Category: Side Dish

Cabbage Hamantasch Knish

I’ve been on quite the cruciferous kick these days, and I thought I’d have given up by now, but no! I’m having fun challenging myself to new cabbage creations, and thankfully my body loves cabbage as much as I do, so it works for me!

Growing up, my mom always made cabbage knishes for Shabbat and the holidays. She would sauté a bag of pre-shredded cabbage in some oil, season it with plenty of sugar, salt and pepper and stuff it into pockets of puff pastry. I love the addition of beef bacon here – plus a hint of mustard and maple and just a splash of vinegar to cut through it all makes the perfect filling.

Are you team sweet or savory hamantasch? Let me know in the comments below!

Related Recipes:

salami tarte tatin
corndog hamantaschen
savory hamantaschen trio

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A Week of Cruciferous Crunch!

It’s been a cruciferous week here, and not on purpose! I had been eating all the wrong things, and my skin (and clothes!) were showing it, so I decided to clean up my diet a bit. I started with an apple cider vinegar detox – 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (raw, with the mother!) mixed into 8 oz. of water + the juice of half a lemon each morning. The enzymes, probiotics and protein in the vinegar help to give the gut lots of healthy bacteria that aids digestion, lowers blood sugar, helps to reduce acne and belly fat, to name just a few benefits! Just make sure to rinse your mouth out or brush your teeth after because the acid can ruin teeth enamel.  And as always, consult your dr. first before starting any new regimen!


But I digress…onto the cabbage…. I made this amazing roasted cabbage pizza because I wanted something cheesy that was low carb and it came out BEYOND AMAZING! I was inspired to make the dish when I bought Trader Joes new pizza spice, so I cut the cabbage into thick slabs, brushed it with olive oil, sprinkled on the pizza spice (you can sub with Italian seasoning) and roasted at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Then I topped it with marinara sauce, shredded cheese and different toppings (jalapeno, olive, sliced onions) and returned to the oven until the cheese was melted. Holy Moly was it good!! Give it a try!

Watch me make it on Instagram!

I love cruciferious vegetables, and thankfully, so does my stomach! I whipped up this Salsa salad another day this week, and it was everything you want in a salad – lots of great textures and delicious flavor.

Salsa Salad!

1/3 cup salsa
3 tbsp light olive oil
1 clove minced garlic
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tbsp honey
Salt and pepper to taste
1 medium head cabbage, chopped (I like to cut it into squares for this salad)
1 avocado, diced
1 jalapeño, thinly sliced
Bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
1 cup crushed tortilla chips

Whisk the salad dressing at the bottom of the salad bowl and add the salad ingredients. Toss to combine and serve!

Watch me make it on Instagram!

And lastly, with all the rain and cold weather, I wanted some comfort food – so Bubby’s Cabbage Soup for the win. I seared the meat and bones, sauteed the onions and added some tomato paste to really take it over the top. So. So. Good!

Watch me make it on Instagram!

Related Recipes:

stuffed cabbage bolognese
cabbage bourekas
kale crunch salad

What’s your favorite way to eat cabbage? Share it with me in the comments below!

Sweet Chili Cauliflower Poppers

Happy Chanukah everyone!! You gotta love this holiday of parties, fried foods and presents, it really is my favorite! Partly so because I like to do without the pressure. Quick and easy recipes, throw together a cheese board and buy some donuts and we’re good to go!

There’s also 8 days to spread out the homemade stuff – so I tackle one thing at a time – classic latkes one night, a mashup on another. Some funnel cakes and deep fried oreos if we’re having a party and these SUPER EASY cauliflower poppers for the prettiest and simplest appetizer!

Sure in general I’m all for the homemade from-scratch stuff, but we all need an easy recipe in our back pocket that’s semi-homemade, and breaded cauliflower florets are a gift to foodie kind!

I first tasted a variation on this recipe at an Israeli-style cafe in Florida, they’re all over the sweet chili sauce! It came out still steaming and crispy from the fryer with a mayo dip on the side and something about it was just addictive and delicious! I realized that it was really easy to replicate at home, so I’ve been making it ever since and they are always a crowd pleaser!

I went a little Asian with the toppings and dip but you can go Middle Eastern with some parsley over the top and some za’atar ranch on the side, or maybe Mexican with some taco seasoning and cilantro with some salsa for dippings.

Get dippin’!

