So why do people love stuffed food?
I think - cause it's food that is stuffed whit more food. And what could be better than that?
Or at least that's why I love it!
The possibilities are limitless, you can stuff vegetables, meat, dough..and create so many delicious things.
Anyway, this post is about cabbage. Cabbage is a wonderful vegetable.
I made cabbage stuffed with more cabbage, arborio rice and pulled beef. Cooked in vegetable stock and roast in the oven ...
The result was dreamy!
The beauty of this recipe is that it can be changed to personal taste or followed exactly and still get something delicious, fun and comforting!
Of course you can leave the meat out and make the recipe vegan, or replace the pulled beef with lightly fried minced meat with onions, etc ..
As for the vegetable stock, this also not mandatory. I definitely think a stock will upgrades any dish, but even without a stock it would be delicious.
Ingredients:
1 white cabbage
160 grams of arborio rice [a cup]
2 stalks of celery
1 small onion
300 grams of shredded meat - a recipe can be found here
4 cloves of garlic
1 lemon
4 tablespoons pomegranate concentrate
1 tablespoon honey
A quarter of a bunch of parsley
500 ml vegetable stock - a recipe can be found here
3 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 stems of thyme.
Coarse salt
black pepper
** You can replace the vegetable stock with 500 ml of water mixed with 2 tablespoons of soy, one tablespoon of honey, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of black pepper.
*** The pulled beef can be replaced with 300 grams of minced beef\chicken, lightly fried in a pan with chopped onion, salt and black pepper.
Prep:
We will start by cooking the cabbage whole in hot water with a little salt to soften it. If the pot is not large enough to contain a whole cabbage into it, cook for 10 minutes then turn the cabbage to the other side and cook for another 10 minutes.
Once the cabbage has softened a bit, we will remove its core - with the help of a small knife we will simply cut around the core. And so it would be easier to separate the leaves.
Separate the leaves and keep about 10-12 beautiful large leaves aside.
Preparation of the filling -
Take half of the cabbage leftovers and cut into thin slices, chop the onion and celery stalks. Keep the celery leaves aside.
Fry it in a saucepan with a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of black pepper.
Add the rice and mix.
After 2 minutes, add 300 ml of vegetable stock (the rest will poured over the stuffed cabbage later), 2 tablespoons of pomegranate concentrate, one tablespoon of honey, squeezed lemon and mix.
Taste the stock to check if more salt is needed, if so add a little.
Cook until the liquids are completely reduced, stir occasionally while cooking.
Then turn off the heat and add the meat, parsley and chopped celery leaves and mix.
Filling and assembling -
Preheat the oven to a temperature of 190 degrees Celsius.
Oil a rectangular pan (30 * 40) and lined it with the leftover cabbage.
To assemble the stuffed cabbage, take the leaves you've separated and keft aside before, carefully cut (!!) the main stem from each leaf.
Place two tablespoons of filling in an oval shape near the edge of each leaf and roll toward the outer edge, tucking the sides in as you roll
place it in the pan.
Mix the remaining vegetable stock with 2 tablespoons of pomegranate concentrate and half a squeezed lemon and pour over the stuffed cabbage in the pan.
Drizzle over some olive oil, a little salt and black pepper.
Place the thyme stalks on top.
Cover the pan with aluminum foil and place in the oven.
After 50 minutes remove the foil and return to the oven for another 20-25 minutes until it gets nice and brown on top.
Enjoy :)
I would love to see and hear if you tried the recipe! Send me some photos on Instagram - @mor.is.cooking
Comments