Butter beans on New Year’s
Day! Everybody has their own traditions
for food on New Year’s! My husband
always wanted great northern beans and cooked cabbage. Beans keep us healthy during the next year. Cabbage keeps us financially sound! I have never liked great northern beans. I
think that I had to eat them too often as a kid! So, butter beans were on my menu this
year.
I’ll share my method for
cooking butter beans, but the cabbage is what came from my freezer. I want to make sure you know how simple it is
to freeze cabbage and grab a bag of it to cook.
Why would we freeze cabbage when it lasts two months in the refrigerator
crisper? Because you end up with two big
heads of cabbage accidentally!
Crock Pot Butter Beans
Use a ham hock or a left-over
ham bone to flavor the beans. Put 1
pound of dried butter beans in the crock pot.
Add the ham bone and a sweet onion cut into chunks. Add at least 6 cups of water to the pot. If that doesn’t cover the beans with about an
inch of water over the top, add more water.
Add about a teaspoon of black pepper and a half teaspoon of salt. The ham will have plenty of salt in it, so
there is no need to over salt. Add ½ a
teaspoon of celery seed.
Cook on high for 2
hours. Turn down to low and cook another
2 – 3 hours, until the beans are tender.
There is no need to soak the beans overnight. The crock pot does all that magic.
Sautéed Cabbage
I’m not sure I have a
recipe for sautéing cabbage! Melt 2 Tablespoons
of butter with 1 Tablespoon of lemon infused olive oil in a heavy skillet. Add 3 cups of chopped cabbage and sauté until
the cabbage is crisp tender. In the last
minute of cooking, turn the heat to high so you get a nice crunchy
caramelization on some of the cabbage.
How to Freeze Cabbage
This is pretty easy! Slice the cabbage into thick shreds, and portion
it in zipper freezer bags. Freeze it
until you are ready to use it. Cook the
cabbage from the frozen state. There is no need to thaw it. Do not, however, drop the frozen cabbage
into hot oil or butter. Make sure
your skillet is warm but not sizzling.
