Buckwheat Pasta with Sweet Cabbage [ GF ]

I have been craving some Hungarian flavors from my childhood lately. I have made my moms veganized Hungarian Cabbage Rolls for Christmas and today it was time to make another favorite, Buckwheat Pasta with Sweet Cabbage. It seems like we eat a lot of cabbage back in Hungary during the colder months! I remember growing up we ate a lot of pasta dishes for lunch at school. They are filling, give lot of energy and are affordable. Also they were often sweet with a veggie soup as a starter. My grandma made all the pasta herself with a speed you wont believe. No pasta machine just a roller. Thin, gorgeous and delicious.

For this dish they always used square pasta shapes, about an inch by an inch or may be bigger but a tagliatelle style pasta would also work. The flavors are very basic but thanks to the combination of the sweet and salty cabbage with lots of black pepper when serving it makes it a new kind of flavor. Brings back memories …. Click below to see how I made it!

A few things are different though, I am making an egg free gluten free pasta from buckwheat and I sweetened the dish with maple syrup instead of sugar.

The dough turned out to be pretty easy to handle, not sticky at all which I was happy with. I remember that the pasta in this dish was not the very thin kind but more chewy, had more of a bite to it. My pasta is made of buckwheat flour as the main ingredient with a little tapioca and sorghum flour added in. The egg is replaced by psyllium husk dissolved in water. It turns into a gel in a few minutes and works great in this recipe.

I divided the dough in two portions to make it fit on my board. Rolled it out nice and pretty thin. Fresh pasta cooks in a few minutes. You drop it into salted boiling water, 30 seconds later it rises to the top and then you let it cook for about 3 minutes. It should taste al dente like, a bit chewy. I cooked it in two portions so it had enough room to float around. When done you just scoop it out, shake the water off and add it to the prepared cabbage. This will prevent it from sticking to each other. You can of course skip the pasta making part and make and use store bought one instead to make it a super quick meal.

There is quite a lot of cabbage in this dish! The cabbage needs to be shredded fine and while baking it will shrink quite a bit. I used two of these pointy cabbages but a regular green cabbage will work just fine. You find the complete recipe below this post.

I baked the shredded cabbage in a little water, you can also use oil or a vegan butter if you prefer, until it started to soften. Season with salt and add sweetness with some maple syrup or coconut sugar. As you bake the cabbage it will create a golden, brown, not burned layer in the pan. Now you add a few tbsp of water and de-glaze the pan to make those flavors stick to the cabbage instead.

The easiest way to do this is to scoop the freshly cooked pasta right into the prepared cabbage so it can be combined with ease. Once cooked the buckwheat pasta has a nice nutty flavor, I just love it!

Add on plenty of black pepper on top when serving! This combination works so well …. I am curious what you think of this combination of buckwheat pasta with sweet cabbage when you decide to make it.

Tina x

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Buckwheat Pasta with Sweet Cabbage

A favorite Hungarian dish of mine, this time with homemade buckwheat pasta and lots of delicious sweet and salty cabbage. 

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Total Time30 mins

Servings: 2 large portions

Author: Tina

Ingredients

• 1 cup buckwheat flour plus a little more for rolling out the pasta
• 1/4 cup tapioca flour
• 1/4 cup sorghum flour can be subbed for another gluten free flour
• 100 ml or 1/4 plus 3 tbsp of water approx. add more or less if needed
• 1 tbsp psyllium husk
• 3 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 pound cabbage sliced thinly
• 2 to 3 tbsp maple syrup
• salt and black pepper

Instructions

• Make the psyllium gel by mixing the psyllium husk with the 3 tbsp of water, Let it sit for a few minutes.
• Mix the flours and add the salt. 
• Add in the gel and 3/4 of the water. Start mixing with your hand and if it is too dry add a tbsp more. It should form a nice dough, not sticky. If too wet, add a little more flour. Kneed it into a ball. 
• Roll out the dough. I divided it into two parts. Roll it quite thin and slice it into squares. See video above on the how to. 
• Dust some extra flour between the squares to keep them from sticking to each other. 
• Slice the cabbage into very thin strips and soften it in a pan with a few tbsp of water. In about 5 to 7 minutes the cabbage will soften and it will also stick a little to the pan forming a brownish layer, NOT burned, so you have to keep an eye on it. Then I add some extra water to de-glaze the pan, this gives a delicious flavor to the cabbage. 
• Flavor with salt, black pepper and maple syrup. 
• Cook the pasta in two batches in salted boiling water for about 2 to 3 minutes, depending on the thickness of your pasta. 
• Scoop out the cooked pasta from the water and add it to the cabbage. Mix it in and season if needed. 

Notes

Cook the pasta in batches. Once one batch is done, drain and immediately add to the hot prepared cabbage. Best if eaten immediately.