Leftovers and My Affair with Cabbage
In an effort to use up some of the leftover cabbage from the tofu tacos, I decided to use cabbage leaves as wraps. Now, I can’t seem to type or say the words “red cabbage” without thinking about the movie A Christmas Story, which Rob and I watch each Christmas (alongside National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation), so the idea of red cabbage gives me the warm-and-fuzzies. Yeah, I said it. I am emotionally involved with a vegetable. But I bet you are too, or else you wouldn’t be reading this.
Red Cabbage Wraps
You will need (to serve 2):
1 cup wild rice mix, uncooked
1 apple (I used Red Delicious), cored and diced, unpeeled.
1 shallot, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 large red cabbage leaves
handful of salted cashews
handful of parsley, chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper
Cook the rice according to package instructions. This will take 50 minutes, so in the meantime, paint your toenails and watch an episode of Intervention on OnDemand. You deserve it. Did you know that wild rice is not really rice, but in fact a grass? See, learn something new every day. Now you are justified in watching junky television!
Next, heat some olive oil in a skillet and cook the shallots and garlic until the shallots are translucent. Add the cooked rice, apples and cashews, cook until heated through (for just a minute, you don’t want the apples and cashews to lose their crunch.) Remove from heat, stir in parsley and salt n pepa to taste. Simple enough.
Carefully peel two cabbage leaves from the head, keeping them as intact as possible. Cut out the tough, thick stem area in the shape of a V (see picture above.)
Plop a big spoonful of the rice mixture in the middle of the cabbage leaf and gently roll up burrito-style. Stick a toothpick through the wrap to keep it all together. Continuously warn your dinner companion about the toothpick as he eats until he finally says, “Okay! I see the damn toothpick!” Good work.
I served this with spinach wilted in olive oil and garlic with some whole wheat pita slices to load the spinach onto. (What a poorly worded sentence.) I served this alongside spinach wilted in olive oil and garlic. I also included some whole wheat pita slices so we could spoon the spinach onto them. (Too long-winded. You get the idea.)
