So simple and delicious. Just a handful of ingredients and you've got yourself a hearty fall meal.
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If you've read some of my other recipes and blog posts, you may know by now that I am a huge fan of Community Shared Agriculture and the fresh farm boxes I've been receiving through it. Lately, in these boxes, I've been given quite a lot of cabbage and one can only eat so much coleslaw. I made a fabulous cabbage and sausage soup from Gimme Some Oven and still had a head of cabbage left to spare. That's when it hit me, cabbage rolls!
I put off making these for a couple days because the recipes I saw seemed pretty labor and time intensive. Then I finally could ignore my cravings no more so decided to wing it and make a version that was as quick and easy as possible. Thankfully it all turned out alright in the end, well, more than alright. It was absolutely delicious. Much to my disappointment when it came to lunchtime today, my husband must have eaten the leftovers on Saturday while I was out! I was so looking forward to a couple more rolls but alas, I'll just have to make them again soon.
So here's the scoop on getting rollable cabbage. You've got to blanch it first. I didn't want to give myself another pan to wash so I took the large skillet that I was going to use anyways and filled it up with about 1 1/2 - 2 inches of water. I brought that to a boil, threw in my cabbage leaves and covered to steam the leaves that weren't submerged in the water. I let it go for two minutes, flipped the cabbage leaves so the ones in the water on the bottom were now on top, covered it again and let it go another two minutes. Then I removed the cabbage to a bowl of cold water and drained once cooled. Wa-la! Ready to roll cabbage leaves without the extra pan of boiling water. Dump the water from the pan and you're ready to reuse it for the main dish!
Easy, delicious and gluten free. A simple weeknight dinner you don't have to feel guilty about.
Ingredients
water
salt
8-10 cabbage leaves
1 lb Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage
1 small bunch of kale - finely chopped
1 small yellow onion - diced
pinch of pepper
pinch of garlic powder
1 jar Prego Three Cheese Pasta Suace + 1/2 jar water (shake to get remainder of sauce out with the water)
Directions
Fill a large nonstick skillet with 1 1/2 - 2 inches of water. Throw in a couple generous pinches of salt and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the cabbage leaves. Cover and let boil/steam for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes use tongs to flip the cabbage leaves so the ones in the water at the bottom, are now at the top. Cover and let boil/steam for another 2 minutes. Remove leaves to bowl of ice water. Drain and set aside until ready to stuff. Dump water from skillet and reuse skillet for cabbage rolls.
In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine sausage, kale, onion, pepper and garlic powder. Spoon mixture into center of cabbage leaf, roll like a burrito and place seam-side down in the skillet. Pour pasta sauce evenly over the cabbage rolls. Fill sauce jar halfway with water, shake to get the remaining sauce out with it, and pour over cabbage rolls. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes.
Time: 1 hour
Serves: 4
15 minutes of prep, then set and forget! Super easy and delicious cabbage rolls are your new go-to weeknight meal!