Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Stuffed Vegan Cabbage Rolls

This morning I was taking a peek at the Whole Foods Short Pump website.  I was actually looking for me, but no mention of GreenHearts Farm stuff was on there. HA!  I'm so silly.  But, I am a dreamer.  And, I found that Jesse (from WF) was on our local news channel making stuffed cabbage.  So cool!  I immediately watched it, since it is St. Patty's day and I wanted to make something awesome to go with my Guinness.  Yes, I do love Guinness but I really only drink it a few times a year.  I just wonder what movie to watch with it.  When I was younger, I used to watch Boondock Saints on St. Patty's Day every year, but I don't know.  I think the older I get, the more I want something like a romantic comedy or something really rawther BBC related or masterpiece theater to lighten my spirits.  I know, a complete 180 from my terribly-terrific-tantrum filled teen years. One word to describe the Jen of Then:  rebel--without-a-clue.  That is one word right?

So I haven't quite figured out what movie to go with this but I'm kinda thinking something like the old John Candy movie where he falls in love and he's an Irish cop in Boston, maybe.  Thank goodness for Google.  So he was a cop in Chicago with on overbearing Irish mother.  Do you remember the name?  Only the Lonely!  That was it.  I watched it when I was about 10 years old.  Two decades ago.  Sheesh.  No wonder I couldn't remember the name.  

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot about Far and Away!  I think I have that one too in our extensive collection of movies.  Who knows if it is in the case though.  Drat.  We have loads of DVD's but we are not very good at putting them back in the case.  

If I can find it, I'm so going to watch Far and Away tonight.  So romantic. And there's boxing.  Momma loves a fighter.  I feel like women can identify with boxers, or at least this woman can.  You have to fight to the death for everything you want, and you just keep getting a right hook that you didn't see coming or that jab that stings your nose, but you have to have endurance and finally you get that pep talk in the corner, just when you think you can't take another hit, and then you make a last stand and bring in a victory!  My version of life.  

BTW, I would like to remove a four letter word my family's vocabulary and just wipe it out of my existence, maybe.  The word FAIR. Agh!  I hear it all day long from Pelham, and then I poked fun of my husband saying that me downloading a book on my kindle for 5 minutes (which didn't load since he drove away from the Caroline Library after his patience was up) wasn't fair because I said it would take 2 minutes.  Let me ask you.  When you say something will take 2 minutes, that's a figure of speech right?  It never just takes 2 minutes.  So don't hold a person literally to 2 minutes.  Aaagh.  And then, I caught myself saying that something wasn't FAIR 5 minutes later, and Chris mocked me.  Which I totally deserved.  And then we had a  laugh and held hands.  All is FAIR in love and war. There's that word again.

So I have my movie figured out.  Far and Away and now it is on to dinner. 

My sister, Julie, and I are always thinking up a dinner and a movie kind of theme.  And for some odd reason, I love to sit down with my dinner and watch a movie while I eat.  I get so much pleasure out of it.  

Without further ado, I give you:

St. Patty's Day Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients:

1 head of cabbage, remove outer leaves and discard, then peel off each leaf, try to keep intact. I start from the stem and pull up

2 lbs. potatoes, peeled and quartered

2 Tbsp. Earth Balance butter

2 Tbsp. fresh herbs, chopped (I used dill, parsley and chives with a little bit of thyme)

1 Tbsp. prepared mustard

1/2 tsp. bangarang!signature seasoning

1 package of Tofurky Roast Beef vegan deli slices, sliced thinly and then in half, to look like shredded

1 1/2 cup boiling water

1 Tbsp. Earth Balance vegan butter

1/2 of a sweet yellow onion, sliced thinly

1/2 of a yellow pepper, sliced thinly

1/2 cup matchstick carrots

1/2 of a red pepper, sliced thinly

1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced thinly and then again, to resemble matchsticks

Directions

In a large stock pot, boil cabbage leaves, three at a time for about 3-5 minutes.  Remove from boiling water and place in a colander.  Continue with all of the leaves.  After you are finished, you can carefully place your quartered potatoes in the boiling water and boil for 15 minutes until a fork can easily pierce.  Remove cabbage leaves from colander and set on your working surface for later.  Drain potatoes in the colander.

In a mixing bowl.  Place boiled potatoes and 2 T. butter.  Using a hand mixer, beat until smooth.  I cooled them for a bit in the fridge and then added the fresh herbs and S and P to my liking.

In a large skillet, heat 1 T. Earth balance butter, add onions and garlic. Saute, stirring twice in 5 minutes.  Add peppers and carrots. Saute for a bit.  Add mushrooms.  Saute 1 to 2 minutes longer.  Add 1 1/2 cups water, mustard and bangarang! Bring to a simmer with the veggies.  Toss in the sliced vegan roast beef and simmer a couple of minutes.  Remove the veggies mix and save the juice.

Line out your ingredients for the rolls on your working surface.  Cabbage leaves.  Mashed potatoes. Veggie Mix. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  

Grab a casserole dish to bake your rolls in and place it beside your work station.

Take one cabbage leave and place 1/4 cup of mashed potatoes on the spine.  Followed by 1/4 of a cup veggie mix.  Fold the left and right sides of the leaf to the center to cover up the veggies and mash.  Moving from the bottom of the spine, roll up to the top.  Place the cabbage roll with the seam side down in your casserole dish.  Continue with as as many cabbage rolls as can fit the casserole dish comfortably.  

Grab your cup of veggie and spice drippings and pour them into the dish.  Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes.  Remove from the oven and enjoy piping hot.  

I think I will be serving them with a side of my favorite dips drizzled on top.

Drizzle fo' cabbage shizzle:

mix together:

1/4 cup prepared mustard

1/4 cup Follow Your Heart Veganaise

1/4 cup prepared vegan BBQ sauce

1/4 cup agave syrup or maple syrup

I think I'm going to serve it with Fried Apples and a wedge of my famous cornbread since that is easy-peasy and I don't have an Irish Soda Bread prepped for tonight.  

I will submit a picture later.  No SD card for my Android.  Long, stupid story there.  Have fun Verizon, looking at my thousands of photos that I sent to you with my broken phone.  Wish you would have told me to remove it before I dropped it off at FedEx.  There goes a year of my life. 

That's not FAIR!!! hahahah! :)