Vegetarian New Years’

Here is a super popular, quick and easy, New Year’s Day/Dal meal. It actually has been voted in as a weekly Saturday winter dinner at my place, because it is so good. It takes 20 minutes from top to bottom, and costs perhaps $5 for 4-6 servings.

Basically we’re matching up haluska, an Eastern European staple, especially on New Years’, with a side of spiced black eyed peas, popular in the American South on that same day.

They go great together, and your grandma may be proud.

Haluska

8 oz. wide or curly egg noodles, dried
one medium head of greenish-white cabbage
one medium organic yellow onion
4 tbsps of ghee or oil of choice (I think Sunflower works well here) – I know that sounds like a lot, but you’ll appreciate it later
Bring 2 quarts of salted water to rapid boil.  Add only the noodles.  Boil for 5 minutes uncovered. Strain. Set aside.

Chop the cabbage and onion into little strips.  Sautee in the oil or ghee on medium, stirring frequently.  You want the onions to get translucent and  perhaps carmelized a bit.

Add 1 teaspoon good (like Celtic) sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.

Add the noodles and stir thoroughly.

Black-Eyed Peas

Open 2 cans of Organic Black Eyed Peas. :) (Hey, it’s the holidays.  I think it’s ok to take this time-saving step, but if you want to avoid the can, even though you can get them lined, by all means, soak some dried peas the night before, and boil for 1-2 hours in salted water to go the real old old-fashioned route.)

Heat.  Add 1 teaspoon dried basil and 1/2 teaspoon bay leaf powder (powerful stuff – I grind my own.) Stir well.

Serve haluska and black eyed peas together with organic sour cream ready to mix on the side which is quite essential!

The high quality spices are of course what give this meal great praana, precious always, but especially while shivering and hunkering in the cold season.

6 Tastes:

sweet= oil, ghee, noodles, basil, bay leaf, peas

sour= pepper, cabbage, sour cream

salty= salt

pungent= pepper, bay leaf, onion

bitter= cabbage, basil, bay leaf, peas

astringent= cabbage, onion, peas