One of my New Year Resolutions in 2024 was to try new foods.
Confession time: I had never eaten cabbage.
Never purchased it, never considered it in the diet of my family while they were growing up, never looked for recipes using it.
Couldn’t stand the smell and look of it after Mom made corned beef and cabbage every year for St. Patrick’s Day. And we weren’t even Irish!
Ugh.
But after reading countless articles which touted the health benefits of cabbage (as a cruciferous plant, it was good for cancer-fighting, low-cal, high-fiber, etc.), I decided it was time to give it a go.
It’s my year to be brave.
After purchasing a large head at my grocer, I was pleasantly surprised.
First, it was not expensive – around $2.50.
That eventually afforded me the opportunity to make what turned out to be two delicious recipes.
I’m listing one below. The second will be along in a near future post. Yum!
Stuffed cabbage rolls was not a recipe I was familiar with. It is rarely seen on a restaurant menu – at least the venues I frequent.
But, upon assembling it, I found it was helpful in that I could ‘clean out the refrigerator’ with ingredients, as is so often helpful to a cook—no waste is always our goal!
You’ll see from my notes the ways I changed the recipe to accommodate my pantry supply.
I have to say, the results were delicious!
Note: The recipe calls for blanching the cabbage head. Blanching is a cooking process in which what is usually a vegetable or fruit is scalded in boiling water. After a brief interval, it is removed and plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water to halt the cooking process.
Imagine my delight when blanching cabbage leaves created these beautiful shades of green leaves on my counter!
Wow! I had to take a photo (I even thought of framing it as green is one of my favorite colors).
It is satisfying to create nutritious dishes that don’t tax our family food budget—and are beautiful.
I thought the finished product looked intriguing.
Have you made stuffed cabbage rolls?
If so, how is your recipe similar or different from the vintage one below?
The recipe came from the cookbook of St. Pius X Church in Granger, Indiana (1982).
Hundreds of cookbooks to peruse for goodies! I’ve marked a couple of dozen recipes to try from his spiral-bound treasury.
The second cabbage recipe will be posed soon so you can get the most use from your single head of cabbage (Hint: It is a yummy slaw).
To your health!
**
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
1 head of cabbage
1 medium onion, chopped
2 T. vegetable oil
1.5 pounds of ground beef
½ c. instant rice, cooked
1 t. salt
½ t. pepper
16-ounces tomato juice
½ c. water
Piece ham (opt)
Core and blanch the cabbage.
Saute the onion in oil.
Mix meat, rice, onion, salt and pepper.
Pull leaves off of the cabbage head. (I laid them singly on paper towels to drain)
Place 1 T. meat mix on each leaf.
Roll the mix, slightly pushing ends in to form a fold.
Place the rolls on a metal cooking rack on the bottom of a heavy pan.
Pour tomato juice & water to cover.
Simmer on medium heat for 1.5 hours.
For tastier flavoring:
Place ham on bottom of pan under rolls
Yield: 25 rolls
My Notes:
- I pulled outer leaves off the head to blanch individually. It worked well.
- I used leftover chili to stuff the rolls and didn’t use other meat. Yum!
- Rather than implement a metal cooking rack, I covered a 9×12” baking dish with parchment paper and laid the rolls in it.
- Pressing the rolls close together helped hold them in place.
- Pouring additional spaghetti sauce on top created a juicier dish.
- As per most casseroles in our family, this was topped with shredded Cheddar cheese.
- I didn’t make such a large batch so I only got about 10 rolls.
**
Vintage Find of the Week
This charming tin decorated with Amish figures was available at my local thrift shop.
Isn’t it adorable?
I’m using it to store cookies.
#Baking #Vegetable #Cookbook #Vintage #VintageEats #cooking #Cheese
Vintage Eats of Kayleen Reusser 