7 February, 2016
Malfoof B Zeyt
Posted in : Recipes, Vegan only, Vegetarian & Vegan main Dishes on by : el Meza
Malfoof B Zeyt – Vegan cabbage rolls
Ingredients
- 1 medium sized cabbage
- 1/2 cup of split chickpeas
- 1 cup of short grain rice washed (or coarse burghul)
- 1 chopped tomato (optional)
- 1/2 cup of lemon juice
- 4 cups of water
- 1 1/4 tsp. of salt
- 1 tsp. of pepper
- 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon (optional)
- 14 garlic cloves finely diced
- 1/4 cup of parsley or cilantro
- 1 tsp. of dried mint
- salt to taste for the sauce
- 4 garlic cloves finely diced or crushed, for the sauce
- olive oil
Preparation
Separate leaves from cabbage one by one. Dip them a few at a time in boiling salted water until they become easy to roll.
Mix together the chickpeas, rice (or burghul), tomatoes, parsley (or cilantro)and the spices (or Allspice) set aside.
Lay each cabbage leaf separately on a cutting board, cut out the stem if it’s too thick. Spread 1 to 2 table spoons of the stuffing along the edge of the leaf , then roll it slowly and tightly over the stuffing all the way.
Line up the stuffed rolls carefully in a wide/deep cooking pot one by the other in a compact manner until you’ve completed a layer which you will garnish with a few chopped cloves of garlic.
Roll all the leaves and place them in the pot in this manner while placing some garlic cloves in between the layers. You may end up with 2 to 4 layers of rolls, depending on how wide the cooking pot is.
In a frying pan, fry the diced or crushed garlic in some olive oil until they start to turn light brown then dump the entire content on top of the cooking pot.
Mix the lemon juice with the water, dried mint and salt (to taste), then add them to the cooking pot. The sauce should cover the rolls and if not, add more water until it does.
Carefully shake/tilt the cooking pot sideways a few times to ensure the sauce seeps through everywhere and that the fried garlic also mixes well with the sauce (or you can mix them in advance).
Place a heavy plate inside the pot, on top of the rolls, cover the pot, and turn on the stove on high heat for about 5-10 minutes until they boil, at which time you turn heat to very low and let them simmer slowly for 1 to 1.5 hours (until the cabbage is fully cooked and is no longer crunchy – time may vary, however you should be left with a bit of sauce on the bottom don’t let it dry up).
Serve hot with an optional side of plain Greek yogurt and an optional squeeze of lemon juice.