Coleslaw Variation of Carrot-Yogurt Salad

Thought I'd kill two Moosewood Cookbook birds with one stone here and make the Coleslaw Variation of Carrot-Yogurt Salad this weekend.  I attended a baby shower for a fellow classmate and thought this salad would be a tasty addition.

This salad basically includes every possible salady ingredient under the sun:

carrots
cabbage
pineapple
apple
celery
raisins
almonds
yogurt
mayonnaise
sesame seeds
lemon juice
salt and pepper
cider vinegar

Wow! That's a lot of ingredients! But it fed a mighty bunch of hungry people. I love my classmates and am so glad we were able to spend this quality time together outside of school!

Here are some of my favorite people and I, cradling our baby shower Play-Doh creations. What a wonderful weekend!

Stuffed Cabbage with Cashew-Ginger Sauce

Stuffed Cabbage with Cashew-Ginger Sauce was a daunting recipe when I first began this project. So, like any normal human being, I put it off. I finally decided to conquer it today. It wasn't nearly as complex as I imagined it to be. I started by making the sauce in a blender. I combined toasted cashews, ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, cider vinegar, salt, cayenne, and a little water.

Next I took on the cabbage. I cored and cooked a whole cabbage on the stove to soften the outer leaves.

Then I made the filling by combining onion, garlic, carrot, celery, cottage cheese, sunflower seeds, tart apple, raisins, lemon juice, and soy sauce. The only amendment I made to the original recipe was using cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese and I think it worked out fine.

Next, assembling the dinner.

I filled each cabbage leaf with about three tablespoons of filling.

The leaves were soft and pliable, making it easy to fold in the sides and roll each one up, like a veggie gift.

Lastly, I covered the stuffed cabbage with the cashew sauce and baked them in the oven.  The dinner was a little difficult to cut up, but tasted very fresh and healthy.

Russian Cabbage Borscht

Russian Cabbage Borscht: Not impressive when you ogle, but makes my mouth happy. Potato, beet, cabbage, carrot, celery, and onion all hang out on the stove until cooked down. Then the magic part: dill, black pepper, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, and a little tomato sauce. Super hot and toasty! Warmed me up to my core! Look at all those exclamation points!

Solyanka and Odessa Beets

You win some and you lose some, right? I went into this project knowing that I may sometimes fail. Not all of these recipes are going to knock the socks off my tastebuds. Solyanka is a prime example of one such fail. Solyanka first, we'll get to you in a minute, Odessa Beets.

Solyanka is a Ukranian style casserole. According to my computerized best friend, non-vegetarian versions of Solyanka are made with meat or fish, pickled cucumbers, and cabbage. It's supposed to resemble a thick, spicy, soup. Not exactly the most enticing dish, but I thought I'd give it a go.Solyanka is rich and tangy with varied texture, somewhat smooth because of the mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, and yogurt, and a little crunchy because of the cabbage, carrot, and sunflower seeds. My initial comparison was to Cooler Ranch Doritos... maybe because of the fresh dill. Charlie and my mom doctored the dish up with a little cheddar cheese on top, confirming for the dinner crowd that cheese truly does make anything better.Initially, I had hoped to serve Solyanka with Odessa Beets as a side. Unfortunately, the beets required an extra hour to tenderize in the oven, so it didn't sync up. Odessa Beets are also a Ukranian dish, made with grated beets, sliced dried plums, freshly minced garlic, pineapple, walnuts, and lemon juice. Beets are a food I could eat all day long. I love them roasted with a little olive oil in the oven. I love them in salads. I love them in juice! Beets are amazing. This salad was delicious, a little tangy because of the fresh garlic and lemon juice and a skosh sweet because of the dried plums and pineapple. I was pleased with how the beets turned out but am not sure I will make them again because they took so long in the oven!

All in all, this was a worthy attempt at trying something totally unique from the New Moosewood Cookbook. I'm glad I tried it, even though the food was a little disappointing and the dishes weren't done at the same time, as originally planned. Above all, it was worth it to share laughs over the dinner table with my family over such a unprecedented concoction!