Cooked cabbage my way

I had never made stuffed cabbage before, but a head of cabbage in our CSA share and a package of Polyface ground beef inspired me to try. A Google search for recipes suggested that just about every culture has its version of stuffed cabbage. This recipe is my own adaptation of the Jewish version, modified to use what we had on hand.

Stuffed Cabbage

green cabbage

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup rice (uncooked)
2 scallions, chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
salt and pepper

Sauce:
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 small tomatoes, quartered
tomato paste
fresh basil, chopped
juice of one lemon
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper

To make the sauce, saute onion and garlic until onion is translucent. Add tomatoes, several squirts of concentrated tomato paste, and the remaining ingredients. Cover and let simmer while you prepare the cabbage.



Steam cabbage, peeling off leaves as they are cooked. Meanwhile combine all the filling ingredients, thoroughly mixing them together.




Put a few spoonfuls of filling in a cabbage leaf and roll it up. Place cabbage rolls in a large pan that has a cover. After the stuffing mixture has been exhausted, pour the sauce over the cabbage rolls. Cover and cook for 45 minutes under moderately low heat on the top of the stove.



We also had (unpeeled) carrots and kale which had been brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and cooked in a 400 degree oven, allowing 40 minutes for the carrots and 20 minutes for the kale. The carrots are juicy inside and the kale is crisp and paper thin. I credit my daughter for these the carrot-kale ideas.