Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls with Rice and Vegetables — Step-by-Step Recipe
Who says vegetable cabbage rolls are somehow wrong? It's a misconception rooted in a stereotype: cabbage rolls are pork and rice wrapped in cabbage leaves. I suspect it goes all the way back to the ancient comic playwright Aristophanes and his comedy “The Acharnians”, written in 425 BC: “Bring me pork in cabbage leaves.” Meatless cabbage rolls, made with care and imagination, easily stand in for the meat kind, and chances are few people will even notice the vegetable filling.
Cabbage rolls became an international dish long ago, and similar parcels of filling wrapped in leaves are made pretty much all over the world. First of all, of course, there are the familiar cabbage rolls with rice and meat. Alongside the pork, cooks add boiled grains — rice, less often buckwheat, bulgur, corn or others. In the Caucasus, Asia Minor and the Middle East, sarma (sarmi) or dolma are popular. The idea is the same: minced meat, often with grains, wrapped in a grape leaf or another leaf.
I remember my grandmother making all sorts of cabbage rolls. Back in those distant days, when meat wasn't always on hand, vegetable cabbage rolls were made from whatever vegetables and roots could be grown in the garden. For the family, the rolls were made quite large, from a whole cabbage leaf. To my taste, those are the most delicious and the juiciest. For reasons I never understood, though, tiny ones were always made for show — that was considered fashionable.
Unlike meat cabbage rolls, or lazy cabbage rolls made with mince, vegetarian cabbage rolls allow far more variety in the filling. Usually the vegetable filling is made of sautéed roots — carrot, parsnip, celery root — with onion and boiled rice. You can always add other vegetables if you like. Once I had vegetable cabbage rolls with fried potatoes and bryndza cheese, braised in my favorite sour milk sauce — that was something else.
To make good vegetable cabbage rolls, you need fresh vegetables that don't hold a lot of moisture and sauté well. Carrots, onions and soup roots — celery root, parsley root, parsnip — work best. For a juicy filling, add some bell pepper.
By and large, vegetable cabbage rolls are made the same way as meat ones. But since the filling is more delicate, I recommend Savoy cabbage rather than white cabbage. Making the filling comes down to sautéing the vegetables in oil and mixing them with boiled rice — though even that is optional. The vegetable filling can go without any grains at all. You can also make bell peppers stuffed with vegetables.
Ingredients
10-12 rolls
- Savoy cabbage
1 head - Rice
3 tbsp - Carrots
2-3 - Parsnip
1 head - Celery root
1 head - Red bell pepper
1-2 - Onion
2 - Ripe tomato
2-3 - Garlic
1-2 cloves - Vegetable oil
4 tbsp - Salt, black pepper, nutmeg, sugar, coriander
to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- For the filling, use whatever vegetables you have on hand and whatever is in season. In autumn there are always carrots and soup roots, which are perfect for sautéing. If you end up with a lot of filling, the cabbage rolls freeze easily and can be cooked another time.
- Boil the rice until tender. Non-sticky varieties such as basmati or parboiled work best: once cooked, they mix easily with the sautéed vegetables and don't clump. Rinse the boiled rice and let it drain.
- Peel all the vegetables and put them in cold water so they don't darken. Heat half the oil in a sauté pan. Dice the carrot, parsnip and celery root a little larger than you would for vinegret salad. Sauté the vegetables over medium heat until the pieces are soft and easily pierced with the tip of a knife.
- Peel one onion and dice it to the same size as the carrot. Seed the red bell pepper and dice it as well. Add the onion and pepper to the vegetables at the same time. Keep sautéing everything over medium heat, uncovered, stirring so the vegetables cook evenly. The pepper and onion will release moisture, which should evaporate while they cook. Usually 8-10 mins is enough for the onion and the rest of the vegetables to be properly sautéed.
- Seed one fresh chili pepper and peel 1-2 garlic cloves. The amount of chili is up to you, by the way — you can leave it out altogether. But cabbage rolls with a light, barely noticeable heat are delicious. Add the rinsed boiled rice and the finely chopped garlic and chili to the sautéed vegetables at the same time. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add coriander.
- Stir the rice and vegetables together. Cover the pan with a lid. After 2-3 mins, take the pan off the heat and let the filling stand so everything steams through. The filling also needs to cool a little — hot filling is awkward to wrap.
- While the filling cools, prepare as many cabbage leaves as you need. If you've decided to use white cabbage after all, take my advice on
how to remove cabbage leaves for cabbage rolls. It's quick and easy. Savoy cabbage leaves come off with no effort at all — the leaf is soft and doesn't break as you remove it. - Place 1-2 tbsp of the vegetable filling on a cabbage leaf. The size of the rolls depends on the size of the leaf — they can be any size you like. Carefully wrap the vegetarian cabbage rolls, shaping them into cylinders of roughly the same size.
- Savoy cabbage is soft and very easy to wrap even without blanching it first. Put the shaped rolls on a plate and make the sauce.
- Peel the second onion and cut it into thick strips. Fry the onion in 1 tbsp of oil until nicely golden. Remove the seeds, white inner parts and thin skin from the ripe tomatoes. Purée the tomato flesh in a blender. If the purée is very thick, thin it with a little water.
- Add the tomato purée to the fried onion and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add 0.5 tsp sugar and a pinch of ground nutmeg. Cover and simmer the tomato and onion sauce over low heat for about 10 mins, until the onion in the sauce is completely soft.
- Heat the rest of the oil in a large frying pan and add the prepared cabbage rolls. Fry the meatless cabbage rolls uncovered, turning them often, until the Savoy cabbage starts to brown. Do this carefully: Savoy cabbage isn't as juicy as white cabbage and browns very quickly.
- As soon as the cabbage has browned, pour the tomato and onion sauce over the vegetable cabbage rolls. Bring the sauce to a boil and simmer over low heat for 10-15 mins. Since the vegetables and rice are practically cooked already, that's plenty of time for the Savoy cabbage to cook through.
- Arrange the finished vegetable cabbage rolls in small plates — soup plates or bowls work well. Spoon over some tomato sauce and, if you like, sprinkle with a pinch of coarsely ground chili. Garnish with a sprig of herbs.
- If you like, top the meatless cabbage rolls with sour cream or homemade sour milk. When we make cabbage rolls with pork, we always serve them with sour cream. My wife also loves to sprinkle them with parsley and dill. Eat the vegetable cabbage rolls while they're hot.
Yield: 10-12 rolls Calories: 70 Prep: 30 mins Cook: 30 mins Total: 1 h Category: Main Dishes Cuisine: Ukrainian cuisine Rating: