Cabbage 3 in 1 ColeSlaw, Casserole and Soup

by Rhonda Lee
(Waterloo, ON, Canada)

I had purchased 1 head of green and 1 head of purple cabbage. Since this makes so much, I found 3 ways to repurpose the cabbage so we weren't eating the same thing for days on end.

PART 1 - THE COLESLAW. I used half of each to make a coleslaw with shredded carrots and green onions which I packaged in the fridge and then later added to each serving as it was about to be eaten - the whipped dressing and a mixture of salt/pepper with celery seed. This meant that there wasn't any coleslaw pre-mixed left sitting out. It was all mixed and served fresh.

PART 2 - THE CASSEROLE. With the leftover mixture of cabbage and vegetables, I was also able to make a Lazy Man's Cabbage Roll casserole just by adding pre-browned beef with diced white onions OR (in my case) TVP (texturized vegetable protein) rehydrated with beef bouillion. I put this into a casserole dish, added 1 cup of rice and then 2 cups of V8 tomato juice. Then I mixed in a few cups (maybe 3) of the grated cabbages, carrot and green onion mixture. This was mixed really well, covered and cooked at 325 - 350 C for about 1 hour.

The only thing I may change is pre-greasing the casserole. I figured since frying the onion and TVP or beef in oil that would be enough. It might make for easier clean up to pre-grease the casserole.

One other option is to pre-cook the rice in the tomato juice (1 cup per 2 cups juice) for 20 minutes and then add it into the casserole and just reheat or cook for 30 minutes in the oven.

PART 3 - THE SOUP. Then with the remaining premixed cabbages, carrot and green onion, I made a version of this Cabbage soup, leaving off the beef part and adding a combination of the V8 tomato juice and the can of whole or diced tomatoes.

For $1.50 per head of cabbage ($3.00) and some extra ingredients (estimate total cost for all three of these meals about $8 - 10) this really stretched the food budget in a delicious and healthy way with lots of variety from salad, soup to casserole !!!