Welcome to Vegventures! We are going to start the journey from my “home country” of Finland (quotes because I’ve never felt at home here). Finland has a very bland and uninspiring cuisine heavily oriented around meat and potatoes. Besides the lack of veggies another downer is the scarcity of spices. Most dishes have just salt and pepper – perhaps a little allspice.

Of the vegetables carrots, swedes and cabbage feature perhaps most prominently. I hate cabbage soup, but cabbage rolls and cabbage casserole I’ve always liked, despite their relative blandness. This is an otherwise traditional version of the Finnish cabbage casserole, except that it’s made as a stew instead of baking in a casserole dish, and it replaces the usual ground meat with TVP (textured soy protein). You could use commercial “hamburger crumbles” or something like that instead.

Traditional cabbage casserole uses barley pearls, although most people use rice nowadays. I don’t normally like barley, but it’s great here and it supposedly has the lowest glycemic index of all grains. If you don’t have barley or follow a gluten-free diet, you can use e.g. rice or quinoa (or bulgur, but that isn’t gluten-free). Hence this recipe is tagged gluten-free (because it’s optionally that way). If you’re low carbing, you could leave it out altogether or substitute ground nuts.

For a more colorful option you can use red cabbage, which is also more nutritious. The leftovers will also turn a fancy shade of almost blue violet, certain to amuse your family.

Finnish cabbage stew

1 kg/2.2 lbs cabbage (white or Savoy)
1 onion
2-3 garlic cloves
1 dl/0.4 cups barley pearls or other grain
1 dl/0.4 cups TVP
8 dl/3.5 cups water or broth (if not using TVP, decrease by 1 dl/0.4 cup)
(1/2 vegetarian stock cube, if using water)
1 tsp dried marjoram
1 tbsp oil (optional, but helps bring out the flavour)
2 tbsp molasses or treacle (can substitute dark brown sugar)
1-2 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Shred the cabbage and the onion (I prefer to use a mandolin, but a food processor or a sharp knife works too) and mince the garlic. Place all ingredients (except the grain and TVP) in a pot and bring to boil.

The total cooking time is 45 minutes. You can add barley right at the start, but with other grains add them 15-30 minutes later, depending on their cooking time, as not to end up with porridge. Add the TVP about 5 minutes before the dish is done to avoid making it too soggy. If the dish seems too dry, add more water, or if it’s too watery, cook it uncovered for a while.

You can also make this in the oven the traditional way. In that case just place all ingredients in a casserole dish (if using a stock cube, heat the water first and dissolve the cube in it) and bake at 175C/350F for about an hour.

Serve hot with lingonberry jam. If that isn’t available, cranberry jam or sauce should work, too. By itself it’s a bit bland.

P.S. In a way it’s a little stupid to feature this dish now, as today is Runeberg’s day in Finland which is celebrated by the delicious Runeberg’s tarts. I could have baked them, but this entry was actually prepared as early as last year.