Creamed Cabbage and Spinach in a Dijon White Sauce

(pictured: creamed cabbage and spinach over baked potato)

After hearing that my seitan paillards looked like schnitzel yesterday I had German food on the brain today when I was deciding what to cook for dinner.

When I was growing up there was a great German restaurant in Chicago called “The Berghoff”. It had the best German food, but a closed a couple of years ago. Even though I haven’t lived in the mid-west in almost 3 decades, when “The Berghoff” closed it was like losing an old friend. I immediately bought the cookbook they released hoping for the some of my favorite recipes from the restaurant. A few of them were in the book, but mostly those recipes are now just memories.

One of the best dishes I had ever eaten was the creamed spinach they used to serve. I know it was probably a heart attack on a plate but it was utterly delicious. The creamed cabbage and spinach I served tonight was my attempt to make a healthy version of the creamed spinach from my childhood. Here is what I made.

Creamed Cabbage and Spinach in a Dijon White Sauce
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, peeled and finely sliced
½ cup water to sauté onion
8 cups finely shredded cabbage
2 cups spinach, roughly chopped
5 cups almond milk, unsweetened
5 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in ¼ cup water
1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard, or to taste
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup fresh dill, finely minced

Directions:

Water sauté the onion until soft. Add the cabbage and spinach and cook until wilted. Don't overcook the cabbage since it is more nutritious the less it is cooked. Remove the vegetables to a wire strainer to eliminate the excess water.

While the vegetables are draining heat the almond milk until it is simmering. Add the cornstarch that was thoroughly dissolved in water to the hot almond milk and whisk to combine. Return the milk to a simmer to check the consistency of the sauce. If you want it thicker add another tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in water. Whisk the mustard into the white sauce and add salt and pepper until you like the level. Return the cooked and drained vegetables to the sauce and heat through. Stir the fresh dill into the sauce a few minutes before serving.

This dish is good served plain in a ramekin, over baked potatoes (as we had it tonight) or over pasta or rice.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 101.07
Calories From Fat (25%) - 25.53

Total Fat - 2.8g
Saturated Fat - 0.06g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 234.63mg
Potassium - 450.94mg
Total Carbohydrates - 17.15g
Fiber - 4.53g
Sugar - 4.7g
Protein - 3.01g

Comments:

When you have something in your memory reality can rarely meet your expectation. However, I really liked this dish. It isn’t as rich as the one I remember but it also isn’t going to raise your cholesterol and/or clog your arteries. For a healthy dish this is quite good. My initial thought was to serve this on potato latkes but I opted for baked potato instead to keep the overall fat level reasonable.

Tonight we also had this with seitan paillards (reheated from yesterday’s batch) and a quick beet and apple relish. I will post the relish next.

On an unrelated note when I was at Costco on Friday I bought the new holiday album by Sting. It doesn’t contain the normal Christmas tunes, but I am really enjoying it. If you are Sting fan you may want to check it out.

I am starting to gear up for Christmas at our house. After Thanksgiving dinner we start the Christmas decorating. I adore Christmas and like to decorate every floor of our house. The felines get into the action by taking the decorations down as quickly as we can put them up. There is lots of holiday spirit at our house with humans and felines alike.