Cabbage rice

After a trip to the US and a trip home for a job interview, I'm back for good. I haven't cooked much since I returned, I'm at work all day, and only have an easy baguette+cheese snack when I get home, usually late. But, I went skiing last Saturday. It was good and fun, albeit a bit colder than I could stand. The temperature was around 0C in the city, and around -5 at the village on the mountain where the ski resort was. We took the cable-car (télépherique) to the first plateau, where it was around -10C. And then, we took the lift to the second top, to a freezing -15 to -20C. Ouch. That. Was. Cold. Unfortunately, I wasn't dressed warm enough for that, maybe well enough for -5C, but not good enough for -20C. So, by the time I skied down to the -10C plateau, I thought I'd freeze solid, and they'd find me when I unfroze some time in Spring... Anyway, apart from the low temperature, it was fun to ski, I fell less times this time, I only got a couple of small bruises.

I got back home around 8pm, tired and hungry. I've been browsing a book on traditional greek recipes my grandma gave me, and I came across a winter-food recipe, for cabbage-rice. This one is vegetarian (vegan, even), and turned out easy to make and quite tasty and filling, plus cabbages are in season now, I'd got one from the farmer's market.

• 1 small cabbage
• 1/2 onion
• 1 leek
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• salt, pepper
• 1 cup of rice
• 3-4 tbsp of tomato puree

I started by finely chopping half an onion, a leek and the cabbage. If you don't have leeks, use one full onion, if you don't have onions, use two leeks. Set a pot over low flame with the olive oil, the leek and onion and sauté them for 5 minutes. Then add the cabbage, and stir for 4-5 minutes. Add the tomato, salt, pepper, and enough water to boil a cup of rice, depending on the kind of rice you use. I used long grain pilaf-rice, it said 2.5 cups of water per cup of rice on the pack. When the water comes to a boil, add the rice, and stir every now and then, until the water is gone and the sauce is thick. I didn't want the cabbage to be too crunchy, so I used 3 cups of water and let it simmer for 10 minutes before adding the rice.

Tasty, light, vegan, and probably healthy. OK, I admit I had a bit of sausage and cheese to go with it, but why not? I was out on the mountains freezing all day, after all...