MEAL PREP: Stuffed Cabbage
My favorite cheat meal is a burrito. 90% of the time I follow the Paleo diet, and only eat meat, vegetables, eggs, nuts and seeds. I don’t eat grain, beans, or dairy, and a burrito is all of those things wrapped up in another thing that I don’t eat. So it’s a perfect meal for when I want to deviate from my diet. I only do that once, maybe twice a week, so I can’t meal prep a burrito. I got to thinking that maybe the beauty of a burrito, everything I don’t eat inside of something I also don’t eat, could be recreated by cooking the opposite, everything I do eat wrapped up in another thing I do eat. Enter stuffed cabbage. I used a mix of meat, vegetables, and eggs, and I wrapped it up in a steamed cabbage leaf. I’m a genius.
Ingredients:
1 large cabbage
1 lb 93% lean turkey
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 medium zucchini, finely diced
1 head cauliflower, riced
1 Egg
2 cups tomato sauce (read the ingredients to your tomato sauce, they often have high fructose corn syrup. Please don’t eat high fructose corn syrup)
1) Fill a large pot with about an inch of water. Place the whole cabbage in water. Cover and steam over low heat for 25-30 minutes. I’ve heard that if you freeze your cabbage, then let it thaw before steaming, it’s far easier to remove the leaves. I didn’t do this because I’d just bought my cabbage and needed to start cooking right away before it got too late. I will tell you that removing the leaves without freezing was challenging. So if you’re thinking of making this, grab your cabbage a day or so early and freeze it, then remove it from the freezer and put it in the refrigerator the morning before you cook. Either that, or struggle through the leaving process like I did, just don’t curse my name if the leaves keep ripping on you.
2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
3) Saute the onion, zucchini, and cauliflower rice. Let cool before handling. Once cool, transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add turkey and crack egg into mixture. Salt and pepper to taste. Get your hands into it and really work the ingredients together. Once fully mixed, wash your hands.
4) Carefully remove the cabbage from the steaming pot. Don’t be like me, use a tool to remove it. Tongs or a big spoon or something, the cabbage will be hot…..
5) Lay 1 cup of tomato sauce on the bottom of a dutch oven or large pot.
6) carefully peel the leaves off of the cabbage one by one.
7) place 1/4 cup of meat mixture in a leaf and roll the leaf, starting with the stem, while tucking the sides in so that each roll is completely contained. Place the roll, seam down into the pot with the tomato sauce. Continue until you run out of meat mixture. Pour remaining cup of tomato sauce over the roll.
8) Cover pot and transfer into preheated oven for 1 hour.
Makes approximately 12 rolls.
Nutrition: 1 cabbage roll, 120 calories, 7 grams fat, 11 grams protein, 3 grams carbohydrates
