Colourful Mexican - or how to use up cabbage

Prior to this year, I don't think I had eaten cabbage since I was a child. I have never liked coleslaw (even the thought makes me feel slightly ill) and cooked cabbage doesn't usually seem that exciting. Cabbage has been one of those vegetables that I skip over when buying produce and just don't give much thought to.

That changed when I went to Sydney in May. The lunches for our training course were catered, and day 1 included a cabbage-based salad with cabbage (obviously), carrot, capsicum, spring onions, and a dressing of lime and chilli. Even now it sings in my memory. I had the salad alongside rice paper rolls filled with tofu and mushrooms, and the combination was blissful. The only downside is that it made lunches for days 2 through 4 look bad by comparison - I had hoped for a similar menu each day, but things reverted to rolls and sandwiches and other more boring (to me) fare.

Since then, I have been thinking about possible uses for cabbage. I am yet to recreate the lime and chilli salad of Sydney, but I did make Angela's Over the Rainbow Cabbage Salad with Tahini Lemon Dressing from Oh She Glows.

It was impressively colourful and surprisingly flavoursome. My version omitted the sesame seeds but otherwise followed Angela's recipe closely, although I did find that I preferred the salad warm (just heated through in the microwave before serving) rather than cold.

I made a decent batch of the salad, but I had bought half a cabbage and the salad only required a quarter. Cabbage is definitely a vegetable that expands when chopped!

The challenge of what to do with the remainder was solved by plans for His and Hers versions of stacked quesadillas. I have posted the recipe that Mr Bite likes previously - a fairly standard vegetarian recipe that includes beans, avocado and cheese, with several layers of tortilla bread. My version is usually similar but omits the avocado (I still only like avocado when it's turned into dessert...) and cheese.

This time, I also added cabbage to my batch. It worked surprisingly well. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it worked very well and may become a regular inclusion in my Mexican dishes from now on.

I didn't take a photo of the quesadillas, but did photograph the leftover filling. As with the salad, it was happily colourful. I actually found that I enjoyed the filling even more plain than I did in the quesadilla dish, and it has proved a perfect match for our recent wintery weather.

Colourful Mexican with cabbage

Inspired by Angela's Over the Rainbow Cabbage Salad with Tahini Lemon Dressing

Makes 2 serves

Print recipe

Ingredients

1 small onion, diced

1/4 purple cabbage, rinsed and roughly chopped

1 carrot, thinly sliced

1 yellow capsicum, thinly sliced

~1/4 cup mushrooms, peeled and diced

~2/3 tin kidney beans, canneloni beans or beans of choice (I used a 4-bean mix), drained

4 tbsp salsa, mild or spicy to taste (mine was spicy)

4 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Saute the onion in the bottom of a large saucepan.

Add all other ingredients and stir over low - medium heat for approximately 15 minutes. 

Serve with tortilla bread, baked potato, or plain with a side of crackers.

Cabbage, it seems I under-estimated you.

Next up - that salad with lime and chilli!

Are you a cabbage fan? If so, do you have any favourite uses for it?

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