My bastardized version of Ina Garten's stuffed cabbage.

If you follow me on twitter, you know that Ina Garten aka The Barefoot Contessa isn’t my favorite chef on the Food Network. It isn’t her food, it is her Hamptons attitude that turns me off, like calling something “good” when she really means “expensive.” But, a few weeks ago I saw her making stuffed cabbage, for Jeffery of course, and I really wanted to try it. Most of my experience with stuffed cabbage has come in the form of Lean Cuisines (yeah, I know.), but Paula’s family made the dish a lot growing up, so she was excited to help me make it.

We actually made two batches, one with beef like the recipe calls for and one with fake sausage. Also, Ina’s recipe gives directions for making tomato sauce but I made my own with tomatoes, garlic, basil and onions. I don’t have measurements for this because I was just trying to get rid of some tomatoes from the garden, but you could make your own, follow Ina’s recipe or use a jar of sauce that you like.

Also, I used GimmeLean sausage in place of ground beef. I don’t normally like or use meat substitutes because they always have a lot of extra ingredients and I don’t love the texture, but this was pretty good for this dish and texture-wise it could have fooled many meat eaters.

This picture is gross if you dislike meat or meat substitutes.

Barefoot Lizzie’s Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage

Modified from the Barefoot Contessa at Home’s recipe. Serves 6.

Ingredients

1 large head of cabbage
About 3 cups of tomato sauce (or 1 jar)
1 package of vegetarian sausage
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup onions finely chopped and sauteed
1/4 cup breadcrumbs (I used Panko)
1/4 cup uncooked brown rice
1 teaspoon minced thyme leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Cabbage rolling technique.

Directions

1. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Preheat your oven to 350*.
2. Cut stalk out of cabbage and remove any damaged outer leaves. Carefully place cabbage into boiling water.
3. After a few minutes, use tongs to begin peeling off the softened outer leaves of the cabbage. They should be more tender, but not mushy. Place the leaves on paper towels or somewhere to dry until you are ready to use them. You will need about 6 or 7 for this recipe.

It takes a little work, but most good things do

4. Combine sausage, egg, rice, bread crumbs, onions, thyme, salt and pepper in a bowl.
5. After patting cabbage leaves dry, place about 3 tablespoons of the mixture near one edge of the leaf. (See photo above with rolling demonstration.) Fold the leaves over on the side and roll up, burrito style.
6. Add thin layer of sauce to baking dish, and place rolled cabbage seam-side down in the dish. Depending on the size of your dish, you may need to layer the rolls. Just add a some sauce to each layer.
7. Use remaining sauce to cover rolls. Place covered dish in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes at 350*.

Vegetarian stuffed cabbage

VERDICT: If you didn’t want to use the fake sausage, I would recommend using more brown rice + whatever your favorite meat replacement is (tofu, tempeh, etc.) chopped up. Otherwise, I thought this was a really filling dish, and it would be good served with mashed potatoes and a vegetable dish.

Click for full nutritional breakdown.

For complete nutritional information, see my recipe at SparkRecipes.