*This is a previous post from my old blog

Sometimes I forget that I need variety in my diet. Even I tend to buy myself the same foods every week– potatoes, broccoli, carrots and some sort of green. While these foods are great, I’m not getting a wide variety of nutrients in my diets with only these foods. So I like to throw a ‘curveball’ veggie into the mix once a week. This week, I bought two heads of cabbage–one green and one purple. I wasn’t immediately sure what I wanted to do with these beautiful heads of cabbage but I did know that I wanted simple recipes and I wanted them to be completely different from one another.
Looking at the green head of cabbage on a cold and stormy day here in the Bay, I decided that my first recipe would be for cabbage soup. It was the perfect meal for a cold, rainy day.
Here’s what you’ll need for my Hella Vegan Cabbage Soup;
My Hella Stormy Vegan Cabbage Soup simmering on the stove

4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 small head of Green Cabbage or half a large head head, chopped
1 small Onion, diced
1 large Carrot chopped
2 celery stalks chopped
1 large head of Garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried Thyme
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
Cayenne Pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

*use all organic ingredients if you can

Clean your veggies and peel the carrot. Chop the carrot, cabbage, celery and dice the onion. Bring the vegetable broth and water to a boil in a large pot with all of the spices. Once boiling, add carrots. When the carrots are halfway cooked through, about 10-15 minutes, add celery, onions, cabbage and garlic. Turn down heat and let simmer until cabbage slightly softens or until it is cooked through the way you like. (I like it slightly softened so as the nutrients aren’t lost through the cooking process. It also tastes better this way to me).
Serve and enjoy! I had three bowls for dinner and still had tons leftover. For a more hearty cabbage soup, add potatoes and boil those for 10 minutes before adding the carrots.
Hella Stormy Vegan Cabbage Soup ready to eat

For the purple cabbage, I had my heart set on something unique and really flavorful. I decided on a cold cabbage salad with a touch of vinegar with zest combined with other great, fresh ingredients to pack it full of flavor and nutrition.
Here’s what you’ll need for my Vegan Purple Rain Cabbage Salad;
Vegan Purple Rain Cabbage Salad preparation
1 head of Purple Cabbage (I shredded half and chopped the other half to create some different textures)
1 bag of Brussels Sprouts, shredded
1 Carrot, peeled, cut in half and peeled using the peels for the salad
2 Celery Stalks, chopped
2 tablespoons Honey
1/3 cup Raisins
1/3 cup Sunflower Seeds
3 tablespoons vinegar (white whine vinegar, red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar work equally as well)
2 tablespoons chopped Parsley
1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
Pepper, to taste
1 Lemon, juiced

*use all organic ingredients if you can
Vegan Purple Rain Cabbage Salad

*If you like your cabbage raw, skip this step. If you want your cabbage to be cooked a little bit through before you make your salad, take this additional step.

Optional step: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add chopped cabbage to the boil water and then remove promptly with a slotted spoon. This will soften the cabbage and give it a better texture when you’re eating it.
Add the cabbage to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking, and promptly transfer it to a plate lined with a towel to catch excess water.

Mix honey, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Add washed and shredded & chopped vegetables & parsley and toss well in dressing until entire salad is coated with dressing.
You can eat this by itself, wrapped up in a tortilla or on a bed of rice.
I topped mine with leftover Baked Tofu from Isa Does It vegan cookbook and tahini dressing from Food Babe.

My Vegan Purple Rain Cabbage Salad on a tortilla