Lahanoriso - cabbage, a huge flower bud!

“To eat a nice cabbage, you have to wait until November” my grandfather used to say. Cold weather makes cabbages really sweet. In Greek cuisine cabbage is a basic winter vegetable because you can’t grow many things in your garden at this time of the year. It gives its special character, taste, and sweetness to many different recipes.         

It matches ideally with pork or beef in dishes like ‘’staffed cabbage leaves’’ (dolmades) or pork and cabbage fricassee. It makes nice salads chopped finely with carrot or boiled in water and served warm with olive oil and lemon. But my favorite dish with cabbage is lahanoriso; with carrot, rice, celery and olive oil, a simple, tasty and filling food.  My mother has been making this dish often in winter maybe because we always had cabbages in our garden at this time of the year. My favorite side dish for lahanoriso is fried potatoes, but if you would like to have a rich winter meal, a nice sausage would be ideal.

Serves 4

1kg cabbage

180gr rice, long grain or rice for risotto (for a more creamy result)

100gr olive oil

1-2 carrots chopped

1 celery stalk chopped

1 medium onion

 salt and pepper to taste

Cut the cabbage into small pieces (2-3cm). Put 1,5 litres of water in a pot and bring to boil. Add the cabbage, cook for 5 min. and then strain the cabbage, discarding the water. In a skillet put the olive oil and the onion and cook until the onion has wilted. Add carrot, celery, the strained cabbage, and 1 litre of hot water. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 15 min. Then add the rice and cook for 15min more or until the rice has cooked.