Passport & Plate - Vegetarian stuffed cabbage rolls with chicken
Russian Federation | Monday, January 27, 2014 | 10 photos
Ingredients
- Small cabbage
- 2 onions (1 for my tomato sauce, half for my cabbage rolls and half for my chicken)
- Can chopped tomato sauce which I cooked down to get the strong 'taste' out of the tomatoes
- Celery (a stalk)
- Red pepper (quarter)
- Can of kidney beans
- Rice (small portion)
- Balsamic vinegar
- Salt (to taste)
- Garlic (for my tomato sauce)
- Thyme ( tomato sauce)
- Spice for Rice (bought in Namibia but has turmeric, paprika, coriander, nutmeg, celery, dried sage, dried origanum)
- BBQ Spice (bought in Namibia but has paprika, coriander, black pepper, celery, pimento, cloves, nutmeg, dried chillies, garlic powder, dried thyme, sage, origanum and salt)
- Chicken thighs
How to prepare this recipeTomato sauce - chop onions and garlic. Fry in oil. Add canned tomato sauce until lightly brown and bubbling. Add peppers, salt and Thyme.
Cook rice in water with little salt.
Cabbage filling - chop red peppers, orange peppers, celery and onions. Fry onions and celery first to soften and brown before adding peppers. Next add cooked rice and spices. Mix well. Next add beans.
Peel cabbage - put cabbage leaves into boiling salted water one at a time and not too many. Soften for about 10 minutes.
Take cooled cabbage and cut out core hard bit. Put rice mixture into corner and begin to roll pull insides to make a pocket. Put rolls into oven dish and place the tomato sauce over the rolls. Bake in oven until lightly brown.
Chicken - marinate chicken with spices, salt and balsamic vinegar. Add thick chopped onions and fry altogether over a medium heat until chicken is ready and onions are brown.
The story behind this recipeMy family was living in Sweden and they were hungry. I was fasting. So I decided to make my Southern African family a vegetarian meal with cabbage, beans, celery, peppers and rice. Cabbage. And Beans. So I thought let me not shock them too much, let me add pan fried chicken. It was a good meal for them. They all enjoyed it and I never even got to taste it. I like to experiment with food and try new things. This was great for me because I got to try my hand at making something which I had never did before as well as not even taste it. I was deep into my fast to let a lick of spoon test my tastebuds. I must say years of cooking have perfected my measuring skills to near perfection. Unless someone lied.
