Deconstructed Cheesy Cabbage Rolls

Deconstructed Cheesy Cabbage Rolls

I had to try this recipe from Not Quite Nigella's blog, one of my favourites by Lorraine Elliott,  as soon as I saw it. I had a busy day coming up, and a meal waiting for me in the slow cooker when I arrived home from Mahjong just sounded perfect. 

It didn't disappoint, and now I can't get enough of it. It is pure comfort food, even though it is very hot weather in the North. Because I made a large quantity I have been able to experiment with a little tweeking for variation. Today we ate it with my homemade mango chutney which was delicious.

I also added a few extra ingredients when I cooked it. A couple of rashers of chopped bacon, as bacon marries so well with cabbage, two chopped large red chillies for some zing, and a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, perfect. However, it can stand alone without the chillies, bacon, or thyme as on Lorraine's original recipe. Cabbage is such a resilient vegetable and doesn't disintegrate at all during long slow cooking, or if cooked in the pressure cooker.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes (pressure cooker), 1 hr. 10 mins (stovetop), 7 hours (slow cooker)

Ingredients:

OIL FOR FRYING

1 ONION, PEELED AND CHOPPED

2 AUSTRALIAN GARLIC CLOVES, PEELED AND CHOPPED

2 LARGE RED CHILLIES, DESEEDED AND FINELY CHOPPED (optional)

500g BEEF MINCE

2 RASHERS BACON, FINELY CHOPPED (optional)

2x410g TINS DICED TOMATOES

850g CABBAGE, CORED AND SLICED INTO WEDGES

2 TABLESPOONS TOMATO PASTE

2 SPRIGS OF THYME (optional)

1 CUP MACARONI  OR OTHER PASTA

1 CUP GRATED CHEESE

LET'S COOK:

• Heat a frypan on medium heat and add the oil. Fry the onion and garlic until translucent. Turn up the heat to medium high and add the mince, chillies and bacon breaking  up the mince with a large spoon. Transfer the whole mixture to your slow cooker or pressure cooker, or just a very large cast iron pot for the stove. I am lucky that I have an outside power point on my patio bench, so I plug the slow cooker in there to keep the heat out of the kitchen.
• Add the tomatoes, cabbage, thyme leaves and tomato paste to the pot.
• Cook the slow cooker for 6 hours, the pressure cooker for 20 minutes, and for the cast iron pot, cook for 1 hour.
• Add the macaroni and cook for the following additional times: pressure cooker 5 minutes, slow cooker 40 minutes, cast iron pot 10 minutes. Stir through the cheese  and serve.

Enjoy.
Best wishes

Pauline