Filled Cabbage - Hungarian Style

I'm 25 percent Hungarian, so I thought I would pay some homage to my Hungarian side with this dish. I really like filled cabbage so I wanted to create my own version and as usual, it turned out delicious.









Ingredients:

- 1 head green cabbage
- 2 large cans of plain tomato sauce
- 1 pound lean ground turkey
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 carrot, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- salt
- pepper
- crushed red pepper
- oregano
- paprika
- olive oil

To Make:

Pre heat oven to 375 degrees.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

In the meantime, drizzle olive oil into a medium saute pan and saute (on med. high heat) 1/2 diced onion, 3 cloves of garlic, diced carrots and diced celery for 8 min or until tender. Season with salt and pepper.

In a smaller pot, bring 2 cups of water to a boil and cook the rice as according to the package.

In another large pot (for the sauce) drizzle some olive oil and saute the remaining onion and garlic until tender, about 5 min on med. high heat. Add the sauce into the onions and garlic and mix together. Add 1 teaspoon of the following, salt, black pepper, paprika, oregano and 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper. Mix ingredients together, cover and reduce to med. low heat.

Begin carefully removing the layers of cabbage and set aside. Once the water is boiling, add the cabbage and cook in the boiling water for 4 minutes. Remove, run cold water over top of the cabbage and drain. Repeat this until all of the cabbage is cooked.

In a large mixing bowl, add the meat, rice and the cooked vegetables. Season with salt, pepper, oregano, paprika and crushed red pepper, about 1/2 teaspoon of each ingredient. Mix in one egg.

Using a baking dish, spoon sauce into the bottom of the dish and begin assembling the cabbage rolls in the following steps:

1. Gently slice out the hard middle stem of each cabbage leaf.
2. With a large spoon, spoon meat mixture into the top part of the cabbage.
3. Begin rolling cabbage by folding down the sides and rolling into a package
4. Place neatly in baking dish.
5. Repeat until baking dish is filled
6. Top cabbage dish with sauce and place in oven and bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees.

Once these are done, let them cool for about 5 minutes before serving. Top with additional sauce if desired.

ENJOY!