This Recipe Series is brought to you by community news service COLlive.com and Kettle & Cord, the home essentials store in Crown Heights. Today, on her newest series Gourmet Made Simple, Gitty Rappoport shares her recipe for an easy, green update on traditional stuffed cabbage- lamb stuffed kale.
If you grew up eating stuffed cabbage on Simchat Torah, the taste probably evokes unparalleled nostalgia. We eat it for a variety of reasons- the rolled cabbage looks like Torah scrolls, the Hebrew name for the food is כרוב (keruv), which has the same letters as ברוך, blessed, and the word reminds us of the cherubs, the keruvim, that stood over the Torah in the Mishkan. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s delicious. But stuffed cabbage tends to stay a once-a-year special, because the cabbage leaves can be somewhat of a pain to separate and roll. They either need to be cooked or frozen and both options are time-consuming. The best way to circumvent that? Use kale.
Hearty green lacinato kale leaves only need a quick blanch before they’re ready to be stuffed- in this case, with a savory, zucchini bolstered ground lamb filling. The leaves get rolled up, covered in Gitty’s simple, homemade tomato sauce and then baked at 375 for less than an hour.
If you’re looking for a quick but still delicious and satisfying way to make stuffed cabbage, try this instead- you’ll have everyone asking for seconds.
