Meal planning and shopping based on local, seasonal offerings will help you reduce your carbon footprint. When organic produce is sold out-of-season, it has often been imported to Canada from another country — meaning that the environmental impact is a lot higher than if you buy local, organic seasonal products.
When eating seasonally, cabbage-based recipes are a wonderful addition to your meal rotation because this vegetable is a yummy long-term storage superstar that is often available from as early as July to as late as March – a great choice to eat straight through the summer, fall and winter!
We’re excited to share one of the many great recipes from Ann Thurlow’s cookbook ‘My PEI Cabbage Cookbook’. Ann has this heartwarming story to share about her lovely Cabbage Borscht recipe:
“To my great good fortune, I have found myself tied to a man who is half Doukhobor. For those unfamiliar, the Doukhobours were a sect from Georgia in southern Russia. They believed in hard work and peace and their pacifism put them at odds with Russia’s rulers. Long, dramatic and interesting story short, they ended up in Canada, mostly in southern BC.
Naturally, they brought their cultural and culinary traditions with them. I found a recipe for cabbage borscht in an exhibition about the Doukhobors at the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. I have modified it somewhat to include more beets because I love the colour. This borscht is packed with vegetables but cabbage is the star.”
Ann’s Cabbage Borscht Recipe
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
I chopped onion
2 cups canned tomatoes (drained, save the juice)
1/4 cup diced green pepper
1/2 cup chopped dill
3 cups finely sliced cabbage
3 cups water
1 tsp salt
2 medium potatoes, peeled and halved
1/2 cup diced carrot
3/4 cup diced beets
1/4 cup half and half
• Melt the butter in a large pot. Add onions and cook for five minutes.
• Add tomatoes, peppers, dill and cabbage. Cook for 25 minutes, stirring once and a while to avoid browning.
• Meanwhile, bring salted water to a boil. Add potatoes, carrots and beets and cook until potatoes are soft.
• Remove potatoes from the pot and mash with the cream.
• Combine everything including the water.
• Cook slowly, covered for at least two hours.
• It’s best if the borscht sits overnight in the fridge and is then heated up slowly. Enjoy!
‘My PEI Cabbage Cookbook’ was published by Vesey’s Seed and is available through their website, or through Indigo Books. Check it out here: https://www.veseys.com/ca/my-pei-cabbage-cookbook-89221.html