Vegetarian sweet potato gumbo

I’d bought a green cabbage. Does anyone else find it hard to use a cabbage up? It seems to be a bottomless pit of a vegetable and I have never soup-ed it, as the suggestion conjures up ‘70s images of people surrounded by a Linus fug of cabbage scent.

Anyway, having been to Louisiana, I was aware that a core ingredient of the famous Cajun dish from the South called gumbo was greens. My cabbage was green. So, I set about making this deliciously hearty and spicy greens and bean dish with a sweet potato I had. They have a ready-made mix of Cajun spices that they sell everywhere in the region, however, you don’t really need this if you have a decent spice cupboard.

What you will need
1 onion
2 stalks celery
3-4 green chillies
2 cloves garlic
1 tea spoon thyme
1 tea spoon oregano
1/2 tea spoon basil
1 tea spoon cayenne pepper
1 tea spoon white pepper
1 bay leaf
300ml vegetable stock
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tea spoon of red wine vinegar
400g sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
100g cabbage, sliced
1 tin of kidney beans


Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, celery, chillies and garlic and fry for 4-5 minutes, or until softened.
 

Mix together the salt, dried thyme, cayenne pepper, dried oregano, basil and white pepper and bay leaf until well combined. Add to the pan and stir well to coat the vegetables. Continue to fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring regularly, until the spices are fragrant.

 

Add the vegetable stock, chopped tomatoes, and red wine vinegar and bring the mixture to the boil.

Add the sweet potato cubes, shredded cabbage sand drained kidney beans and continue to cook for 20-30 minutes, or until the sweet potato is tender.

 

Serve by itself, over rice of with some fabulous corn bread.