Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls from the Garden

The three main garden ingredients for these cabbage rolls are cabbage, new potatoes, and green onion tops.  I make cabbage rolls this way for one very simple reason; all three of these ingredients are available from my garden at the same time.  These cabbage rolls are actually a combination of two different Polish dishes; golabki, which are cabbage rolls stuffed with a meat and rice mixture; and pierogi, which are a wheat dough dumpling stuffed with a mashed potato mixture.  I came up with this recipe on my own, but I’d be willing to bet that it already exists in some European folk cuisine.  After all, I’m not the first gardener in the world that has potatoes, cabbages, and onions all come ready at the same time.  So let’s make some cabbage rolls.

If you have a garden; start off in the garden.  If you don’t have a garden, start off at the produce market. You will need about two pounds of fresh new potatoes,

a good sized head of cabbage,

and a few green onion tops.  You can use chives, but I just pull a few smaller green onion tops and then cut them up with my kitchen shears.

I also like to add a little diced canned jalapeno to my rolls to give them a little zing.

In addition to these ingredients you will need a couple of tablespoons of butter, a heaping tablespoon of sour cream or plain yogurt, some shredded cheese of your choice, and a little salt and pepper.

Peel your potatoes and put them in a medium pot. Cover and boil slowly until done.

When potatoes are done, drain them and leave the potatoes in the pot.  Use a potato masher or a fork to roughly break the potatoes up.

Add your butter and sour cream and mash the potatoes until they are pretty creamy.

Add shredded cheese and stir in well.

Add salt and pepper to taste and stir again.

Lastly add your green onion and jalapeno and stir until evenly distributed.

Now the filling is finished.  Set it aside or put it into the refrigerator and let it firm up a little while you prepare the cabbage.

To prepare the cabbage first rinse it and then cut out the core.

Put two or three inches of water into a stock pot and place it over high heat.

Put your head of cabbage in the stock pot with the core end down.  You are going to steam the cabbage for a few minutes to soften the leaves and make them easier to remove without breaking.  About five to seven minutes ought to do it.

Turn off the heat and remove the cabbage from the stock pot.  Be careful.  It’s really hot.  I use a couple of big wooden spoons to do this.

Carefully remove the cabbage leaves one at a time and stack them in a pan.  The dark green outer leaves are a little tough, so you are better off using the light-green inner leaves. You will need eight leaves, so remove ten just in case.

Now take a sharp paring knife and shave off the top portion of the rib on each leaf.  By thinning the rib down you will have an easier time rolling up the leaf when the time comes.

 

Now take your filling and divide it into eight equal portions.  I just flatten it out in the pot and use my knife to slice it into eight wedges like you would a pizza.

Lay a cabbage leaf out on your cutting board with the rib side down and place one of your eight portions of filling at the bottom of the leaf.  I kind of shape it into a little oblong mound.

Roll the leaf up to cover the filling.

Fold the sides of the leaf in even with the ends of the filling.

Now finish rolling up the leaf.

 

Place the finished cabbage roll into a lightly greased baking dish.

Now repeat this for the rest of the rolls.

When your dish is full cover it with aluminum foil.

Place the covered dish into a preheated 375 degree F. oven and bake for about 20 minutes.  Remember, everything is already cooked.  All you’re doing is heating it up.

I like to top these with butter and sour cream when I serve them.  Note that there’s already a bite missing.  They’re so good that I couldn’t wait.