Claire's Sweet and Sour Meatless Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

By Hklbrries

"You can use any brand of soy meat alternative for the filling - Boca, Light Life or Gimmee Lean. You can cook the rice a few days before stuffing to save some time. These rolls freeze wonderfully.

Baby vegetables ooze elegance. Slender green beans shine with sophistication. Eggplant is a glamorous member of the nightshade family. Then there are the workhorse vegetables - carrots, onions and celery - we take for granted. They perform without glory in sauces and stews as well as thousands of ethnic dishes. Potatoes show up baked on a plate or underneath loads of cheese and sometimes disguised as a puree with butter. Then there's cabbage. What a loser in the eyes of the other members of the vegetable community - and some diners. It's big and ugly with no finesse at all. Farm animals eat it in many parts of Europe. Let's face it, cabbage stinks when you overcook it and doesn't turn any heads in the produce section. But looks are deceiving.

Cabbage is abundant and feeds cultures from the Mediterranean to Asia and the Middle East. The veggie thrives in cold climates, and through the ages, people who had little else to eat welcomed this inexpensive vegetable on dinner tables. Also one of the cancer-fighting cruciferous vegetables, it is rich in nutrients and vitamin C.

We use mostly green, red and the savoy or curly leaf varieties. Try it raw in slaws or salads or try it cooked in soups, braised in stews and stir-fried in delicious Asian dishes. Cooking cabbage quickly will virtually eliminate the sulfur smell.

No article about cabbage can be written without including my mother's stuffed cabbage recipe. At least that's what she thinks. I was brought up on this dish and remember her using both hands to lift and place a huge casserole of stuffed cabbage on our dinner table. I would be doing my homework upstairs and smell the simmering tomatoes, cabbage and rice wafting up from the kitchen.

My mother stuffed her cabbage with beef. I use a soy substitute instead of meat. There are many available that resemble chopped meat; they hold together well as the cabbage rolls bubble away. Mom's recipe varies from the usual because she makes a sweet-and-sour soup around the cabbage rolls by chopping the remaining cabbage with lots of tomato broth flavored with apple cider vinegar and sugar.

I improvise a bit, using light brown sugar or less refined Florida Crystals and thyme. Believe me, Mom, it's just as good without the burger."

Ingredients

• Stuffed Cabbage:
• Water
• 1 large head green cabbage, very outer leaves discarded, core removed
• 1 cup basmati rice
• 2 cups soy burger mixture
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasonings
• Salt, to taste
• Fresh-ground black pepper, to taste
• Sweet N' Sour Soup:
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 4 cups water
• 3/4 cup cider vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp lemon pepper spice

Details

Servings 8

Preparation

Step 1

Bring pot of water to a boil for blanching cabbage leaves. Have a large bowl filled with ice and water next to stove for cooling and "shocking" leaves. Blanching makes them soft enough to roll.

When water boils, add whole head of cabbage and let cook until outer leaves fall off. Using tongs, place these leaves in ice water to cool and repeat this process until most outer green leaves are removed and blanched. You will get 15 to 18 leaves depending on size of head.

Remove remaining cabbage from pot, cool and chop into small pieces; set aside for soup.

Place 1 cup water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add rice, stir and cover saucepan; bring to a simmer and cook 20 minutes until water evaporates. Rice will still be hard, only half-cooked. Place on a plate until it is cool enough to handle. When rice is cooled, mix it with soy meat, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper.

Drain cabbage leaves and lay flat on a work surface. If there are large stems or veins at bases of leaves, remove them. Place about 1/4 cup filling near center and bottom of each leaf. Fold in sides and roll from bottom to top to form a small package.

Place rolls, seam side down, in a 10-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, stacking them gently if necessary to make them fit.

To make soup, mix all ingredients including chopped cabbage heart in a nonreactive large bowl; pour over cabbage rolls in pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, partially cover and simmer 50 minutes until rice in filling is cooked and a soupy sauce forms.

Nutrition Information:
Per serving
258 calories
4 g fat (0.58 g)
48 g carbohydrates
7 g fiber
386 mg sodium
12 g protein