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Stuffed Cabbage Rolls are usually done with pork, ground beef & rice. Not today.. I wanted to make a vegetarian version, full of flavor.
By starting with roasted vegetables, you know it will be delicious.
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You could take the rice & vegetable mixture and make all sorts of things.. Vegetarian Burgers, rice & veggie balls, turn it into a casserole or cheesy bake.. Limitless possibilities.
You can stuff cabbage leaves with just about anything..
Start with a beautiful head of cabbage. This is savoy but you can use any kind you want.
Sometimes the vein will be hard and make rolling the cabbage a challenge. If this happens, just trim the center vein from the leaves and roll away.
Feel free to use whatever veggies you like. I used what I had on hand.. I also used brown rice to keep it even healthier but any rice will do.
The recipe calls for “Roasted Garlic” – Click HERE for the easy way….
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 small eggplant, chopped
- 1 red onion, chopped
- 1 sweet onion, chopped
- 3 sweet peppers, chopped
- 1 zucchini, chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, roasted
- 2 tablespoons sundried tomatoes, chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups steamed rice (brown or white)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 large heads green cabbage, about 3 pounds each
- Sauce
- 1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
- 1/2 (6 oz) can tomato paste
- 1 cup water
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Place eggplant, onion & peppers on a sheet pan, drizzle with 2tbsp olive oil and roast for 425* for 20 min. While veggies are roasting, Smash the roasted garlic and mix with sundried tomatoes set aside. sauté the zucchini in 1 tbsp of olive oil for 2-3 min... Stir in the garlic & sundried tomato. Stir while cooking for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in Parsley.
- In a large bowl, combine the rice, egg, zucchini tomato mixture and roasted veggies. Season with salt & fresh black pepper.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Remove the large, damaged outer leaves from the cabbages and set aside. Cut out the cores of the cabbages with a sharp knife and carefully pull off all the rest of the leaves, keeping them whole and as undamaged as possible, (get rid of all the small leaves and use them for coleslaw or whatever.) Blanch the cabbage leaves in the pot of boiling water for 5 minutes, or until pliable.
- Next, carefully cut out the center vein from the leaves so they will be easier to roll up. Put 1/2 cup of the vegetable & rice filling in the center of the cabbage and starting at what was the stem-end, fold the sides in and roll up the cabbage to enclose the filling. Place the cabbage rolls side by side in rows, seam-side down, in a casserole pan.
- Mix sauce ingredients in a bowl combine well. Top cabbage rolls with sauce and Bake at 350* for 30-40 min.
