These Mushroom Stuffed Vegan Cabbage Rolls are a creative way to use cabbage in your kitchen! Cabbage is a super vegetable that is packed with nutritious vitamins. One of the things I love about this recipe is that you can make it a day ahead and simply make the sauce & cook it when you are ready to eat it.
I have some top tips if you decide to make this dish. If you find the cabbage leaves are too tough to roll, cut a small notch out. Nobody likes tough cabbage! This recipe is not difficult, but it is time-consuming. Make ahead to avoid stress! If you are making ahead, make up to step 7, then cover the rolls in the casserole dish, and refrigerate. When you are ready to cook, make the sauce and continue from there. If you run out of room when assembling, start another baking dish and line as with the first baking dish.
To make my Mushroom Stuffed Vegan Cabbage Rolls, you will need the following ingredients:
Bring a large stock pot of water to a boil. Place the whole head of cabbage in the pot. Leave to simmer for 9 minutes. Turn the cabbage once ½ way through cooking. Remove the cabbage from the water and place in a colander to cool.
Once the cabbage is cool, use a paring knife to cut around the base of the stem and pull the leaves gently away from the head, keeping them intact. Ideally, you will remove at least 10 large intact leaves for rolling.
Chop 1 pound of cremini mushrooms and set aside.
Bring 1½ cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add ¼ teaspoon of salt, 1 bay leaf, and ¼ cup each of lentils and rice. Turn heat to low. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for 35-40 minutes, until the rice and lentils are tender.
Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a pan until shimmering. Add the chopped mushrooms. Stir well and cook for 13-14 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes. Add ½ a cup of chopped shallots for about 3 minutes before the mushrooms are done.
Add the cooked mushroom mixture to a food processor with ½ a cup of bread crumbs, 1 teaspoon of tomato paste, ½ a teaspoon of salt. Pulse the mixture about 4 times, scraping down the bowl between pulses. Pulse a few more times until the mixture comes together but is not pasty.
Once the lentils and rice are cooked, scoop the mushroom mixture into the same saucepan the rice and lentils were cooked in. Add ½ a tsp of ground black pepper and stir well to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning before setting aside.
Add the remaining tomato paste to the same pan you cooked the mushrooms in. Stir and add ¼ tsp of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Stir in the can of diced tomatoes and cook on low for about 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Spray a large casserole dish lightly with pan spray. Line the dish with 3-4 cabbage leaves.
Place ¼ cup of the mushroom mixture at the base of one of the cabbage leaves. Gently fold in the sides and start rolling, tucking in the sides as necessary.
Place the stuffed cabbage rolls in the baking dish, seam side down, on top of the leaves. Repeat until all the filling is used. The rolls can be crowded, just not overlapping.
Pour the sauce around the top of the cabbage rolls, it should come just up the sides of the rolls, and not submerge them. Drizzle vegetable broth over the top of the rolls as required.
Grind black pepper and a pinch of salt over the top of the cabbage rolls.
Bake uncovered in the oven for 40-50 minutes until the tops are golden brown and slightly crispy.
Serve warm.
This Mushroom Stuffed Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls is a delicious vegan cabbage dish. If you try this recipe, please come back to leave a review below to tell me what you think!
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