Wilted Red Cabbage with Feta

Oh Deborah, we love you.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m in a phase of sorting through the cookbooks—culling then re-exploring the ones that are staying. Different foods catch our eye at different times, so it’s a great experiment to pull out the books and give them another round of attention. Deborah Madison is always a favorite, and as we are now in the winter wonderland I wanted to bring ideas for hearty vegetable dishes that were easy and could hold up to some travel and durable to a wide range of temperatures (the cabbage was frozen solid for a couple of days!).

This was also a weekend of reuniting with old friends at a house and skiing in the woods near Lake Superior. Two of the friends I have reconnected with over the last few years, and one of them I had not seen in 25 years.

Old friends—decades may pass but you can sit around a table as if only a few days or weeks had gone by. They can give a glimpse into the past, help fill in the blank spaces and reconstruct events, (through lenses and filters of course…who knows what really happened…) and together you piece together the strange and sometimes crazy patchwork beast that is a Memory as you are enjoying the present. These reunions can also give opportunity for a variety of forgivenesses to happen—both to ourselves and each other—and that is no small thing.

Time with buddies from the past has helped me appreciate that 1) we’re still alive, 2) we can get along decades later, and 3) we have the privilege of enjoying the comforting security of those two truths. May we all be so lucky to have and to cultivate time with our old friends!

Wilted Red Cabbage with Feta (via Deborah Madison)

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Heat in a large saute or wide sauce pan:

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Add:

1 medium Red Onion, thinly sliced in rounds

1 – 3 large cloves Garlic, minced

Cook over medium high heat for a couple of minutes, then add:

4 cups packed Red Cabbage, thinly sliced

3/4 Sea Salt

Keep on the heat for another couple of minutes, stirring continuously to evenly wilt the cabbage—wilt the cabbage, but don’t fully cook it. Remove from heat and stir in:

1-2 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Juice

Taste and adjust salt and lemon amounts.

Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle on top:

Crumbled Feta or Goat Feta

2 Tablespoons Mint, chopped

2 Tablespoons Dill, chopped

2 Tablespoons Parsley, chopped

Freshly Ground Pepper

Alternatives—add any mixture of fresh herbs or seeds:

• Thyme
• Fennel Fronds
• Caraway
• Oregano
• Basil
• Mustard Greens
• Sesame Seeds
• Pumpkin Seeds

Anything with red cabbage is good color therapy and perfect during this season of limited light.

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

.

William Shakespeare