Here’s a great Primed Cabbage Carbonara dish involving 2 of my favorites: Bacon and Coconut Milk. You can easily substitute the chicken for the bacon or go vegetarian by adding roasted squash/pumpkin.

Ingredients:

1 large head of cabbage (take out the core)
lots of onions
lots of garlic (the more the merrier)
some green chilis
some red chilis (if you like extra spice in your life)
1/2 to full cup of coconut milk (depending upon how saucy you want your dish)
5 to 6 pieces of quality bacon (we buy ours from S&R)

Method:

1. Cut your cabbage into long strips. Dice your onions, garlic, green and red chilis.

2. Steam your cabbage until it is wilted but not too soft. Fry your pieces of bacon at the same time.

3. Using the same pan that you fried your bacon in so as to use the bacon fat fry off your onions and garlic till soft. Start with a heat of 7/10 then turn down your heat to 4 or 5 out of 10. Add in your chilis.

4. Now add in your cup or 1/2 cup of coconut milk (depending on how saucy you want your dish). Add salt and pepper and stir.

5. Add your steamed cabbage and then your fried, cut up bacon pieces.

6. When cooking with my friend Jequi we decided to use some extra of the Chili Coconut Milk Sauce to make a Primed Broccoli, Cauliflower, Squash and Zucchini Pilaf “Rice”. Hence, we simply grated all the vegetables and then slow cooked them in a pot with the lid on with some of the Chili Coconut Milk Sauce so it would be infused into the flavor of our mixed vegetable “rice”..

7. Jequi and I made our dish vegetarian and then used pan fried chicken thigh pieces instead of bacon to finish the dish and it tasted great.

Additional:

1. My friends Etienne and Sarah liked the Primed Cabbage Carbonara but not as much as Natasha. Natasha had 2 bowls. Cool.

This is the 6-course meal we enjoyed after doing our Eccentric Gym workout. It took me only 10 minutes to prepare it all.

2. Cabbage is a great vegetable that we should eat more often. It is inexpensive and very versatile.

3. If you prefer a vegetarian option then add Roasted Squash/Pumpkin and Roasted Garlic instead of the Bacon or Chicken.

4. I have even grated it and cooked it with onion and garlic for a Primed Cabbage “Rice”.