Stuffed Cabbage Leaves, Yum

Warning, this post contains umpteen photos.

I have been making variations of this recipe for a long while, long before Quinoa became "famous". This version is vegan, by design, I enjoy a total break from meat and dairy every now and then.

First take 100 g dry Quinoa,

 drop into plenty of boiling water and cook for 13 minutes. Drain through a fine sieve, you want to see the little filaments released from the grain. It holds quite a lot of water so needs the time to drain.

Then put a large pan of water on to boil and have a bowl of very cold water ready and next to that an empty bowl and large sieve.
When the water boils drop in 2 or 3 decent size cabbage leaves, Savoy is the best one to use as the leaves are fleshy and soft once blanched.
Leave for 2 minutes, fish out with draining spoon or tongs and drop straight into the cold water.
Add more cabbage leaves to the boiling water for 2 minutes. Take the first leaves from the cold water and put into the sieve to drain and put the second batch of leaves into the cold water. Repeat until all the leaves have been blanched and are draining.

I use a large tea towel folded in half longways and put 4 leaves onto one half, then fold the other half over and put another layer on, cover with a cloth or kitchen roll and leave to dry.

Dice a red onion, green pepper and some celery, (the trinity) and sweat in a dash of oil.

Meanwhile dice 100 g mushrooms and 100 g ready cooked chestnuts ( Home Bargains, 99p for 200 g). 

Add these to the pan and cook for 3 minutes, or so. Taste and add seasoning. 

Stir in the well drained Quinoa, I allow it 3 - 4 hours to drain but you could spread on kitchen towel, put aside to cool.

Lay a cabbage leaf down with the base nearest to you, and on its back to give you a "cup" for the filling, put a good spoonful of the cooled filling at the bottom.

Fold the bottom up and then the sides in to partially enclose the filling.

Then roll the top of the leaf down to hide the filling.

Place the filled rolls into an oven proof dish just big enough to hold them snug.

Cover with a tomato sauce, this was just a small onion, 1 stick of celery sweated in oil, a handful of cherry tomatoes and some veg stock simmered and then given a quick blast with the wand liquidiser. I added a dash of hot sauce and some Worcestershire sauce as well.

Bake in a moderate oven till bubbling and starting to brown, mine took 25 minutes from room temperature. I made this in the early afternoon so I was not faffing around when my guests arrived.

2 rolls and a jacket potato made for a filling and very tasty dinner.

There was room for pudding as well. 

                           TTFN                                         Pam