Starting my food blog off with beans. If you knew me well you’d roll your eyes. Let’s just say having been born in New Mexico my family taught me a healthy love of beans. Which is excellent because it is indeed incredibly healthy to love beans. A short list of the reasons one should eat beans a lot:

• Low in fat, but high in protein and dietary fiber
• Loaded with antioxidants
• Strong association with cancer prevention
• Beans help control sugar levels in the blood, which is great if you’re diabetic, but also good if you’re just watching your figure because it helps control your hunger

Basically, beans are awesome. Eat them. Often.

Which leads me to this week’s theme: white beans. I personally prefer to cook my own beans (it’s much cheaper and actually pretty easy), but if you manage to destroy your batch as I did this week the canned variety work perfectly well. I alternated between cannellini and butter beans, but use what you like!

And now–drum roll please–today’s recipe:

Cabbage, White Beans and Sweet Potatoes

Makes enough for one meal (which I made twice, once for lunch and once for dinner). Total cook time is about 20 minutes.

Adapted from Steamy Kitchen and My Big Green Cookbook

Since I made this meal twice I was able to experiment with the ingredients a bit. The first time around I made it with regular white potatoes and it was quite good. The second time I substituted the white potatoes for a sweet potato which gave the meal some subtly sweet undertones that I thought were an improvement. Use whatever kind of potato you prefer, the difference in health benefits is not that remarkable. Add a poached egg after exercising for more protein.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 small sweet potato, or 1 cup cubed

½ medium onion, diced

1 clove garlic, diced

1 cup white beans (I used cannellini)

1 cup green cabbage, shredded

1 cup red cabbage, shredded

1 sprig fresh rosemary

½ tsp dried thyme

salt to taste

Directions

Add diced potatoes and olive oil to a non-stick frying pan. Cook potatoes about 5 minutes stirring occasionally, until browned on all sides. Keep covered with a lid to help potatoes cook faster.

Add in onion, garlic, and white beans and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

Add cabbage and spices, and cook until cabbage becomes soft, about 5 minutes. Serve hot.

380 Calories (about 450 with an egg).