Spiced satay pineapple beans in sweet potato

With our weekly pizza making and love of tinned pineapple on pizza, we regularly have leftover pineapple in the fridge. It can end up in smoothies, on cereal, in baking, or just eaten plain. Occasionally it ends up in stir fries. Last week, it inspired this meal.

This is one of those simple dishes that barely constitutes a recipe. You can make it with store cupboard staples (presuming your staples are like mine and include tinned beans, pineapple, peanut butter and spices) and it takes all of 5 minutes to throw together. The bean mix could top a regular jacket potato instead of sweet potato, or be paired with rice or couscous or quinoa. It does work brilliantly with sweet potato though.

I served this with asparagus which is in season here at the moment. Asparagus isn't my favourite vegetable, but I do take pleasure in eating it in season when the flavours are at their peak.

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Beetroot pasta with spinach and white bean sauce

When I posted about my beetroot pasta purchase, I got lots of queries about what I would do with the pink noodles. At the time, I really had no idea. I routinely buy food like that - drawn in by novelty or beauty with no meal plan at the time of purchase.

Over time, though, ideas came to me. I wanted something that would contrast with the pink colour. I thought about corn, and still think yellow kernals against pink pasta would be a beautiful thing. In the end, though, I settled on green.

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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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