Day 59: Sautéed Cabbage with Dill

A simply cooked, simply eaten dish, easy to imagine aside scrambled eggs or pan-fried fish. It's not one to rave about but it's certainly a keeper, especially given the ease of preparation.

SAUTÉED CABBAGE with DILL
Active time: 5 minutes
Time to table: 15 minutes
Serves 4

2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 large leek
1 8-ounce bag shredded cabbage and carrot
2 tablespoons fresh dill
Bit of lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice (about half a small lemon)
Salt & pepper to taste (I didn't feel any was needed)

Melt the butter in a large, deep skillet with a cover on MEDIUM HIGH. While it melts, clean the leek (see ALANNA's TIPS). Add the leek and the cabbage mixture to the pan and turn them with a spatula several times to evenly distribute the butter. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and let cook for about five minutes or until the cabbage is cooked, stirring occasionally. While the cabbage cooks, chop the dill and grate a bit of lemon zest. (Use a microplane if you have one.) Remove the cabbage from the heat, stir in dill, lemon zest and lemon juice. Season and serve. (The recipe suggests it can be served warm or at room temperature.)

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Serving: 45 Cal (37% from Fat, 10% from Protein, 54% from Carb); 1 g Protein; 2 g Tot Fat; 1 g Sat Fat; 7 g Carb; 2 g Fiber; 42 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 15 mg Sodium; 5 mg Cholesterol

ALANNA's TIPS

• As leeks grow, grit collects between their layers. Luckily, cleaning is easy. First slice off the dense part of the root end, crosswise. Then slice off the leaf end, leaving about an inch of pale green leaves. The cut piece will probably be about six inches long. Now cut the leek in half, lengthwise. Wash each half under running water, using your hand to loosely separate but still gather the layers. Cut leek halves crosswise into 1/2 inch half-rounds.
• Many Weight Watchers recipes (as this is) specify 2 teaspoons fat. As regular followers know, for simplicity, I nearly always specify 1 tablespoon fat per pound of vegetables which equates one Weight Watchers point per serving, the same as this recipe. Two teaspoons is obviously only 2/3 the fat of a tablespoon and thus of course results in reduced fat consumption, a good thing. And I will say that for this particular recipe, 2 teaspoons was plenty of fat and produced a soft, buttery cabbage. As a matter of course, however, I think I'll stick to 1 tablespoon as the standard - knowing that those who need/want to adjust on their own, will.
  

SOURCE
Weight Watchers 15 Minutes 5 Ingredients Cookbook (the cover says it's on sale at supermarkets until June 21)