Prep time: 30 minutes
Difficulty to cook: Easy
Since we have been talking about hemoglobin and how low levels can cause an anemic state, let’s look into a nice recipe that can help raise the iron levels in your blood. Natural nutrition can certainly resolve this health problem for you.
Today, we will look at this Balkan-inspired meal. Grandmothers across Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, all have versions of this. Made with fresh ingredients, it takes no more than 30 minutes to make and it will give you a good amount of iron to help raise your hemoglobin levels.
Don’t forget that the quantity of meat and vegetables is not included since this will depend on your personalised meal plan. Your individual grams for the food will be enough to make a nice quick dish for one. For more people, simply multiply by the number of people that will be consuming the food - of course, you can allow yourself to add a bit more grams since your family members/guests may not necessarily follow such a strict meal plan.
Ingredients:
Fresh white cabbage
Lean ground beef or chopped into chunks (this could also be replaced with chicken or pork if your meal plan allows it and you'd prefer it)
Leek, Carrot, Celery (make sure they are included in your food list, if not, you can use either one of them on their own or as a combination; make sure you weigh them together with the cabbage according to your plan)
Spices: smoked paprika, salt&pepper, bay leaf,1 or 2 cloves of garlic depending on how strong you like it
Ghee for cooking oil
Instructions:
Heat up your stove to medium heat - cooking on lower heat will allow for all your food ingredients to preserve better their vitamins and minerals and it will also taste better!
Put the ghee and a little bit of water in a pot and allow to heat up for a little bit, put the chopped carrot, leek, and celery together, and give it some time to cook in the oil until soft for around 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the ground beef to the vegetables and stir until it changes its color
Spice it up with the paprika, the salt and the pepper, the chopped garlic or cold-pressed garlic (do not use a ready-made paste, make sure that it’s fresh) and stiiiirrrrrr!
While the meat and the veggies are cooking up, cut the cabbage into thin stripes
Add a cup of water to the meat and the veggies and then add the cabbage
Cover with a lid and lower the heat to low medium
Allow cooking for 15 to 20 minutes until the cabbage is soft
Before removing from the heat, take a spoon and have a little taste, add more salt/pepper until it tastes like heaven!
Serve in a bowl with some green herbs – parsley or coriander would go nicely with the meal
Enjoy!