#greatleftovers

[asthegirlturns]

Pork Blade Roast, Sweet Potato, Apple, and Pear Compote over Jasmine Rice. #foodie #ieatthereforeiam #latergram #muchlatergram #greatleftovers #christmasweek #christmaseats #sundaydinner https://www.instagram.com/p/CJFP7xNJKKR/?igshid=1sn3ddf0rp4xo

[marklakshmanan]

#greatleftovers #lunch #homegrown #asparagus #peas #linguine and #pancetta decorated #parmesan and #parsely https://www.instagram.com/p/CADaulil_vz/?igshid=1lbsrizrd8rt7

[cmhoughton]

It’s finally getting colder, so a good time to have #hardtimescafe Cincinnati-style chili... #thiswastwodaysago #instagram #greatleftovers #delicious (at Chamberlayne, Virginia) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp8EqYbnz-8/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=32d66ov5qc0a

[emwalker-blog1]

Easy and healthy crockpot lunch!! #rneufit #livehealthy #beachbody #beachbodycoach #greatleftovers

[cookingwithgath]

Stuffed Cabbage

Becca’s Ancestral, Hungarian recipe + Christo’s savoir faire

No matter who you find yourself across from at our table, we want you to step away satiated. Not too full... feeling mostly healthy and maybe a little naughty. And we want you to be able to enjoy everything we put in front of you.

Christo and I follow the Brandon Hinman rule of entertaining: “if you see food, eat it.” Don’t worry. We did our homework. We know you love ___ and you don’t eat _____ and your lady friend keeps kosher. We’re not gonna sneak shrimp into stuff if shrimp’s not yer thing.

Sometimes our dinner party rules mean celebrating the gluten freedom with a carnivore and a vegetarian and everyone leaving happy (so far so good). It’s times like these when stuffed cabbage, one of the mothers-of-all-comfort-foods IMHO*, comes in.

Warning: Stuffed cabbage can be time-consuming. It involves a lot of steps and then cooks for a couple of hours. The good news: it improves with time and you can wait a long time between any of the numbered steps. So cook it when you have plenty of time -- on a Sunday afternoon or over the course of an entire weekend. And make a lot. It reheats really well -- you can even freeze portions of it.

To Do:

1. Cook enough rice to fill your cabbage. I like to include a bay leaf while it’s cooking. Put cooked rice aside, removing bay leaf.

2. Prepare your filling.

Basic filling: Sauté 1-2 onions or shallots in olive oil. Add to rice. Add chopped parsley and pine nuts until there is a tasty balance. Season well with salt and pepper.

More time-consuming, very delicious filling: Finely chop carrots, celery, shallots and parsley on a board. Sauté them in olive oil. When they are golden add a combination of any or all of the following to the pan: finely-chopped mushrooms; finely-cubed beets and/or other root vegetables; corn kernels; finely-chopped swiss chard stems and leaves; finely-chopped cabbage scraps. Let those get a bit golden brown. Add pine nuts or finely-chopped walnuts, fresh thyme, and a generous amount of salt and pepper. Let it get good and hot. Dissolve a teaspoon of bouillon/instant stock in a cup of water to add to your vegetable mix -- or add a cup of flavorful stock you happen to have around. Add the rice gradually to the vegetable mixture, making sure not to overpower the vegetables with it. Don’t lose the tasty flavor you created in your veg mixture by adding too much rice. Check for salt, pepper, and thyme and adjust if necessary.

3. Steam or microwave a head of cabbage. I normally put the whole cabbage in a pot of boiling water and pull the outermost leaves off as I can, waiting a couple of minutes between each layer. The main point of this step is to soften the leaves enough so you can pull them off of the head and wrap them around the filling without breaking them.

4. Put some sauerkraut (YES! MORE CABBAGE!) in the bottom of a pot large enough to accommodate all the stuffed cabbage rolls you plan to make. I normally use my largest, heavy-bottomed soup pot and about 24oz (3 cups) of sauerkraut for an entire, mid-sized head of cabbage. 

5. Roll rice mixture up in the loose leaves, about 1 cup of filling per leaf (leaf size permitting), one leaf at a time. 

6. Layer stuffed cabbage rolls in the pot. Once they’re all stacked in there, pour 28-56oz tomato sauce over them. Salt and pepper well. Put about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and some more chopped parsley on top. Simmer covered on medium-low heat for about 2 hours. 

These make amazing leftovers. 

*in my humble opinion