Sweet cabbage – a family recipe

I am not entirely sure why this dish is called ‘sweet cabbage’ as there is nothing sweet about it. Maybe it’s just because it uses green cabbage that is sometimes also called sweet cabbage? Maybe it’s just my family that calls this ‘sweet cabbage’. Whatever the reason, or the name really, it’s one of my favourite dishes!

I always thought it was quite complicated to make, so I’ve never even tried doing it myself. It does take a bit longer than usual 20min pasta dish. It also involves a few pots which I have always found rather discouraging (for some reason I can handle one pot on a stove at a time, maybe two if the other one contain rice or similar, but as soon as there’s more, I tend to panic and burn things 🙂 ). But I was wrong – the recipe is pretty simple, as I have just learnt.

So, what it is actually? Hm, it’s really just the green cabbage with mashed potato, mixed together in a smooth thick-creamy-soup-like dish. I’ve cooked potatoes and made a nice mash (with milk, butter, a bit of salt and some sour cream if available). In a separate pot, I added sliced cabbage leaves and plenty of water and cooked it for quite a while, until the cabbage got soft. I put that to a side.

In the third pot (which is the reason I always thought this dish is rather complicated), I sauteed some onion, adding a spoon of flour (if you’d rather make a gluten free version, I think you can easily go without the flour). Once the onion and flour mixture got slightly brown, I added the cooked cabbage leaves with a bit of the water in which it was cooked. You can discard the rest of the water. Add a couple of veggie stock cubes (or veggie stock in any other form), some salt and pepper, and maybe a bit of dried parsley. Cook for about 20 minutes. Once this is done, take it off the stove and add the mashed potato to the mix. I used stick mixer to blend it all together and to get a nice smooth texture. Add some more salt if necessary. Et voila!

You can make some meat on a side, like sausages, a steak, maybe chicken wings. We normally cut meat in small pieces and put it on the top of the ‘soup’. Serve with fresh bread on the side if desirable. Et bon apetit!

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