When I taught Kindergarten our school participated in a wonderful healthy eating program. Each week a nutrition teacher would come to our classroom, sing songs, read books and share with the students a new type of healthy food, along with some cool facts about that food. Every letter of the alphabet was covered, so we got to try some really interesting foods.
I would have never tasted yucca, ugly fruit or even dandelion greens if not for this program.
We are fortunate that W is still a fairly good eater at 2.5 years old. He is more particular about what he eats, and he prefers cookies to most anything, but he does try most things. He may or may not finish the new food, but at least he tries.
In order to introduce W to a variety of new fruits and vegetables, I thought it would be fun to highlight a different type of new healthy food each month. Each month I’ll choose a fruit or vegetable that’s in season and share my recipe.
Cabbage is the lucky first vegetable to be chosen! Scroll down to find out the simple, yummy way I prepared this tasty, nutritious leafy green.
Sautéed Cabbage and Leeks Recipe
I’ll be honest. I never really got into cabbage until recently. Cabbage and noodles never appealed to me, and I wasn’t a fan of coleslaw (I realize now that I was completely nuts). It wasn’t until I made the cabbage and noodle dish last year for our St. Patrick’s Day party that I realized how delicious cabbage can be.
It’s a good thing I finally came to my senses! Not only is cabbage tasty, but it’s cheap, easy-to-make and SUPER good for you. Find six reasons to eat more cabbage from Full Circle and read about the 9 Surprising Health Benefits of Cabbage from Care2.
There are lots of different ways to eat cabbage. You can make a coleslaw, use purple cabbage to top fish tacos or mix it in with a salad. I’ve decided to sauté my cabbage with some leeks, add some Asian flavors, oh, and BACON. Yum!
I paired this flavorful side dish with some salmon and rice for an extremely tasty, but very nutritious dinner.
Ingredients
- Half a green cabbage, sliced
- 3-4 slices of bacon, diced
- 1 leek, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
- 1-2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1-2 tbsp soy sauce
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Saute bacon until nice and crispy. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon.
- Add chopped leek and saute for about 3-4 minutes over medium heat.
- Add minced garlic and ginger and cook for another minute.
- Add rice wine vinegar and soy sauce, breaking up bacon bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Add cabbage and cook for another 5-7 minutes.
- Enjoy!
This looks so good! I love cabbage salads, so I am sure I would like it sauteed! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Lauren recently posted…5-Minute Cake Pops
Sounds tasty. I would not have put bacon and Asian flavors together, so this is something new to try! (I love coleslaw so much!)
I love cabbage and leeks! I never would have thought to put them together thought! This sounds delicious! And I love the idea for introducing the new veggies!!
Tarynn Playle recently posted…8 Easy Ways to Uplift Your Mood
Great Blog !!! Single parent of 3, so I look for blogs to read, learn something, etc. I also collect books for my kids who love to read. Just bought a very nice book with a message called “Cooking With Mr. C.” by John Contratti. A beautiful picture storybook with a very good message for kids. I thought I would share it with other moms. Maybe I’ll start a Mommy Blog for books. 🙂 I look forward to your other posts.
Denny
P.S. I love your recipes. The author of the book also has a very nice cooking blog, by the same title, “Cooking With Mr. C.”
That sounds really good! I am going to have to make this for St Patty’s day as a healthier alternative. I just can’t do the corn beef, too fatty for me but my hubby loves it. We do not eat the same at all! 🙂 Not sure I could get my 5 year old to eat this but my 2 year old might.
Great idea with introducing one new thing a month!
I pinned it for later!
Crystal Renaud recently posted…Time For Training, Races And A Giveaway!
Made a couple of personal modifications: 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, salt, pepper, 1/2 tsp pepper flakes and topped with roasted sliced almonds. Loved it and so did my boyfriend!!
Just made this for tonight’s dinner, along side a steak and it was a hit! Since we are paleo I replaced the oy sauce with coconut aminos and a dash of fish sauce. So yummy!
This was really really good! I made it without the bacon and it was still awesome. I subbed the soy sauce with liquid amino‘s because I am AIP …I think this would make a wonderful snack or side dish! Thank you for sharing
This was fabulous! I used red cabbage (because that is what I grew this year) which made it very pretty as well as delicious! Keeper recipe…thank you so much for sharing.
Just made this for lunch. Easy and tasty! Thanks so much.