rustic cabbage and potato stew

Irish Cuisine invokes images of hearty potatoes, cabbage, beer, stews, soda breads and more beer. Now, I have not truly tasted authentic Irish foods yet, and am hoping to do so when we plan a vacation next year.

But, meanwhile, I had bought this fragrant, fresh and earthy rosemary artisan bread hoping to have it with some hearty soup or stew for a weeknight dinner, and started looking around for some Irish stew recipes. Then decided to just go my own way and make something healthy, yet quick and easy to dip the rosemary bread in.

Since, we have a bunch of small/new/baby potatoes we had dug out of our garden recently and since I discovered a chunk of shy cabbage from a few weeks ago hiding in the lower back corner of the fridge, this cabbage and potato stew came about sort of unthinkingly. But, as it turned out quite hearty and tasty, I might as well jot down here for days when I can't think of anything exotic to serve for dinner :)

Anything as simple, yet tasty and wholesome as this, I pass off as "rustic" - just a little marketing ploy - not that a square meal at home needs marketing...

Ingredients:
16-20 baby potatoes
1-2 generous wedges of large green cabbage
1 cup granulated TVP:Textured Vegetable Protein^† (Optional)

for the broth:
6-8 cups vegetable stock (or water)
4 Tbsp coriander powder
2-3 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (or dried rosemary)
2 Tbsp cayenne pepper powder
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp garlic powder
salt to taste
(any other favorite flavoring can be used for the broth)

Preparation

1. Start the broth simmering in a large pot
2. Thoroughly clean the potatoes if leaving the skin on
3. Drop the potatoes in the simmering broth, cover and simmer till potatoes are partially done, then throw in the cabbage
4. Simmer till fork tender, adjust taste
5. To thicken the broth, I simply mushed a few of the potatoes that were cooking in there till desired thickness
6. If preferred, add some TVP:Textured Vegetable Protein for some body and, of course protein (i left it this time)

Chunks of unpretentious rosemary bread dipped in this simple yet wholesome stew was a perfect meal for the cold, wet, windy evening we had a few days ago.

^† For a nutritious and filling meat substitute, sometimes I make Wheat Meat, and run it in a blender to granulate it. This makes a non-soy protein substitute when needed, like in mock ground beef burrito.