STEEMIT IRON CHEF 2018 Act 01 Round 02 ~ Cabbage ~ Purple-Green Lasagna

The last time I visited my parents, my mom cooked a lasagna for me inspired by an italian recipe using tomatoes and savoy cabbage as the filling. The savoy cabbage in the italian cooking seemed unusal for me but it was incredible delicious! That evening came back to my mind when I read the theme for this weeks #steemit-ironchef hosted by @progressivechef. It was cabbage. Here are the rules if you would like to participate into the contest: STEEMIT IRON CHEF 2018 Act 01 Round 02 .

I love colorful foods. So I wanted to create a filling for the lasagna with contrasting colors as strong as the red and green of tomatoes and savoy cabbage but without the tomatoes. 

On the green market I bought a nice and green crispy looking savoy cabbage and something I've never seen before: a purple sweetheart cabbage. I only knew them in light green - white color. The special advantage of sweeth cabbage is that the taste is more - you guess it - sweet and it doesn't need such a long cooking time. Original I planned to buy a regular purple cabbage but that purple sweetheart fitted even better. And it looks so beautiful!

As always there was no fix plan how to proceed, just some ideas that stake out broad lines. 

These were the ingredients I roughly planned to use:

• a savoy cabbage
• a purple sweetheart cabbage
• some kale
• an apple
• onions
• precooked chestnuts 
• cashew nuts
• lasagna noodles
• chicory
• oranges
• smoked tofu

Preparation:

Thats what I did step by step. I prepared the cabbages in two separate pots. 

For the purple cabbage I cut half of a red onion in fine slices and fried them in some vegetable oil in a pan.

I added the relatively fine chopped cabbage and one half of the apple chopped in small pieces too. I stirfried for about five minutes.

The typical german side dish made of purple cabbage has a slightly sweet and sour taste. Apple is a often used ingredient. The acidity comes from some vinegar added to the vegetables. The amount of vinegar influences the final color of the purple cabbage: If  just a lit acid is used the cabbage is more or less dark blue (Blaukraut). More vinegar makes the cabbage turn more reddish (Rotkraut). The preferences differ from region to region and so the name of the dish does. Actually it's a chemical reaction. You could switch back and forward between these two colors by adding more acids or some baking soda ... but don't eat this anymore then! 😝 Ok, back to my recipe! I didn't use vinegar. I had an open bottle white dry wine in the fridge and added this to my purple cabbage and let it cook ready in it. I seasoned with salt and fresh ground multicolored pepper (includes a lot of dried papaya seeds!). That turned it into a pinkish purple and delicious aromatic wonder. I had to stop myself from trying it again and again or I would have eaten most of it just that way ... 😋

For the savoy cabbage I chopped the other half of my onion and the smoked tofu in mini cubes and fried them together with a teaspoon of rough crushed caraway seeds in a large pot. 

I added the cabbage which I had cut in fine stripes and some water, seasoned with salt and pepper and let it cook until medium soft.

Instead of a Béchamel Sauce I made an very winterly "cheezy" sauce. First I fried some finely chopped onion and garlic in some vegetable oil. Then I added I the chestnuts and the cashews and half a cup of nutritional yeast and cooked them in a plant milk until the cashews were soft. I mixed it with a handmixer until creamy and seasoned with salt, fresh ground white pepper and fresh ground nutmeg. Finger licking good!

Then I only had to join both sorts of cabbage separated in layers with the noodles between into an ovenproof dish  ... Every layer became a cover of the chezzy sauce. On top I springled some sunflower seeds for some extra crunch.

I baked the covered lasagna for 25 minutes in the preheated oven (180degrees Celsius) and then for another 20 minutes uncovered. Ready!

This is how the beauty came out of the oven:

I served this relatively substantial dish with a fresh bitter sweet salad of red and whit chicory, lambs lettuce, slices of skinned blood and pink orange and pomegranate seeds. Thefruity dressing was made of olive and sunflower oil, mustard, raspberry jam, salt and fresh ground multicolored pepper.

Enjoy! 

I just noticed something: doesn't the sauce on the plate look like a cute little wale with a thinking bubble above?! 😄 It even has an eye!

Thank you @progressivechef for initiating this challenge and thanks to all who are supporting the #steemit-ironchef! 😘

Good luck to all the participants! I wish we could share the dishes and not only the beautiful photos and recipes! 😄

Just in case you wonder where all the kale went to - I made some kale chips seasoned with dried garlic, smoked spanish pepper and salt - and burned it! 😆