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Beth asked if I knew of a stuffed cabbage  with quinoa instead of rice. I love cabbage and quinoa and had both on hand. The wheels started turning with what other items I had in my pantry and I began getting really hungry for supper where I would put the idea that was brewing into a test drive. Sometimes my creativity and my palate don’t see eye to eye so I always like to try a recipe that I think would taste good before sending it out.

Stuffed Cabbage with Quinoa (this can be done without the meat which would make it vegan)

Ingredients:

Cabbage

For Filling

2 cups of any winter root vegetable lying around- salsify or sweet potato would be great here, peeled and diced

1 onion or leek or shallot (whatever you have on hand), peeled, diced

1 tart apple, peeled, diced

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 pound bulk sausage or ground meat, any flavorings you prefer, cooked and strained or use sausage links and slice 1/2 inch. Use what you have on hand or eliminate if you don’t want meat.

olive oil

1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey

salt

1/2 cup of raisins or dried berries

1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa

For Sauce

24 oz jar of strained tomatoes

1-2 leeks or 1 medium onion or 2 large shallots, chopped

1-2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 cup apple cider (or stock or water or wine)

2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey

2 tablespoons balsamic or sherry vinegar

2 or 3 dashes of  cinnamon

a dash of nutmeg

a dash of ground cloves

salt

To Create:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Boil a large pot of water. Trim bottom of cabbage and cut an X into core Cook cabbage for about 5 minutes. Remove and Drain. Trim bottom of cabbage and cut an X into core.

In a roasting pan toss all stuffing ingredients together except quinoa and dried berries, coating well well with olive oil. Roast till soft, about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally throughout.

Make sauce while stuffing is roasting. Combine all sauce ingredients in a sauce pot and stir over medium heat until simmering. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Taste to season accordingly.

*The stuffing and sauce steps can be done a day or three ahead of time and refridgerate. Feel free to make extra sauce to keep in the freezer for this dish again in the future and extra filling is great to use for raviolis, over salads, pastas, grains, soups, on pizza, etc. Just make sure all has cooled completely and you store in a freezer safe container and date it. On day of cooking defrost ingredients, cook quinoa, boil cabbage and assemble.

To assemble, preheat oven to 35o degrees.

Lightly oil a baking dish. Cut a 1/2 inch off the bottom core and gently peel of the leaves one at a time, trim any leaves that have a thick spine. Set aside.

Combine roasted stuffing with quinoa and dried berries. Mix well.

Lay a cabbage leaf in front of you, add a spoonful of filling in the center. Fold in the sides of the leaf and roll it up. Place seam side down into bakin dish. Repeat. Fill pan with stuffed cabbage, should fill 4-6 leaves. Pour sauce over stuffed cabbage and bake for 30 minutes.

*You can do all of these steps ahead of time and keep covered in fridge for up to a day, just cook for 45 minutes.