Here's a new category of posts to my website -- GlutenFree'n'Easy! My diet is more specific than simply gluten free; I have lots of allergies or sensitivities. Fortunately for me, I LOVE to cook! Still, I do believe in "easy" as well as homemade and real when it comes to food. So I made up my mind one day last week, when I found myself craving stuffed cabbage but without time for all the preparation, to just do it anyway -- but make it easy. Here's how it went:
I was hungry for stuffed cabbage. No problem . . It's naturally free of gluten and other allergens, as long as I make it with homemade real-food ingredients (nothing canned or packaged). And I had everything I needed. Except time, that is. Not much time. But wouldn't ya know, I had just received my weekly delivery of farm-fresh, organic vegetables -- and in ithe box was the biggest, most beautiful head of cabbage I had ever seen! "I've got to make time," I determined. "I even have a jar of homemade tomato sauce in the freezer just waiting to become part of a cabbage meal!" So I began.
"Hmm . . . should I just throw away these outer cabbage leaves? They are HUGE, but too tough to eat . . ." But I just couldn't do it. "Maybe I could boil them down and make them part of the next batch of tomato sauce," I considered. But then an idea came and . . . voila . . . quick and easy "stuffed" cabbage was born. It was a winner! Sorry I don't have a recipe -- yet. I was just doing my "figure this out as I go" kind of cooking and did not write anything down. But here's a general idea in case you want to try it out. I will definitely be doing this again (and noting the recipe)! It was the moistest (is that a word? :-) ) stuffed cabbage ever -- and so quick and easy to prepare!
I layered those huge outer leaves into an 8 x 8 baking stone and then filled it with a typical stuffed cabbage filling. Browned ground round (I love saying that . . . try it!), some herbs and spices (don't remember which ones), cooked rice, some veggies (I don't remember all that I put in the food processor, but I am sure it contains carrots, onions, and fresh garlic . . . oh, and celery . . . . plus anything else I wanted to use up). OH -- and how could I forget . . . CABBAGE! LOL! Lots of chunks of cabbage (quick and easy to cut up by hand) and THEN I smothered that stuffing with the jar of tomato sauce I had thawed earlier in the day and placed the filling on top of the cabbage leaves.
Last minute thought: With the largest leaf left (another fun thing to say!) I covered the whole casserole. Yep, just like a lid! It looked so pretty I decided to freeze it and save for a time more convenient. Maybe a company meal sometime . . . or perhaps a busy weekend. Yep -- and that's how it ended up being today -- the beginning of my mega accounting weekend preparing for tax filing. I just popped the casserole into the oven, and a half hour later spooned 1/4 of the casserole into a bowl. I'll eat the rest between all the data entry today and tomorrow.
Here's a picture of the bowl. I *had* to line it first with one of the cabbage leaves, of course . . . just because!
I think it's the outer cabbage leaves that kept the meal so moist while frozen and baking. The leaves got too dry to eat (but pretty to line the bowl with . . . Couldn't help myself!) so I just ate the casserole that was inside. Glad I added that chopped cabbage to the mix. Mmmm . . . good!
What do you do to eat healthy when time is an issue? Maybe you'd already figured out how to do stuffed cabbage this way? I would love to hear your ideas! Let's help each other out!