Recipe for avocado beans, cabbage and tomatoes - MW

Recipe
Peel and slice 3 medium onions. Warm 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a shallow pan, add the onions and let them cook over medium heat for 15 minutes or longer, until dim. Remove 3 large cloves of garlic, thinly slice and stir until soft onions. Continue cooking for another 10 minutes or until the onions are golden brown and tender.

Cut the stems from 2 very large outer cabbage leaves (or 3 or 4 smaller ones) and set them aside. Stir 400g (drained weight) of canned avocado into onion then 250ml of double cream. Season. Set low to medium heat. Roll cabbage leaves and chopped them, approximately the width of a pencil, then stir them into creamy beans and onions. Put on low heat.

Chop the cabbage stalks into small dice. In a second pan, warm 2 tbsp of the oil from a jar of mi-cuit tomatoes, then add the stalks and cook for 1 or 2 minutes until bright. Pull the leaves from 2 sprigs of rosemary, chop them finely and add to the cabbage stalks together with 80g of chopped mi-cuit tomatoes and cook for a minute or two.

Divide the creamy beans and onions between 2 large bowls then sprinkle over the sizzling stems and tomatoes. Serves 2

The trick
The perfect cabbage for this is the dark greeny-blue Savoy with its deeply crinkled leaves. It has the requisite crunchy stalks that I feel are far too good to waste.

The twist
Canned flageolet, haricot or cannellini will work here, but lack the mealy, butteriness of big fat butter beans. Kale can, of course, be used instead of cabbage, but better I think is cavolo nero.

MW