Vegan Cabbage Rolls
Plant Based Vegan Cabbage Rolls are a delicious treat to make on a lazy weekend day. Being a bit labor intensive, it is best to make them on a day when you can take your time to cook and enjoy the process. The effort is well worth the wait and you will have plenty to enjoy for multiple meals. These earthy, delicious rolls can be served as the main along side a generous serving of roasted potatoes for a filling comforting meal.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 head green cabbage
Filling
- 1 onion diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 2 ½ cups cooked brown rice 1 cup dry(210g)
- 2 ½ cups cooked lentils 1 cup dry(210g)
- 3 tablespoons ground flax
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- cracked pepper
Tomato Broth
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons Bragg liquid aminos
- cracked pepper
Yogurt Sauce
- ½ cup plant based yogurt
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 tsp Bragg liquid aminos or soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Start a large pot of water to boil.
- Carefully cut out the core of the cabbage without cutting into the outer leaves.
- Place the cabbage, core down into the pot of water and cover with a lid.
- Check in a few minutes to see if you can carefully peel off the outer leaf without tearing.
- Continue process until all leaves are removed.
- In another pan, sauté onions and celery until onions are translucent.
- Stir in remaining filling ingredients and set aside.
- Whisk together the tomato broth ingredients in a dutch oven or pot with a lid that is oven safe.
- Preheat oven to 400°.
- Scoop a small portion of the filling onto a cabbage leaf.
- Fold up one edge over the filling and then fold the two side edges toward the middle and roll it together like you are making a small burrito.
- Place gently into the broth either standing on its edge or on its side depending on how many rolls you need to fit into your pot.
- Continue step 11 and 12 until all leaves are filled.
- Place lid on pot and bake for 1 hour.
- Serve with yogurt sauce poured over each serving.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Notes
Tip for separating cabbage leaves: Just core the cabbage, place it in a plastic bag, and freeze it. You can store it this way for months if needed. The day before using, just take it out to thaw. The freezing breaks down the fiber the same way as boiling and it is easy to peel the leaves off for filling.
Nutrition
Calories: 171kcalCarbohydrates: 32gProtein: 8gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 0.3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.4gSodium: 77mgPotassium: 478mgFiber: 8gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 369IUVitamin C: 37mgCalcium: 80mgIron: 3mg
When storing, do we assume that we include the sauce with them? (They look amazing! ? ???)
Yes
looks so good, going to be in my recipes to try, planting my garden now, and cabbage is going in , and a lot of it, excited
I love your floral shirt!
Where are the lentils that are in the video in the ingredient list? And how many raw lentils will make the amount in the video? You said 2 cans of cooked lentils – would that be 3 cups of cooked lentils? Thank-you.
Ah, I found the lentils listed. I checked out the section under Filling and didn’t see them there. So, after I saute the onion and celery do I add the lentils and cook? The video does show that the lentils are part of the filling…so I will follow your video. Love your kitchen, by the way. Been watching you for years.
Hi Evelina, Happy to hear you have been with us for years! Since the lentils are already cooked you can just stir them in after cooking cooking the onions.
What kind of mustard?? Prepared? Yellow? Dijon? Stone ground? Mustard powder? Mustard seed?
Give me a hint.
I usually use dijon
I made this last night. It was a little time consuming, but it was so worth it. Absolutely delicious! Will definitely make it again and again.
So good! The whole family loved them! My two year old ate two whole cabbage rolls!
Jill, you are awesome! I get stuck in my rut of making the same things and lack creativity, You give me so many great ideas and take me to a new level in plant based whole food cooking. This recipe is excellent.
Thank you.
Does this freeze well? If so for how long? Looking forward to trying this! Thanks for sharing.
I haven’t tried freezing them, sorry
Yes, cabbage rolls freeze very well!
What can I substitute for the yogurt?
You could make my simple lemon tahini dressing. I think it would taste great on it.
Lemon Tahini Sauce
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 deglet dates or 2 medjool dates
½ cup water
Another amazing recipe! Thank you for your videos because I did not grow up in a household where cabbage rolls were made so I had no idea the “trick” behind getting the cabbage leaves off the head. I’ve tried a couple of times in the past to make these, but I usually tore them off the head and then cooked them for a bit first, and well, as you can guess, it didn’t work well, lol. This worked great, and the spices for this dish are excellent. I changed a few things just b/c of what I had on hand (I used cooked black beans/baby bellas/brown rice that probably equaled about 4 1/2 cups (compared to the 5 cups combined of lentils and brown rice above), I didn’t use celery, I added about 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika to the tomato broth, and about 1 tsp salt in filling and 1/2 tsp for broth). Otherwise, I followed the other ingredients as written, and I followed the cooking time. Oh, I guess one more difference is that I don’t have an ovenproof dutch oven, so I used a pampered chef 13×9 casserole and just covered with foil. Anyway, I will definitely make again. So delicious!