Vegan Cabbage Rolls

By: Esther Vasa

Ingredients:
Cabbage – 1 head
Garbanzo Beans (soaked) – 1 cup
Onion – 1 diced
Green Chillies – 2 seeded and diced
Curry Leaves – 10 cleaned and diced
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1/4th tsp
Turmeric Powder – 1/8th tsp
Cumin powder – 1/4th tsp
Crushed Ginger and Garlic – 1 tsp
Salt for cooking garbanzo beans
Diced Spinach – 2 cups
Water – 5 cups
Cooking spray
Lime or Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
Fresh Parsley diced – 1 tbsp (optional)
Uncooked Brown Rice – ½ cup
Garlic salt to cook brown rice
Homemade Tomato sauce – 1 cup or per your need

Preparation:
It is quite a long process, but its worth! First let us get eight cabbage leaves. For this you need to submerge cleaned cabbage in hot water. Let it sit for 3-4 minutes. Then carefully pull out eight cabbage leaves. The rest of the cabbage you could use for coleslaw or any other recipe.

Then we got to cook our garbanzo beans. In a steel pressure cooker, put in two tablespoons of olive oil and let it heat up a bit. Add mustard seeds and allow them to splutter. Add the crushed ginger and garlic. Avoid using pre-made ginger-garlic paste. Instead use fresh organic ginger and garlic and crush or dice. Then add the curry leaves and onion. Allow the onions to sweat. Next add chillies and garbanzo beans. Stir for two minutes. Add cumin powder and salt and stir thoroughly once again. Add two cups of water and pressure cook for 15 minutes or until the garbanzo beans are soft to the bite. Open the lid of the pressure cooker and check if the beans are done. Then if there is any water in the cooked garbanzo beans, put it on stove until the water evaporates.

While the garbanzo beans are cooking, heat up the left over water and bring it to a boil. Cook the brown rice by adding garlic salt. Fluff the rice when done. You may garnish it with fresh parsley. Set the rice aside.

In a mixing bowl, put the fresh diced spinach; add in a cup of garbanzo beans and a cup of cooked brown rice. Add the lime/lemon juice. Mix it thoroughly. This is your filling for the cabbage leaves. Put a tablespoon of this filling on each cabbage leaf. Roll it carefully without ripping the leaf. Make sure you roll the sides as well.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray the cooking spray on a glass baking tray and arrange the cabbage rolls. Allow them to bake for 30 minutes.

Arrange the rolls on a serving plate and put the tomato sauce on each roll. We will see next how to make homemade tomato sauce.

Preparation Time: 1 hour

Serves: 4

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