Stuffed Cabbage

Since I brought home a head a cabbage, I felt compelled to try making stuffed cabbage rolls. I've never made stuffed cabbage before so I consulted the internet for some recipe ideas. Eek! I found all the recipes to be quite daunting with a 3 hour prep time and an intermediate skill level. Intermediate probably means I have to measure something...double eek! Also, all the recipes called for raw ingredients, raw meat, & 1/2 cooked rice, but I wanted to use the left-over rice from last night's dinner as well as the left-over black beans & squash. HMMMMmmmm...I guess I'll just have to wing it.

So, all the recipes said to boil the head of cabbage whole and then peel off the leaves as they are cooked. Sounds to me like a perfect opportunity to burn myself. Instead, I peeled off leaves and steamed them 2 at a time in a round shallow pot of simmering water. Looks like I did 7 leaves. I put them aside to cool.

Next, for the filling I preheated a skillet [actually, the same shallow pot that I steamed the leaves] then added a bit of olive oil, ground turkey, 2 cloves of garlic, and a 1/4 of an onion [diced]. Stir occasionally and cook until done. Easy enough. Next, I removed the pan from the heat and stirred in my left-over veggies and rice and a generous handful of shredded cheese and let the whole thing cool. Less than 1/2 an hour invested so far...ah, ha!

Now to stuff the leaves. Lay one leaf on a clean plate or surface. Put a nice big scoop of filling in the middle, but towards the stem end. Now roll, tuck in the sides, and roll some more...tada. Move the finished roll to an appropriate size baking dish. Eye up your filling and evenly distribute it to the rest of your leaves. Roll, tuck, roll, repeat. I'm still coming in at under an hour and that's with drink breaks and cooling time. Take that, internet recipes!

Now, I need some sauce. So using the same shallow pot and the one useful tip I got off the internet...mix together 1 can of Campbell's tomato soup [no water], a chicken bouillon pack [I replaced the bouillon cubes that the dog ate with Herb-ox sodium free chicken bouillon packs], a can of petite diced tomatoes w/ can liquid, and several dashes of balsamic vinegar. Stir and pour over the top of the cabbage rolls. Place in a preheated oven, 350 degrees for 35 - 45 minutes. Yummy.

Ingredients: Big outer leaves of 1 head of cabbage - I used 7 and it was more than the 2 of us could eat [TIP: Use the rest of the cabbage for coleslaw], 1lb ground turkey, onion, garlic, cooked rice & left-over veggies, shredded cheese, 1 can Campbell's tomato soup, chicken bouillon, vinegar.