Heidi Swanson, author of www.101cookbooks.com and one of my favorite cookbooks, Super Natural Cooking, had these two recipes on her website. I made both of these after work on day before going to a Halloween gathering. I'll share with you my variations.

Warm Red Cabbage Salad
Swanson's recipe for Warm Red Cabbage Salad originally comes from the Tassajara Cookbook. This is another cookbook from the Tassajara Zen Buddhist retreat center in California. Their cuisine is vegetarian.  My variations on Swanson's adaptation include using goat cheese rather than feta and adding extra raisins; I love the sweetness of goat cheese. If you choose to use goat cheese rather than feta, make sure the salad has cooled a bit, as the goat cheese will melt and the salad will become creamy. Only put in extra raisins if you feel your company would enjoy them, I noticed a few folks picked out the raisins and onions. The ingredients are: sunflower seeds, onions, garlic, red cabbage, fresh rosemary, raisins, balsamic vinegar and goat cheese. The cabbage is cooked till tender with the sauteed garlic and onions but not so much that it collapses, you don't want soft cabbage. Swanson's recipe can be found on her website. It is quite good and a great way to use the fresh red cabbage available this time of year.


Roasted Pumpkin Salad
Swanson's Roasted Pumpkin Recipe is another quite delicious warm salad. I plan on making adaptations of this recipe in the future by using a variety of grains and vegetables. The salad is made with a wild rice medley, folded with roasted pumpkin and red onions. The dressing is a blend of wildflower honey, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and lime juice. Fresh chopped cilantro is folded in. Use a butternut squash or a similar squash that will hold its' shape as a sugar pumpkin will have the tendency to break down when you fold it in. Swanson calls for lemon juice but I had lime juice readily available; lime and cilantro is a good combination. The purple hues in the wild rice are a nice contrast to the orange squash and work well with the red onions. Leave the onions in circles, and they'll lay nicely in the serving bowl as you'll see in Swanson's beautiful photo.   

   

Inspired by the recipes for stuffed cabbage I've been browsing through the cookbooks I brought back from Germany I decided to make a vegetarian alternative. Bulgur is one of my favorite grains and takes on a nice ground meat consistency when cooked with tomato paste and onions. In this recipe I rolled cabbage leaves with bulgur and baked it with my own tomato sauce.

Stuffed Cabbage with Bulgur
Yield: 9  cabbage rolls with sauce

Stuffing:
2 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
1 Tablespoon organic tomato paste
3/4 cup dried bulgur
5 small sundried tomatoes (no oil), chopped
1/2 to 1 tsp chili powder
sea salt
3/4 cup water

9 large leaves of raw cabbage
Boiling water

Sauce:
1 small onion chopped
3 small cloves garlic, minced
1 qt of canned, whole peeled tomatoes (mine are self canned)
a palm full of fresh herbs: oregano and basil, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare bulgur stuffing. In a small to medium saucepan over the stovetop, saute onions and garlic in a small amount (less than a quarter size drop) of olive oil until transparent over medium heat. Add the tablespoon of tomato paste and combine. Add the bulgur and stir again. Drop in the sundried tomatoes. Pour in the water and bring to a simmer. Add the chili powder and salt (if you need it), stir, cover and reduce heat. You may need to add an additional small amount of water if the mixture is too dry. It will take approximately 15 minutes to absorb all of the water. Once bulgur is tender and can hold a stiff shape with a spoon, remove from heat and set aside.

While the bulgur is cooking, in a larger saucepan over medium heat begin to prepare the sauce.  Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add a small amount of olive oil to the pan. Add the onion and garlic, cook until almost transparent. Pour in the entire quart of tomatoes with juice, and break the tomatoes up with a wooden spoon to form a chunky sauce. Bring sauce to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes or longer, reducing the amount of liquid by half. Stir frequently to ensure sauce is not stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the fresh herbs when sauce is at desired consistency, stir and remove from heat. 

 Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Add the cabbage leaves, make sure leaves are covered with water. When the cabbage leaves are flexible and slightly transparent,  about 10 minutes, remove leaves from boiling water and dab leaves with a towel. Place approximately 1/4 cup of bulgur mixture on top of each leaf and roll, folding the edges of the leave inside and roll up. More or less stuffing may be necessary depending on the size of the cabbage leaf. Place each roll seam side down onto a baking dish. Top with the chunky tomato sauce and bake for approximately 20 minutes at 375 degrees.