Cabbage and potatoes have found themselves as a pairing in dishes from around the world. From Indian cabbage and potato sabzi, to Ethiopian cabbage, to smothered cabbage and potato in the Southern US, to our own colcannon in Ireland. Sometimes these dishes will have a meat accompaniment, and that is often bacon. Indeed, cabbage and bacon, with a mound of mashed potato, was one of my favourites growing up.
Another favourite dish growing up was from the famous Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course, cabbage with garlic and juniper. The book was a standard reference for my mother, and this was one of her favourites. As I explore international recipes, I can see the similarities to some of them to Delia’s dish, and understand why they are so popular.
This dish was partly inspired by a leftover heart of a green cabbage that I had used to make stuffed cabbage leaves with. The green heart is quite like the savoy cabbage, with crisp, tightly folded leaves. It is ideal for lots of recipes, from cabbage soup to coleslaw, and works well here.
I had thought of using the leftover cabbage to make a vegan colcannon, but wanted to make a whole dish, not just a side. You could, of course, deconstruct colcannon all the way to a plate of separated “bacon”, cabbage and potato, but I wanted to go for something that was more towards an Ethiopian cabbage dish.
What to use instead of bacon though? Here I will turn to one of my favourite ingredients - smoked tofu! I will eat this raw in salads or sandwiches, or even fry strips of it for a TLT: tofu, lettuce and tomato!
Ingredients:
3 “baker” sized potatoes (about 500-600g), cut into good sized chunks.
1 pack of smoked tofu (usually around 200g), cut into bite sized chunks.
2 tbsp oil or a good knob of vegan butter.
1 medium onion, finely diced.
1 clove garlic, crushed or finely diced.
6-8 juniper berries, crushed in a mortar and pestle, or with the back of a spoon.
2 tsp sea salt
Put the potatoes in a pot with enough water to cover them and add in the 2 tsp salt. Bring to the boil and simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes. Carefully strain off a jugful of the cooking water and discard the rest. Leave the pot of parboiled potatoes to the side to dry off a bit while you get on with the rest of the dish.
Heat the oil or vegan butter in a casserole over a medium heat. Add in the onion and cook until softened. Now add in the juniper and garlic and cook for another minute or so. You may note that the “raw” smell of garlic goes away and there is a more fragrant smell that replaces it.
Turn the heat up to medium-hot and stir in the shredded cabbage until it is well coated and glistening with the hot oil. Allow to warm through for a minute or so and then add in the parboiled potatoes and the chopped tofu. Pour in about 100ml of the reserved potato water (which is salty) and put the lid on.
This should take about 10 minutes for the cabbage to cook “al dente” and the potatoes to finish cooking. Give the pot a gentle stir and check the water levels every 2 minutes or so, adding more of the reserved potato water if needed. We want to end up with a pot of moist goodness, without too much liquid.
Just at the end, stir in the spinach. Serve in wide dinner bowls as soon as the spinach has wilted.