Filled, rolled & baked savoy cabbage leaves…
The word resolution should forever be banned in my opinion because firstly I would fail within 24 hours of setting any and secondly, I would hate myself for making said resolution/s and for knowingly breaking them. That said I really do like a challenge over a short space of time. Over the period of lent I always give up chocolate and crisps until Easter Sunday, not for any religious reason but purely to control my intake of treats as I am a crisp monster.
However, lent is some way off at the minute and my eldest daughter Natalia asked if I fancied going veggie for January, I was thankful she didn’t say vegan as that would be an impossible ask? She was a pescatarian and wanted to see if being a vegetarian was something she could style out over January and possibly long-term and beyond. I said yes.
I am almost a week in and am really enjoying my cooking challenges. The only battle I currently have is we are a family of six with four meat eaters, so I have double to prepare and cook. So, with a positive attitude and a challenge on the go I wanted to share with you my filled cabbage rolls.
Filled savoy cabbage rolls
A dish that may look a little time consuming to put together but is honestly relatively speedy and reassuringly scrumptious. Well worth the effort. I prefer to double the mixture and double up on the recipe as these wonderful rolls freeze really well too. The Savoy cabbage offers a wonderful almost prehistoric scale like texture and they are in season from November through to mid spring.
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
10-12 savoy cabbage leaves
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot, peeled, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled finely chopped
125g rice
125g lentils
300ml stock – vegetable
4 tbsp. parsley, chopped
Pinch chilli optional
½ tsp marjoram – dried
Salt & pepper, to season
Tomato sauce
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot, peeled, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled, crushed
1 x 680g jar pasatta
Salt & pepper, to season
Fresh basil, to finish
Topping (Optional)
50g stale breadcrumbs
50g Parmigiano, grated
1 tsp. oregano
- Wash and prepare the savoy cabbage leaves by simply removing the bitter central stem carefully, trying to retain the leaf as a whole.
- Boil the leaves in lightly salted water for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes drain the leaves and plunge them in to cold water for 30 seconds. Drain and place the leaves on kitchen paper to remove excess water.
- Boil the rice in salted water until tender.
- Cook the lentils until tender in the vegetable stock.
- Fry the shallots, celery and carrot off in the olive oil. Gently soften the vegetables for 5 minutes then add the garlic and stir.
- Drain the rice and lentil. Mix them together and set side until required.
- Add the soffritto mixture to the cooked lentils and rice, stir. Season add the chopped parsley, chilli and marjoram.
- Prepare the simple tomato sauce. Add the oil to a pan, along with the shallot and garlic. Stir and cook for approx. 5 minutes.
- Pour in the pasatta and season with salt and pepper. Add the marjoram or oregano and stir. Cook for 20 minutes.
- Taste and season the tomato sauce and add fresh basil.
- Add a tbsp. of the vegetable mixture into the centre of a cabbage leaf, fold the base and the top inwards and roll. Secure with a cocktail stick.
- Spoon a ladle of the tomato sauce into your dish as a base. Place the filled cabbage leaves into an oven proof dish. Use all of the mixture and leaves. Spooning over a little of the tomato sauce.
- Mix together the topping ingredients, breadcrumbs, Parmigiano, oregano and sprinkle over the cabbage rolls.
- Bake for 25 – 20 minutes.
Carmela’s tip: You could also use cavolo nero instead of savoy cabbage however the leaves would need cooking for an additional 10 minutes as they are much firmer in texture.
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