Stuffed Cabbage - who knew it tasted so good?

OK, I'm guilty of getting cabbage from the CSA and then letting it sit in my fridge until I need the space for something else, then I throw the cabbage away.  Truly sad, I know.

This time I was determined to make good use of it.  So I stuffed it with every leftover I could find in the fridge and made one tasty pocket of goodness.  It's good on it's own, but I like to slather anything in sauce, so I made a tahini-miso sauce to accompany it.

I borrowed a vegetarian cookbook Mediterranean Harvest from my mom that had a stuffed cabbage recipe, but I didn't make anything resembling the recipe in the book.  The tip on preparing the cabbage, plus a method from somewhere on the internet gave me the courage to tackle this.

I made a bunch and keep forgetting to take a photo as it's plated.  Here's one right out of the fridge.  It doesn't look like much on it's own, but is surprisingly filling and delicious.

Preparing the cabbage:

Bring a large pot to boil.  Core the cabbage so it almost looks like a little cabbage hat.  (Save the core for broth.)  Once the water is boiling, add 1 tsp salt, turn off the heat, and (carefully) plunk in the cabbage head and cover.  Leave about 20 minutes.  Fish out the hot cabbage head and place in a large bowl and filled with cold water.  Just leave the cabbage hanging out in the water until you're ready with your filling.  I saved the pot of water and put in a bunch of other veggie trimmings for broth.  Sometimes cabbage isn't recommended when making broth, but I thought it turned out really nice and isn't particularly cabbagey.

Prepare the filling:
I used wild rice, sauteed mushrooms, a brown rice blend, grilled veggies - eggplant, peppers, squash, zucchini, onions, leeks.  This was all leftover stuff that went well together so I mixed it up.

Now fill the cabbages:

Take off one leaf and place on a cutting board with what would be the top facing toward you and the bottom stemmy part away from you.  I should have taken a photo.  The back end will curl up a bit and this is where you want to put the filling.  I used about 1/2 cup per leaf.  Then you fold like a burrito and put seamside down in a pan.  I cooked mine on the stove in an enameled cast iron pot (I love Le Creuset.)  When you've filled the pot with cabbage pockets, take about 1/2 cup of the cabbage water (or broth if you've already thrown in some other veggies) and add 1 TBS tomato paste.  Pour this over the cabbage and then simmer for about 20 minutes covered.  I had more cabbage pockets than the pan would hold, so I stuck a few in the freezer that I'll cook later.

Like I said, my filling started out good, so I didn't really need a sauce, I just wanted one.

Miso tahini sauce

Blend together:
1/4 cup tahini
2 TBS miso
2 TBS lemon juice
1/4 cup water
Pinch salt

I've got some posts to catch up on and I came across this photo from an excursion to Whole Foods (conveniently located near my new job):

And I accuse my mother of hoarding...Actually most of this has been used up by now.   I remember the vegan ravioli in the middle was really good!