Lately we have been doing a lot of experimenting with different cuisines and ingredients, my favorite is to buy a specific ingredient for the week to play with. Whether it’s a tried and true veg I know and love that I just want to push out of my comfort zone on, or a veg I don’t usually cook with, it has produced wonderful results.

This past week was red cabbage and turnips, and before that beets. I like to start off by thinking on their natural pairings, all the possible cooking methods – and then challenging myself to think of any new and exciting ones. I then dig in on googling the health benefits of each veg. No surprise, beets, turnips and red cabbage are wildly good for you – anti-inflammatory, packed with vits and antioxidents, immune system boosters, cancer-fighters – the list goes on. I also learned that smaller turnips will have a sweeter taste, bigger ones will have a tangier, spicier taste. Beet juice is a life-saver for hangovers (I use this more than I ought to admit). Never throw away your greens, beet and turnip greens are fantastic and there is nothing like buying and eating all parts of your veg. Learning as much as you can is a wonderful way to get excited to dive in cookin’. Next week we will dive into jicama, daikon or the sweet potato – but before I move on too quickly let me get you up to speed on our favorite recipes from the past weeks:

I’ve cooked a lot with beets because I love them, beet gnocci and beet ravioli are some of my faves but the most notable dish from this recent beet adventure was beet oatmeal – a fantastic breakfast. Pretty self explanatory, whip up some oatmeal and throw some roasted cubed beet on top with some nuts and seeds and if you want to make it sweeter top with my latest fave, date syrup.

For the turnips we made a quick and easy turnip soup, then some amazing spicy braised turnips. We loved the spicy so much we then went on to make spicy red cabbage. We used the cabbage for a little fusion Japanese taco of baked miso tofu, sliced radish, wasabi cream and sesame seeds, it was great but the next day it evolved into something even better. We had some leftover crepe batter and decided to pop all the taco ingredients into the crepe, plus a bit of turnip soup! It was unexpected, delicious, and dynamic. The clincher for me was that mix of the turnip soup with the cabbage, so I had it again just those two things today for lunch – it is so good! The soup is kind of like a potato soup but with a slight tang that brightens it up and the red cabbage is beautifully spicy to balance all that earthy. They pair together wonderfully and it’s one of those healthy dishes you feel great about eating while being equally great to eat!

Simple Turnip Potato Soup

• 2 lbs turnips, peeled and diced
• 2 large potatoes, diced (I leave skins on cuz I’m a rebel who loves vit-packed potato skins. If you want a smooth white soup though, best cut them off)
• 1/2 a large onion, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 celery stick, diced
• vegetable stock, 4 cups
• thyme, 2 tsp
• 2 bay leaves
• a knob of butter
• milk, 1/2 a cup
• 1 tsp white pepper
• s+ black pepper to taste

Sautee your onion, celery and carrot in a bit of oil. Add the bay leaves. After about 5 mins, add your diced turnips and potatoes, the thyme, white pepper, a bit of salt and stir around for a few minutes. Add in 4 cups of stock and cover for an hour, check in occasionally to stir. After, remove bay leaves, pop in a blender (may have to do this in 2 batches), add knob of butter and milk and puree. Add salt as needed. I like this topped with something spicy, a simple spicy oil and some sauteed almond slices would be killer.

Spicy Red Cabbage

• half a red cabbage, chopped
• 1 pepperoncini, sliced and de-seeded
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp hot sauce (I used a fun kenyan one, but any ole tabasco will be great)
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Chop up your cabbage and throw it in the pan with your sesame oil, pepper, spices and hot sauce. Sautee on med for about 10 minutes. Add rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey and stir around cooking for another 10 minutes. Add your oj and put on low for the 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.