Stuffed cabbage rolls

The first thing I did after coming back from holiday was pop into the farmers’ market in Twickenham. Once I got over the shock of how expensive it was, I decided to buy something more appropriate for the rainy and cold weatherin August! —savoy cabbages and cauliflower.

I initially planned to stuff the cabbage with a mixture of lamb and beef, but my plans changed after visiting the allotment the next day. Little did we know that the chard plants we left at the plot would take over, giving us heaps of chard. See belıw photo of our chard babies. I thought that I would be making stuffed rolls with our chard many times so wanted to something different with the savoy cabbage. I browsed through Ottolenghi’s website but didn’t find anything substantial with savoy cabbage, though I did find a chard and ricotta pie that I will definitely make.

Then, I pulled out my “Vegetable” book by Nik Sharma and came across this recipe where cabbage is stuffed with a potato and Puy lentil filling spiced with garam masala, paprika, and chili (I used one sivri biber, which made it quite hot). The rolls are cooked in a tomato, ginger, and garlic sauce, and at the end, topped with a tarka made with cumin seeds, silk-cut Urfa chili flakes, and nigella seeds.

I made the filling a day in advance to deactivate the carbs, helping with my blood sugar and reducing the effort on the day of preparation. I had it for lunch at work with a simple green salad yesterday, and I loved it. It’s a great change from our usual recipe. But I have to say, the others (my other half and daughter) are looking forward to having proper rolls with meat in them in the coming days. Now, I’m off to the allotment to pick some chard to make their wish come true.

Here’s the link to recipe for the cabbage rolls if you’d like to give them a try.