Guaranteed, the concept of Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage never entered my Grandmother’s mind. I love my Grandmother’s recipe for stuffed cabbage–the smell of it cooking just says ‘High Holidays’ to me and reminds me of her. My daughter is vegetarian and my grandson is leaning in that direction; so I always make a batch of Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage for Rosh Hashana. It’s really the Ginger Snaps, not the meat, that gives it the special flavor anyway. This recipe makes about 16 rolls depending on how large or small you make them.
Hint: The texture of the filling very much depends on the brand of veggie meat you choose. Some of them are very sticky (Gimme Lean and Beyond Burger) and need no bread crumbs or egg. They just need the onions, pepper and water to loosen up the mixture. On the other hand, some of the brands (Lightlife) are grainy and actually crumble. They need the egg and crumbs to tie them together. All three types of vegan meat result in delicious Veggie Stuffed Cabbage. You just have to treat them differently. For this recipe, I used Lightlife.
Note: I’ve noticed that some of the plant ground meat available has tree nuts in the ingredients. Be sure to read the small print if you’re dealing with allergies.
Prep time: 30 minutes
Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage
By Published: December 18, 2013
Yield:
- 16 cabbage rolls
Ingredients
- 1 large green cabage
- 12 Ounces Veggie Meat
- 1 large Onion half minced, half sliced
- 1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 large egg beaten
- 1/2 cup Non-dairy Unflavored Breadcrumbs
- 1/3 Cup Water Use more if necessary to loosen meat
- 1 large tomato cored and sliced
- 4-5 Ounces Non-Dairy Ginger Snaps finely ground
- 2/3 cup Dark Brown Sugar firmly packed
- 1 large Lemon Juiced
- 4 Cups Veggie broth
Equipment
- large pot large enough to hold cabbage
- 13x9x2 baking dish
Directions
- Trim root end of cabbage and cut a large X in it. Pull off loose outside leaves. Place cabbage in pot and cover 3/4 of it water. Bring to a boil and boil about 20 minutes. Lift cabbage out of hot water and place in colander. Run cold water over it to cool it off. Peel back as many leaves as you can. Return cabbage to water and boil again for about 15 minutes so you can peal back more leaves. Drain the leaves very well. You will probably have a small piece of cabbage left that hasn't been softened. Save that for another recipe: soup, cole slaw...
- Mix veggie crumbles, minced onion, pepper, egg, crumbs and water together with your hands. For a more dense filling, place the mixture in the bowl of a processor with the steel knife inserted and pulse a few times. The mixture will tighten .
- Scatter sliced onions and any leftover cabbage on bottom of baking dish. Shape veggie mixture lightly into logs and roll them in par boiled cabbage leaves. Arrange cabbage rolls on top of the sliced onions. Place thinly sliced tomato on top of rolls.
- Preheat oven to: 375°F. Mix veggie broth with ground cookies, brown sugar and lemon juice. Taste. Add more sugar or lemon if needed. Pour over cabbage rolls and place in preheated oven.
- Bake cabbage rolls about 1-1/2 hours basting every 15 min. until they are browned and glazed. Serve hot.
Note: Although you mix the cookie crumbs with the broth etc., some of the crumbs may clump as you baste the cabbage rolls. Don't worry! There's nothing wrong with having small pieces of cookie crunch on your stuffed cabbage! Enjoy
- For freezing: Cool completely and divide into smaller pans depending on how many you need for each dinner. Be sure to label!
