Leon-inspired chickpea, aubergine and mint stew

It's getting a bit embarrassing, the way you can track my recipe progression. In addition to my ongoing enjoyment of aubergine, this stew carries forward the mint theme from my last recipe and features the chickpeas that allowed me to create a vegan mousse with chickpea brine. What can I say, my kitchen activities are transparent. It may also be obvious that I don't have enough time to create surplus recipes to mask this transparency!

Whilst some of the flavours in this dish are familiar, it definitely deserves recognition in its own right. The recipe is adapted from one in the Leon cookbook, which is published by the creators of the popular UK Leon restaurants. Leon is all about real, healthy, fast food and many of the dishes draw on Mediterranean and African ingredients. This recipe epitomizes the Leon style.

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Leon-inspired purple cabbage and beans

Sometimes, mid week, you just need something simple. Easy, quick, nutritious, comforting, and simple. No fuss, no fancy ingredients, and hardly any time.

This is the first recipe I've adapted from our new Leon cookbook (the one I ordered for Christmas after we ate and enjoyed Leon food in London) and it fulfilled all those requirements.

My adaptations from the original recipe were quite extensive. This may be summed up by the original dish being titled spring greens. It included white cabbage and peas, and did indeed look green in the book.

My version was clearly not green. I used purple cabbage, omitted the peas, and added white beans (except they ended up purple). I did retain the caraway seeds of the original recipe, and am glad I did so - I think they added a subtle flavour that brought the dish together. It's the first time I've used caraway seeds and I'm now quite quite keen to experiment further with them.

We had this for dinner the first night with quinoa (me) and baked potato (Mr Bite), and I've been enjoying the leftovers for lunch this week. It's a good dish for going the distance. I imagine it would pair well with pasta too, or rice, or any other grain base.

Leon-inspired purple cabbage and beans

Adapted from the spring greens recipe in the Leon Ingredients & Recipes cookbook

Makes a side dish or meal accompaniment for 4 to 6

Vegan

Print recipe

Ingredients

1/2 a purple cabbage, roughly chopped

1 medium leek, sliced

1/2 tsp caraway seeds

3 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 1/2 cups cooked white beans (I used great northern beans but any white beans would work)

1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 bunch fresh mint, chopped

1/2 bunch parsley, chopped

Salt and pepper, a dash of each

Method

In a large saucepan, bring 1 cup water to boiling and then add the cabbage, leek and caraway seeds. Cover and simmer over medium heat for ~4 minutes.

Add the spring onions and continue simmering, stirring occasionally, for a further 3 - 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add the white beans and vinegar and seasonings. Keep over low heat for a further 1 - 2 minutes, then serve with rice, quinoa, or baked potato.

I wasn't expecting the colour to be quite so vivid, but I am glad it turned out that way. Food is more fun colourful!

I am submitting this to Ricki's Wellness Weekend 7th - 11th February 2013, and to Healthy Vegan Friday #29, co-hosted by Gabby, Carrie and Katherine.

Do you use caraway seeds regularly? What about cabbage? 

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