My Own Baked Cabbage Rolls

I froze the cabbage head overnight and today I defrosted it peeling off the leaves. Reading about freezing rather than parboiling the cabbage is what inspired me to finally try making cabbage rolls.

I made a mixture of cooked leftover brown rice and kidney beans and two big chopped white onions. I used about a half of a cup of rice bean onion mixture in each cabbage leaf. After I rolled them I placed them in two greased Pyrex dishes.

Then I made an impromptu tomato sauce from 6 cloves of fresh garlic chopped and sauteed in generous amount of olive oil, crushed red pepper, oregano, basil, parsley, 1 can of Lindsay black olives (chopped), celery (4 ribs) chopped, teaspoon salt, teaspoon sugar, 1 large can of crushed tomatoes, 1 small can of tomato paste. I warmed it up to combine the ingredients (taste tested) and spooned it over the cabbage rolls.

I deliberately made the sauce intensely rich and flavorful since the cabbage, rice and beans were bland.

I placed the cabbage rolls in a preheated 350 degree oven to bake for 30 minutes.

We'll see how they come out. After they are baked I might sprinkle on Romano cheese.