Braised Red Cabbage with Potatoes, Squash and Lentils

Red cabbage was not a vegetable you would find in our home growing up. The closest dish we ever had was savoy cabbage, boiled with potatoes and sautéed with crushed pepper flakes. Boiled, a very common cooking technique growing up when it came to vegetables. It wasn’t until I became a young adult, that my mother started to steam more often, realizing more nutrients were kept if you didn’t boil the life out of it.

When I turned towards more plant-based meals, I became more cognizant of the ingredients I was buying and how it would benefit my health and the health of my family. Red cabbage is not only cost-effective, but it is so nutritious and here are a few reasons why you should consider adding it to your diet:

It’s funny, growing up, I was always told to eat my veggies, they are good for you. You need to eat more greens; it’s good for you. Now I am telling my mother, she should be eating this or that because it can help her with her rheumatoid arthritis, or help lower her blood pressure. As a mother, I have made it a point to explain to my daughter why it is important she eats her greens, of course in much simpler terms. She now knows when she is not feeling her best, she needs to eat more greens to make sure her body works in tip top shape, she’s three.

Back to cabbage! Braising is a common way to cook cabbage, if you Google red cabbage recipes, braised cabbage are all over the search engine. What does braising mean exactly? It’s a French cooking technique, which means you sauté at a high heat and then finish off with simmer, covered and in some sort of liquid.

I chose to braise the cabbage with potatoes and squash to give it some heartiness and the lentils are an added source of protein. One of the things that I was mindful of when I switched to more plant-based meals was to ensure protein wouldn’t be missing in our diet. I have a meat lover for a husband that is all for eating more vegetables, as long as he’s not looking for something more to eat later.

Here is my rendition of braised cabbage. I hope it will inspire you to think about adding it to your grocery list or maybe using it differently in your home meals.

Red Cabbage Braised with Potatoes, Squash and Lentils

Ingredients:

1. Heat a large sized pan with canola oil on a medium heat
2. Add onions; let them sweat for a few minutes
3. Add celery, potatoes, squash and sauté, 5-7 minutes.
4. Add the sliced cabbage
5. Pour vinegar and water into the pan and mix throughout.
6. Let the vegetables simmer with a closed lid for about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. The lentils are already cooked, so I like to add them in about 15 minutes in, just to meld the flavours together.
8. At the end, salt and pepper to taste.

This recipe will easily make 4-5 servings, you can adjust accordingly depending on the number of people in your home. I made extra so I had lunch for the next day.

Enjoy!

Antonietta xo