Just like stuffed Cabbage -- but without all the fuss
6 servings, 350 calories each
Prep time - about 20 minutes, then let it do its thang!
1 medium head green cabbage, chunked
1 big onion, diced
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes in puree (I use Redpack)
1/2 can tomato paste (Contadina has no added salt)
28 oz. water (rinse out the tomato can)
1/4 cup lemon juice (I use the Minute Maid frozen since it has no weird chemicals in it)
3 Tbs honey
1/4 cup raisins
1 lb 90% lean ground beef (I use beef or bison, turkey doesn't work for this one)
3/4 cup raw brown rice (the original called for white rice, but brown is much tastier)
2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce (or to taste)
Put cabbage, onion, tomatoes, tomato paste, water, lemon juice, honey and raisins in a big pot and put it on to come to the boil. Mix the beef, rice and Worcestershire sauce and form into 1" to 1 1/2" meatballs. Put them on top of the cabbage mixture, turn down the heat, cover and simmer about 1 1/2 hours till the meatballs are cooked. Alternately, do it in a big crock pot and let it simmer on high for 6-7 hours.
I consider this a meal in a bowl and just follow it with fruit, but you can add bread, salad etc. if you like. And like all such dishes, it just gets better and better every time you reheat it.
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Sounds yummy -- and I do know the trouble it takes to make cabbage rolls -- so I'm quite intrigued by this recipe. But I'm not a red meat eater, and I wonder if you could get turkey to form meatballs with a little egg binding -- assuming that's the problem here ...
ReplyDeleteI sympathize, because I'm not a big red meat eater myself. However, in this case, it's not the texture, it's the taste. Turkey just doesn't have something that this recipe needs, and the resulting stew looked fine but tasted totally insipid. It's why I use extra-lean bison rather than beef, and make the recipe as a treat. But there has to be a way, something that will give depth without heat or too much salt. A little tomato paste in the meatballs maybe, or a bit of tamari? Smoked paprika? Umame is what is needed, but too many sources of that flavor sensation are loaded with sodium. Keep me posted if you decide to experiment.
ReplyDeleteFYI this recipe is adapted from Jane Brody's Good Food Gourmet. She's the science writer at the NY Times and wrote two excellent cookbooks back in the 80's that are full of healthy recipes. The only changes I made were to substitute brown rice for white, and up the amount of Worcestershire sauce. Jane is a New Yorker with a Jewish heritage, and her husband is from Minnesota, so all of her spice quantities need to be doubled (at least) if you grew up eating Indian, Mexican etc. By the same token, if you don't do spicy, cut all the hot stuff in my recipes in half.
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