Waterless Kale-Cabbage-Baby Bell Pepper, Vegan Sausage, Tomato

I wanted to try a waterless meal with a few vegetables that I had on hand. Waterless cooking involves a high quality pan like my Saladmaster ones which have a top that gives a seal, but includes a little vapor release. The pan is preheated, the vegetables put in, the pot covered, and, with medium heat, within  a few minutes steam should start escaping. At that point, one slow cooks by reducing the heat till the vapor release stops "dancing" and continuing to cook covered for about 20m. No water or broth is added to take nutrients out of the vegetables.

I also used a vegan sausage by Field Roast that has about 10g of fat per link. Sometimes when I use this sausage, each person gets less than a link so I can justify an "almost no added fat" description, but, since a whole sausage was included per serving, I won't call this "almost no added fat". Here is what I did.

 Ingredients

• 5 stems kale hand torn into approximately 1" squares
• 5 baby bell peppers cut into 3/4" lengths
• half head red cabbage, shredded into 1/2" strips maybe 2" long
• green garlic - cut approx. 3" length into 1/4" pieces (alternatively, 1/4 cup onion in 3/8" cubes would be fine)
• coconut aminos (or soy sauce) to taste - approximately 2t
• dried oregano to taste - approximately 1/4 t
• ground black pepper to taste - few pinches

Process

1. I preheated a 3 quart Saladmaster stock pan for a few minutes, covered, on medium heat
2. I added the kale, bell pepper, cabbage, and garlic into the pan and quickly recovered the pan
3. Within a few minutes, the pan's vapor lock started rattling; I then reduced the heat to low so that the rattling stopped and cooked for 20m (not opening the pan or stirring)
4. After 20m, I turned the heat off and opened the pot, mixing in the coconut aminos, oregano, and black pepper

Results

Waterless cooking is a great idea but I needed to have used more flavorful vegetables. The green garlic slices remained tough. I thought that the meal was reasonably tasty, nevertheless.

Ideas for the future

Instead of green garlic, onion would cook better waterlessly. Broccoli, spinach, Brussels sprouts, and other vegetables would be good additions, as perhaps would be some tomato or tomato sauce.