Stuffed Cabbage Leaves (Mahshi) Recipes

Stuffed Cabbage Leaves (Mahshi) Recipes

Ingredients 

• all the large leaves of 1 medium sized cabbage
• 1 cup brown rice, soaked overnight
• 1 1/2 cups thick cooked down tomato sauce
• 1 cup onions, chopped fine
• 1/4 cup green pepper, cubed small
• 2 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup fresh dill, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp dried mint
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

 Instructions  1. Soak the rice overnight and drain well.
2. Cook down tomato puree or sauce in uncovered until it is very thick and not at all watery.
3. Blanch cabbage leaves in boiling water. Spread out to cool.
4. Cut away stems from cabbage leaves, and cut leaves into pieces that are about the size of an entire hand. Spread the cabbage stems at the bottom of a pot.
5. In bowl a bowl, combine rice with all the ingredients except for cabbage.
6. Fill cabbage leaves with around 2 tablespoons of rice mixture and roll. Place in pot. Continue until rice mixture is finished. Fill outer green leaves of cabbage first and work inwards because the outer leaves are the thicker and thus can handle a little more cooking the extra cooking at the bottom of pot.
8. Place a small glass plate on top of cabbage leaves in pot to keep them pressed down when cooking. Cover the pot and simmer on the lowest heat for 1 ¾ to 2 hours. Turn heat off and keep pot covered for at least 15 minutes to absorb excess moisture.
9. Serve immediately with a tahini sauce, or vegan yogurt

You will should not need to add any water because the rice will cook from the water that the cabbage leaves and vegetables will let out. Just make sure that when you are filling you do not put too much of rice mixture in each cabbage roll.
Variation: You can add green fava beans or whole (unpeeled) Garlic cloves in between the cabbage rolls so that the infuse their flavors into each other when cooking.
It keeps well for up to 4 days before you cook it but of course the fresher the better.Stuffed Cabbage Leaves (Mahshi) Recipes