Cabbage “Pasta” with Creamy Tomato Sauce

(pictured: cabbage pasta with creamy tomato sauce without the breadcrumb topping)

Today’s lunch was another one of my healthy meals. One of my friends is reading “Eat to Live” after listening to me rave about the nutrition of the plan and she loves the book. For those of you that have read the book she and I are going to start the 6-week intensive plan next week. Since we are both vegan it isn’t going to be much of a stretch for either of us. I am looking forward to coming out of the holidays healthier than I went in.

To prepare for the more stringent 6-week program I starting thinking of what I could cook for the next 6 weeks. I love to use cabbage as pasta in the fall and winter. Normally I would mix it with whole wheat pasta but that is going to be out for a while so I wanted to post this recipe for my friend to give her some ideas for the coming weeks.

My husband is going to being doing the 6-week plan with us, but will be getting extra grains and nuts since his weight is perfect and we don’t want him to loss any. I will be letting you all know how I modify things for my husband in case you want to join us on a the 6-week plan but need to modify the recipes for someone in your home. Here is what I made for lunch today.

Cabbage “Pasta” with Creamy Tomato Sauce
Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

½ yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
¼ cup water
2 cups sprouted soymilk (or any unsweetened non dairy milk)
14 ounces canned diced tomato
3 tablespoons cornstarch, dissolved in 4 tablespoons water
8 cups cabbage, thinly sliced
¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

Optional Topping Ingredients:

4 tablespoons fresh whole wheat bread crumbs
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

Directions:

Water sauté the onion in the water until soft. Add the unsweetened non dairy milk, canned tomatoes (with their juices) and cornstarch and simmer for a couple of minutes so the sauce will thicken. Now add the cabbage, salt and pepper and cook until the cabbage is the texture you desire. Our cabbage was tender, but still had a little crisp to maximize the nutrition.

If desired you can toast the whole wheat bread crumbs and mix them with nutritional yeast (for a cheesy umami) and use that to top the pasta. I like to use this combination on my pasta so I added it here. I took the picture before I added the crumb topping and we were too hungry to wait for more pictures with the crumbs.

Nutritional Information (includes optional topping):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 391.87
Calories From Fat (16%) - 60.92

Total Fat - 6.56g
Saturated Fat - 0.91g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 900.33mg
Potassium - 1495.03mg
Total Carbohydrates - 68.07g
Fiber - 14.25g
Sugar - 23.36g
Protein - 16.66g

Comments:

I really enjoyed this for lunch today. It is very filling but without a lot of calories. This meal also provides a nice amount of nutrition. Each serving contains approximately 600IU of vitamin A, 150mg of vitamin C, 250mg of calcium, 250mg of folate, 275mcg of vitamin K, 200mg of phosphorus, and 13mcg of selenium. If you want to reduce the sodium in this dish you can use a no salt added canned diced tomato product.

Unrelated note:

I am off to try to get a few things accomplished before I need to start dinner. I will be back later with a recipe or two. Enjoy your day and happy cooking.