Related Recipes:

falafel cauliflower poppers
cauliflower nachos
smoked paprika popcorn cauliflower

sweet-chili-cauliflower-poppers

Orange Cardamom Noodle Kugel

Well hello there blogosphere, it’s been so long, hasn’t it?! Life has been hectic as ever, but I’ve always got my blog on the back of mind, wanting to cook, and photograph, and post and just share with y’all. Pesach (in Beijing, China!) has come and gone. I’ve since been to Ohio, and off to Antwerp tomorrow, and guess how I’m celebrating? By making kugel!

If you know me, I consider myself the Anti-Kugel. Yes, that’s right. I’m Jewish and I don’t like kugel! Why, you ask? Well I believe that instead of boiling up veggies, mashing them, and then mixing them with oil and eggs and who-knows-what-else, why don’t you skip the whole complicated process and JUST. ROAST. VEGGIES. Same goes with potatoes. And noodles? Well you can cook em and eat em JUST. LIKE THAT. But alas, kugel has stood the test of time, and you’ll find the gazillion calorie concoction in most Jewish Ashkenazi houses on Erev Shabbat (my mom included)!

So what, pray tell, is kugel doing HERE? Well in one word: Shtisel. The viral Israeli TV series that was made popular by Netflix has captured my heart, and that of many, Jews and non-Jews alike. It has me craving Israeli salad with tahini, tea, and all sorts of traditional heimish foods that I haven’t looked at in years. In short: If Shtisel has ME making kugel, and you’re not watching it, then you’ve got to GET. ON. IT. Chasdei Hashem I’m here to spread the Shtisel love!

So I’ve been sprinkled with “heimish” dust but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to made traditional kugel, because, well, I’m still ME. And because Shavuos is coming up, what do you think I did? I made dairy lokshin kugel – one that’s lightened up with the refreshing taste of orange, cardamom and vanilla bean + some ricotta for creaminess and yogurt for some tang. All in all, a perfect compliment to your Shavuot menu. B’hechlet!

Related Recipes:

orange cardamom malabi
shavuot menu roundup
rosewater cheesecake mousse parfaits
Bubby’s challah kugel

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Salami Tarte Tatin

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!
S-A-L-A-M-I  T-A-R-T-E  T-A-T-I-N!!!!!!!

OK I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so excited about a recipe!!! Salami time AKA Purim, AKA the Busy In Brooklyn yearly salami tradition is here and YAYYYYYY!!


I love that the young girl who used to throw her weekly salami sandwiches down the incinerator chute is now known for her salami trash-ups! My friend recently said to me, “You know Chanie, no one is every going to look at salami without thinking of you”, and I’m OK with it. In fact I’m all over it. Because becoming known for a particular ingredient means I’m doing a good job as a blogger and that my friends, is my jam (also job, but yes, jam!).

So… why in the world am I so excited? Well I’ll tell you. If you’re not well versed in French pastry, you might not be familiar with the classic dessert, TARTE TATIN, an upside-down pastry in which fruit is caramelized in butter and sugar as it bakes under a blanket of puff pastry. Fancy pastry chef’s make their own, but most recipes call for the store-bought variety which means only one thing – QUICK & EASY.

But still, WHY am I so excited??? Well traditional tarte tatin uses fruit as it’s base, and you even might find some unique recipes for vegetable-based tarts, but you have never found a SALAMI tarte tatin and I, my friends, think it’s pretty genius. And I’m a pretty hard sell.

Whats more than the salami is the bourbon caramel that the salami bathes in as it cooks down. Yes, you got that right. Bourbon. Caramel. And although I abhor margarine, there was no winning here because coconut oil + salami is a no go, so I caved. And I’m ok with it. I mean the puff pastry is virtually all margarine anyway, so whats another few tablespoons, amiright?

It’s hard to keep up with myself with this salami thing and I was worried about how I’d one-up my previous recipes. The now infamous drunken hasselback salami is sold at virtually every kosher deli stand, and salami babka has made it around the world, so coming up with something new was quite daunting. But I’d said I hashtag #nailedit on this one.

I’m also crushing on the photos of this recipe, which is why I’m doing a lot of salami rambling aka filler content :) But in case you’re still scratching your head on this whole salami thing – it’s a BUSY IN BROOKLYN Purim tradition that I started a couple of years ago on the blog, after reading about a custom to eat salami on Purim, since it’s hung, like HAMAN. Cute, right??

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!  Happy almost-Purim!

This post is sponsored by Abeles & Heymann.

Other Salami Recipes:

last year: salami potato latkes
two years ago: salami babka
three years ago: salami quiche
four years ago: beer battered salami chips with beer mustard
five years ago: drunken hasselback salami
six years ago: salami chips

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