MoFo day 2: A childhood meal veganized; Stuffed cabbage rolls , green bean casserole, and sweet and sour cabbage.

Day two! Today we were supposed to recreate a meal from your childhood. I don’t know about the homes you grew up in but I ate a lot of cabbage growing up; coleslaw both mayo and vinegar based, boiled dinner, brierocks, homemade egg rolls, sauerkraut, borscht, minestrone-and a dozen other cabbage heavy soups, sometimes even simply fried with kielbasa. Two of my absolute favorites were cabbage rolls and sweet and sour cabbage!  Originally there was always some type of meat or in many cased multiple animal products in all these dishes but they have all been pretty easy to veganize. I’m not sure if it’s the nature of these recipes or my love of cabbage that  makes them so easily adaptable. Don’t get me wrong the new versions are different but they in their own right are as good if not better than the original. Oh and green bean casserole because that was always a super tasty holiday treat that I looked forward to while growing up!

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls:

Ingredients:

Filling:

1c. Brown Rice

½ c. Lentils

1oz. Dried Porcini Mushrooms

2 Tbsp. Minced Garlic

3c. Mushroom or Vegetable Broth extra for sautéing

2c Diced Yellow Onion

8oz. Button Mushrooms Chopped

½-1tsp. Salt

Sauce:

1- 15oz Can Tomato Sauce

1- 15oz Can No Salt Diced Tomatoes

2Tbsp. Sugar

1Tbsp White Wine Vinegar

Wraps:

1 Large Red Cabbage

Method:

1.Boil 1oz of dried porcini mushrooms in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes.

2.Add cabbage to electric pressure cooker (Instant pot) with ½ cup water and pressure cook for 1 minute let pressure release naturally. Alternately you can blanch the Cabbage in a large pot of boil water.

3.Meanwhile dice mushrooms, onions and mince the garlic. Measure out rice, lentils and spices.  Strain and reserve porcini liquid- use can use this in place of some of the vegetable/mushroom broth if you prefer a stronger porcini flavor, dice the porcinis.

4,Remove cabbage from the instant pot, and set aside until cool enough to handle, pour out the cabbage water. Add a touch of vegetable broth to the pot and turn on sauté mode. Add onions, mushrooms and garlic and sauté until browning and fragrant add broth as needed in small amounts to prevent sticking.  

5. Preheat oven to 350F

6. Add the rice, lentils, spices, and broth and mix well. Set the instant pot to manual setting and pressure cook for 20 min, allow natural release.

7.In a medium sauce pan add all the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover stirring often while you separate the cabbage leaved and make the rolls.

8.Cut around core with a knife and remove leaves if stem is too thick you can shave part off with a knife. Once mixture is cooked, taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed. Put 3-4 tablespoons of the filling mixture on each cabbage leaf. Fold in sides, and then roll leaves to completely cover the filling.

9. Add a about a half cup of the sauce to the bottom of a 9x13 pan/casserole dish and spread to there is a thin layer you may need to use a bit more. The deeper the dish the better, fill with as many cabbage rolls as you can and pour remaining sauce over the top. Cover with Tin foil, however if the dish is on the shallow side cut a piece of parchment paper to fit over the top before covering with aluminum foil to prevent corrosion from the acidity. Bake for 40minutes, uncover, baste with sauce and bake another 10, serve.

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Sweet and Sour Cabbage

Ingredients:

7 c. Sliced Cabbage

2 Tbsp., Vegan Butter, or Vegetable Broth

3 Tbsp. Sugar

5-6 Tbsp.  Balsamic Vinegar

¼ tsp Kosher Salt-optional

1/4tsp. Black Pepper-optional

*You can double the recipe for a whole cabbage but I used the center of a once very large red cabbage to use it up.

Method:

1. Quarter and remove the cabbage core and thinly slice the cabbage.

2. In a large pot heat the butter or broth and add the cabbage, sauté until starting to wilt.

3. Add sugar and Vinegar stir to coat completely. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook 30-40 minutes, 

stirring frequently until cabbage is tender add salt and pepper to taste.

 

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Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients:

8oz Button Mushrooms

16oz Cut Frozen Green Beans

½ tsp. Onion Powder

½ tsp. Garlic Powder

½ tsp. Pepper

¼ tsp salt

1c. Mushroom or Vegetable Broth, plus more to sauté

2 Tbsp.  Flour

Container French fried Onions, you can use as many or as little as you like.

Method:

1.Preheat oven to 350F

2.Put beans into a medium sauce pot and cover with water, bring to a boil and cook per package instructions. Ours took about 10 minutes, drain.

3.Chop mushrooms fairly fine and add to pan. Sauté until fully cooked adding broth to keep mushrooms from sticking and burning as needed, when the mushrooms have cooked down and released a good amount of liquid add the garlic and onion powder.

4. Mix 2Tbsp flour, salt, and black pepper into the 1 cup of broth. Whisk into the pan with mushrooms and stir until thick; see picture 3 in collage. Turn off the heat and stir in green beans and ¼- ½ of the French fried onions, spoon mixture into an 8x8 square baking dish and cover with remaining French fried onions.

5. Bake until golden 10-15 minutes and serve.