Name: My Mother’s Cabbage
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: ½ cup vegetable oil; 1 red onion (diced); 6 –8 garlic cloves (to taste, minced); 1 head green cabbage (about 2½ pounds, quartered through the core, cored, and cut crosswise into roughly 2-inch pieces); 4 tomatoes (roughly chopped, or 1 (14.5- ounce) can diced tomatoes, most of the liquid drained); 1 red bell pepper (chopped); 1 bunch scallions (sliced); 2 jalapeños (roughly chopped, seeds included (seed if you are sensitive to heat)); 2 teaspoons Berbere (recipe to make your own); 2 teaspoons ground cumin; 1½ teaspoons fine sea salt (plus more to taste); 1½ teaspoons black pepper (plus more to taste); 1 bunch fresh cilantro (chopped)

This delicious dish combines Israeli and Moroccan influences, with a crucial dash of Ethiopian heat from the berbere. It started as some-thing my mother whipped up after traveling from Israel to Harlem to help me with my newborn daughter in November 2005. She surveyed the ingredients I had lying around and whipped up this dish at a time when I needed comfort most. The pronounced cumin flavor gives it a distinctive scent that keeps my guests eating, and reminds me of my mother, too.

Excerpted with permission from GURSHA: Timeless Recipes for Modern Kitchens, from Ethiopia, Israel, Harlem, and Beyond.

My Mother’s Cabbage

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 30

Total Time 40

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Servings

Ingredients

½ cup vegetable oil
1 red onion diced
6 –8 garlic cloves to taste, minced
1 head green cabbage about 2½ pounds, quartered through the core, cored, and cut crosswise into roughly 2-inch pieces
4 tomatoes roughly chopped, or 1 (14.5- ounce) can diced tomatoes, most of the liquid drained
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 bunch scallions sliced
2 jalapeños roughly chopped, seeds included (seed if you are sensitive to heat)
2 teaspoons Berbere recipe to make your own
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1½ teaspoons fine sea salt plus more to taste
1½ teaspoons black pepper plus more to taste
1 bunch fresh cilantro chopped

Instructions

In a large pot, warm the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté until softened, about 2 minutes.
Add the cabbage, tomatoes, bell pepper, scallions, and jalapeños and stir to combine.
Mix in the berbere, cumin, salt, pepper, and half of the cilantro and stir until incorporated.
Cover the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have softened and released some water but the cabbage still has a gentle crunch, about 30 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve garnished with the remaining cilantro.
From GURSHA: Timeless Recipes for Modern Kitchens, from Ethiopia, Israel, Harlem, and Beyond © 2025 by Tevletz Barhany-John. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.