

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat and saute onions, carrots and beets until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes.  Stir in the garlic, bay leaf and brown rice syrup and cook for 1 minute.  Add broth, cabbage, potatoes, and season with pepper.  Simmer, covered, until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in vinegar and lemon juice.  Add salt as needed.  Ladle soup into bowls and dollop with vegan sour cream.

Tip: If you like things a little spicy...add a teaspoon or two of cayenne before simmering.

Now, a question for you guys.  Would you rather see a recipe for Yellow Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup or Creamy Curried Cauliflower Soup tomorrow?  I'm making one of these tonight and can't decide which.  Help!