Ha-loosh-ki

Haluski.

Around here, we eat a lot of cabbage rolls. My husband Ryan is Ukranian, and he makes them at least once a month. He uses brown rice for stuffing and ground turkey instead of pork to lighten up the rolls. Mince a slice of bacon, render it down in a pan and then throw your ground turkey in for browning. Gives a smoky richness while avoiding the heaviness of using a fattier ground pork. And an old family tip is to blanche and then freeze the head of cabbage first. The leaves just fall off and are perfect for stuffing (mind you, sometimes he cheats and just layers the cabbage over the meat, lasagne-style, and doesn't even bother rolling them up. Tops it off with a tin of tomato soup and a smattering of sharp cheddar before baking. Not going to lie, tastes exactly the same).

Here's the dilemma. We always have a half a head of cabbage left over. Cabbages survive a suspiciously long time in the refrigerator of you wrap them up tightly. They sit in silent patience, staring up at you from the crisper drawer every time you open the fridge to get at their more popular friends, carrot and celery. Inevitably I shred the cabbage and make it into soup. If Ryan is feeling ambitious, he uses up the cabbage to make Vietnamese-style pickled salad along with shredded carrots and his vegetable BFF, daikon radish. So imagine my surprise one night when I saw a dish on the food network that featured cabbage as the key ingredient...haluski. Polish food, Diner-style, I have found the answer to my leftover head of cabbage.

Haluski
Adapted from Guy Fieri (who adapted it from Kelly O's Diner)

6 slices bacon, diced
1 onion, cut into 1" strips
2 Tbsp butter
half head of cabbage, boiled until soft and cut into 1" strips
375g bag of egg noodles, broad or extra-broad, cooked
2 tsp garlic powder
salt and fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, coarsely grated

Cook down your bacon slowly over medium heat, being careful not to burn the drippings. Remove bacon and set aside. Add onions to the pan with drippings and cook until softened and almost browned, about 5 minutes. Add cabbage to the onions and cook over low medium heat 3 minutes. Add butter and noodles to the cabbage mixture (the original version of this dish calls for twice as much butter, but since our onions were cooked in the bacon drippings, you can use less butter. I suggest adding some of the cooking water from your noodles to "loosen" up the dish too). Top with garlic powder and season with salt and pepper. Serve with cheese.