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What do all of these have in common?

They all started from the same meal! First came butternut squash, red cabbage, and tofu stir fry on a Sunday. Then the chopped butternut squash debuted as fries on a Monday, the red cabbage was seared on a Tuesday, and the leftover red cabbage was turned into purple eggs on Saturday. Magic! 

Butternut Squash Fries: Toss chunks of peeled, chopped squash with about 1 Tbsp. olive oil, 1/4 cup bread crumbs, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast at 400° for 20 minutes, until they start to crisp. They’ll be softer than sweet potato fries.

Purple eggs: Saute red cabbage strips with greens, onions, etc. (I used the remains of a garden salad mix). Add a beaten egg to the skillet, and it will start to turn purple! Let the egg set, then serve with toast.

A Red Cabbage Obsession

Good food karma just paid out, big time. I had half a red cabbage in the fridge, left-over from some recipe testing last week. I’d never cooked it before, and was just starting to think about doing something, anything, with the bright purple behemoth. And then my favorite Martha Rose Shulman, who writes the Recipes for Health over at NYT.com, started a whole week on red cabbage.

I had the cabbage. An onion. Some cheese (I substituted provolone and Parmesan for the Gruyere). Rice left over from the Rice Dinner (Yep. I picked out the beans. Gotta use up that rice in any way possible!). Garlic, parsley, breadcrumbs, eggs. My boyfriend picked up some kale (and mentioned that it was a conversation starter…I thought it was a joke, until he admitted he hadn’t read about the kale love story I overheard.”Nice kale you got there”—the hot new pick-up line!)

This was looking to be one easy breezy recipe. We sauteed the vegetables in a dutch oven, then added the mixture of eggs, cheese, and rice straight in, sprinkled breadcrumbs and some extra cheese on top, and slipped the whole thing into the oven.

At that point, I wasn’t optimistic. It looked overly cabbage-y, with too little egg and rice mixture helping it out. Were we really going to make a meal on cabbage? At least we had ice cream in the freezer.

30 minutes later, I pulled it out. It’s not going to win any beauty contests—more reminiscent of an 80’s heyday casserole. But wow. I took a bite, and then another, and then we were going back for third helpings. Somehow, that simple list of ingredients turned into a hearty and deeply fulfilling dish. It eats like an entire meal, which just happens to be full of extra-healthy cruciferous vegetables. Tammy came home, hoping the delicious aroma luring her up the stairs was our apartment—luckily, it was! (She went back for seconds, too. It’s really that good.) I packed the single leftover serving up for lunch tomorrow, and I’m already excited to eat this again.

I love it when recipes, especially good-for-you recipes, are surprisingly delicious. This one’s becoming a go-to. It’s an official obsession.

Any other ideas for red cabbage? (The comments link is to the left of the title.)