Stuffed Cabbage Over Roasted Vegetables

I had every good intention on submitting an incredibly delicious coconut and lime cake to elly say opa's event, eat to the beat my obvious choice of song being lime in the coconut. However, my incredibly delicious coconut cake didn't turn out so incredible at all. The frosting made the cake look pretty, but underneath it all was just plain U-G-L-Y, you don't got no alibi (songs pop into my head all the time). Anyhow, the lime curd inside my cake was alright but I absolutely hated the sponge. I would have worked on this cake all over again for the event but it ends tonight! Sadly, it all went in the bin (it was seriously that awful).

NEWSFLASH! The Next Day, Pixie awakens and writes her cabbage post and wonders, is there a cabbage song out there.....



sadly she discovers there is... Therefore here's my submission for Elly's Event.

Whenever I see cabbage or hear the word 'cabbage', I'm reminded of a game a Year 6 class taught me in Bristol. It's a simple game where a child goes up to the head of the class and covers his/her eyes and a student in the class is asked to call out 'cabbage' in their best disguising voice and eventually must guess the mystery voice. I'm not sure why they chose the word 'cabbage' and how long this game has been around. I do wonder how many of them actually like cabbage or even ever tried it.



Last week, at my local market, I came across a Vegetable Cookbook filled with fabulous recipes including one for stuffed cabbage. I've altered the recipe to our liking and came up with the following Stuffed Cabbage with Roasted Vegetables. It was truly delicious and I hope you'll have the time to try it for yourselves one day.

For my vegetarian readers, the sausage meat is of course optional!





Stuffed Cabbage with Roasted Vegetables
adapted from Vital Vegetables, Good Food
(serves 4)

For Roasted Vegetables

2 onions cut into wedges
1 large aubergine, roughly chopped
1 zucchini (courgette)
6 tomatoes, quartered
6 mushrooms quartered
olive oil

For Stuffing

a cup of long grain rice
4 sausages (optional)
1 fennel finely chopped
1 pepper of your choice
1 tspn caraway seeds
handful of chopped parsley
25g mature cheddar
salt and pepper

8 Savoy cabbage lettuce leaves, thick veins removed

Place all the vegetables in a roasting tin and drizzle with oil and season. Bake in a preheated 190C/375F oven for 30 minutes or until the onions start to brown.

Cook the rice in boiling salted water. Meanwhile, fry the sausages for about 10 minutes or until they are brown and cooked. Remove from the pan.

Add the peppers and fennel to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes or until softened. Chop the sausages into small pieces and stir into the pan with the parsley, rice and cheese, then season.

Blanch the cabbage leaves in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and pat dry. Spoon rice into the center of each leaf and roll up and tuck in the ends.

Once done, place them on the vegetables, joins down and heat in the oven for 10 minutes. Cut each parcel in half prior to serving. Enjoy!