Our CSA has been giving us a *lot* of cabbage. In the interest of not having coleslaw at every meal, I have been trying to find new recipes that involve cabbage. What I have found is that 90% of the interesting things to do with cabbage also involve meat of some kind, like cabbage rolls (turkey or pork), haluski (pork), or even kimchi (fish). So I’ve been taking recipes that I find with cabbage and modifying them to make them vegetarian. This week we tried Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls and replaced the turkey with lentils.
Deconstructed Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls
A vegetarian one-pot cabbage roll meal without the rolling.
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp oil
- 1 large onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp oregano fresh, chopped
- 1 tsp thyme fresh, chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 small cabbage thinly sliced
- 1 tsp vegemite optional, but this adds a huge depth of flavor
- 1 pound tomatoes fresh *See notes
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1 cup rice
- 1/2 pound lentils dry
- 4 cups vegetable broth
Topping
- 16 oz sour cream
- 1 tbsp dill (or green onions or chives)
Instructions
- Preheat Dutch oven or large stock pot on medium heat on the stove-top and swirl oil to coat the bottom of the pot.
- Brown onion in the oil.
- Add garlic, oregano, thyme, and salt, and pepper.
- Add cabbage and cook for 10 minutes to soften/make room in the pot and brown a bit.
- Add vegemite, tomatoes, broth, lentils, and rice and stir to evenly distribute.
- Bring the whole pot to a boil and then reduce heat to low/medium-low, cover and cook for 75 minutes. Do not open while the rice/lentils are cooking!
- Test the rice/lentils for your desired doneness (after the full 75 minutes) and if they still need more moisture/time, add another 1/4 cup of water, stir, cover, and cook 10 more minutes.
- Serve topped with a good dollop of sour cream and herbs.
Notes
- You can replace the fresh tomatoes with a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes and a 14 ounce can of tomato sauce.
- If you replace the fresh herbs with dry, you will want to adjust the amounts. (ex: 1 tbsp fresh dill = 1 tsp dry dill, 1 tsp fresh thyme = 1/3 tsp dry thyme)
- Feel free to play around with the toppings, you can replace Greek yogurt for sour cream or green onions for the dill.
- If you adjust the dry goods amount (rice/lentils), make sure to adjust the broth, too!