Roasted Cabbage with Spicy Salsa

Spring has hit us quite abruptly - the days have suddenly been stretched out with all this blinding sunlight and high temperatures.  The gales have stopped.  The rain has taken a break.  The chill is gone.  It's mid-April and it's Spring and it's sunny and it's warm and it makes you realize that the harshest thing about the world is that it moves on without you.  That you're not as connected with nature and humanity as they say we are.  The sun won't stop shining, people won't stop celebrating, and good things won't stop happening just because you're sad.

Similarly just turn on the news when you're having a good day. 

I get told off for feeling like this.  It's true, nobody has it easy - everyone has had their hearts broken, everyone has lost and everyone has failed.  We all experience shit and it's not quantifiable or comparable - it's all just shit.  But people's reactions and thought patterns are different. Some are just more prone to feeling like shit even when shit doesn't happen.

The kitchen has had little appeal in the last few months.  Every now and then I get this manic-compulsive desire to cook, and I cherish these moments especially for the sake of the blog haha.  And this was from my last episode -- a healthy side of roasted cabbage (because other roasted veg is getting so boring) with a zingy salsa on top. I love roasted cabbage - it takes on such a nice flavor when it's all charred around the sides as well.  If you have a BBQ and it's warm where you are, put these babies next to your meat. This salsa/sauce would also go well with the meat. 

Serves 4
Ingredients
1 head of white cabbage, cut down vertically into 1 inch rounds
olive oil
2 garlic cloves
2 sprigs spring onion
1 tsp ground cumin
1 green chilli
juice of 1/2 - 1 lime (to taste)
zest of 1 lime
rapeseed oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C.  Spread the cabbage onto a lined baking tray.  Drizzle with some olive oil, and sprinkle on some salt  Bake for about 40 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile, finely chop the garlic, finely slice the spring onion, cut the chilli in half, scrape out the seeds and finely chop.  Mix with the ground cumin, lime juice, lime zest and enough oil to form the consistency of a salsa.  Season with salt and pepper and spread on cabbage when they come out of the oven.