Chickpea and Cabbage Soup

What do you do with a quarter of a cabbage and not much else? You make soup. Cabbage soup?! Are you serious? Um... Yes, if you use your not-much-else and make it delicious. I just made this up an hour ago and I love it! If you don't like the acidity, maybe you might like to temper it with a little sugar? (pft. just take it.) Ready? Here we go!

If having this as a main, I suggest heavy rye sourdough (maybe with melted parmesan on it if you're not vegan!) to soak up the liquidy goodness.

INGREDIENTS:

• Olive oil
  
• 1 onion (diced)
  
• 3 cloves garlic (diced)
  
• 5 Roma tomatoes (diced)
  
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 lemon (juiced)
• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas (soaked overnight, then boiled until cooked)
• 1/2 cup cooking water from the chickpeas
• 2 cups vegetable stock
  
• 1 - 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/4 of a cabbage (finely chopped)
• Big double handful of torn fresh basil leaves
• 1 handful of finely chopped fresh parsley
• Cracked black pepper

METHOD:

• Heat a good swig of olive oil in a medium soup pot and fry onion until clear
• Add garlic and bay, fry until fragrant
  
• Add tomatoes and paprika, fry for a minute or two
• Add cooked chickpeas, chickpea water, stock, lemon juice and cabbage - bring to the boil and then reduce to a slow simmer until cabbage is well cooked.
• Take off the heat and stir in torn basil.
• Serves four as an appertiser or two as a main with chopped parsley and pepper on top.

Moong Dal

Just because one's bank account is starving is no reason for you to! Dal is cheap, easy, nourishing, comforting and can even be delicious (particularly left overs on rye sourdough toast the next day). Obviously you can use whatever leafy vegetables you like in this if you do not have cabbage and spinach on hand. Kale would be awesome.

It is important to serve lentils with brown rice so that you get the benefits of complete protein - anyway, brown rice gives a much better texture and flavour to the dish! If brown rice just doesn't look appetising to you, throw a few teaspoons of tumeric into the cooking water to make it more jolly!

INGREDIENTS:

• Rice bran oil or ghee for frying
• 1.25 cups split moong/mung beans (thoroughly washed)
• 2 or 3 fresh green chilies
• 1 cup of tamarind water
• 6 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• Fresh ginger (thumb-length-ish chunk, finely chopped)
• 1 onion (diced)
  
• 2 tsp tumeric powder
• 3 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 3 tsp cumin seeds
• 6 - 10 curry leaves
• Pinch of asafoetida powder
  
• 1 carrot (diced)
• 1 celery stalk (diced)
• 3 cups of wombok or other cabbage (finely sliced)
• Spinach (couple of handfuls of leaves)
• Bunch of coriander leaf/stem (roughly chopped)

METHOD:

1. Head oil/ghee in a pot and fry curry leaves and mustard seeds until they begin to pop.
2. Add cumin seeds and onion, gently frying until clear
3. Add lentils, carrot, celery, ginger, garlic, tumeric, asafoetita, and chili and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
4. Cover with water (let water level sit about an inch above the contents of the pot), bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer.
   
5. Add cabbage about 15 minutes into cooking when dal is half cooked and continue simmering with lid on until dal is mushy and water is mostly absorbed.
6. Turn off heat and stir in tamarind water, spinach and coriander leaves.

This is wonderful served on brown rice with spicy pappadums and a simple raita. Mmmmmm!