Recipe of the Month: Pasta with Cabbage and Soy "Sausage"

Brian and I didn't get too adventurous this month with our dinner recipes. We have a few new ones in the queue that we want to try out soon, but so far we have stuck pretty close to what we know. So our Recipe of the Month for April is not a brand-new dish, but a new variant on an old recipe — or, to be more exact, two old recipes that Brian combined together.

The first of these was a pasta recipe from Vegetariana that has long been one of our go-to dishes. The original version, "Bow Ties with Cabbage," is pretty simple: just saute four cups of shredded cabbage together with a thinly sliced onion and a minced clove of garlic, and when everything is tender, toss it with cooked bow-tie pasta and sprinkle it with poppy seeds. This is a particularly handy recipe to have in the file, since cabbage is sort of a staple veggie for us. It's cheap and can be used in lots of different recipes, but most of them don't use more than half a head, so this pasta dish is a simple way to dispose of the other half. And it doesn't call for anything we don't tend to have on hand.

Anyway, at some point it occurred to Brian that he could spice up this familiar dish by combining it with the cabbage and vegan sausage recipe he invented last January. These two dishes already have cabbage, onion, and garlic in common, and the non-overlapping ingredients — pasta, apple, and Soy-Curl "sausage" — certainly seemed like they'd all be compatible.And since we'd just recently taken the plunge and ordered the big 12-pound package of Soy Curls from the manufacturer, we had plenty of those to work with. (Brian portioned them all out into zipper bags and stuffed the freezer full of them.) The only ingredient he decided to omit was the caraway seeds from the sausage-and-cabbage recipe, since he was already using poppy seeds.

Sure enough, this combination of ingredients worked perfectly well and was more interesting than either dish on its own. It was heartier, too, with protein, veggie, and starch all in one pot, so it didn't require anything else to make it a complete meal. The only quibble we had with it was that the mock sausage came out a bit too salty; in future, Brian plans to cut down the amount of salt used in the soaking liquid from 3/4 teaspoon to half a teaspoon. With that modification, this will likely become our new go-to recipe for using up extra cabbage.

Here's the edited version:

PASTA WITH CABBAGE AND SOY "SAUSAGE"

Boil a pot of water. When it boils, add 1/2 pound of any short pasta and cook to al dente (about 8-10 minutes depending on the type).

Meanwhile, heat 1/2 cup water for one minute in the microwave. Stir in 3/4 tsp. salt, a couple of grinds of pepper, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1/4 tsp. Liquid Smoke, and 1 drop red food coloring (optional if you want your "sausage" to look pinkish). Add 2-3 ounces dry Soy Curls to the liquid in the cup, or however many it takes to soak up all the liquid. 

Coat the soaked Soy Curls with 1 Tbsp. corn starch and fry in oil until they're slightly browned and crisp, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Heat more oil in the pan and toss in 1/2 medium cabbage (sliced into thin shreds), 1/2 onion (thinly sliced), and 1 apple (chopped). Cook until tender.

Drain the pasta and toss it with the cooked Soy Curls, the cabbage mixture, and 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds.