This morning I was browsing for a cabbage recipe amongst old fatfree-list
recipes that I had saved, and came upon two similar cabbage casserole
dishes both from March 1995. I cooked up the following, inspired by both
of those recipes, and thought it came out great.
Cabbage and Tomato Casserole
1 medium-size green cabbage, finely shredded
1 onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 cups TVP
1-3/4 cup water
2 cups rice (I used white Basmati)
l-lb can tomato sauce
6-oz can tomate paste
3 cups water
herbs that you like, such as thyme, marjoram, black pepper
1. Do this for old cabbage: sprinkle with 1 or 2 Tbsp coarse salt, mix
well, let sit for 30 to 60 minutes. Drain in a colander, rinsing to remove
the excess salt. For new cabbage, just shred it and use it immediately.
2. Boil 1-3/4 cups water in a small pan, add the TVP, and stir to
reconstitute it. Take it off heat.
3. In a bowl, combine the tomato sauce, tomato paste, and 3 cups water.
Stir well to dissolve the paste. Add herbs of your choice and stir again.
If you salted the cabbage, don't add any more salt; otherwise, add in 1
tsp salt.
4. In a soup pot, layer the ingredients: first half of the cabbage, then
half of the onions, garlic, TVP, and finally the rice. Pour half the
tomato mixture over it. Then layer again as before, ending with the tomato
sauce. If it seems dry, add another cup of water.
5. Cover and simmer over low heat for one hour. (The recipe that I stayed
the closest to said 2 hours, but I didn't wait that long. Maybe she used
brown rice.) Check it gently, not disturbing the layering too much, after
the first 30 minutes and every half hour you let it cook, to see if it
needs more water. It should neither wet nor dry but just moist.
NOTE: The amount of water I said to add to the tomato sauce is my
approximation now, as I didn't measure it but kept adding more until it
seemed right for cooking the rice. The cabbage provides some moisture too,
but most of the rice cooking liquid will be the tomato liquid. The boiling
water-to-TVP ratio is exact. This made a huge quantity. In fact, I plan
to do it again next week when I need to bring a dish to a potluck lunch for
a crowd. You could cut all the ingredients in half and use a small cabbage
if you don't want a big potful.
Muriel