Galumpkis - Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

I've been wanting to make these for an age in a half. If they are on a menu, I order them. My mother made them growing up. I just love stuffed cabbage.

But a few things have always precluded me from making this yummy dish: 1. time 2. a descent recipe.

So finally I decided to combine many aspects of a few different recipes to come up with my own version that was light, healthy and tasty and cooked the way I wanted it - in the oven with sauce - not in a crock pot, not simmered on the stove or steamed.

I got 19 cabbage rolls out of my head of cabbage - yours may vary. I intended on making only 12, but I had a lot of meat mixture left, so I just went until I was out of the meat mixture. My last ones are really tiny and I baked them in a smaller pyrex dish because my large one was filled.

So here's my recipe for Galumpkis

1 good sized head of cabbage
2 jars of pasta sauce - 6 cups
2 cups cooked brown rice

1 pound ground turkey

2 medium carrots diced finely

2 onions diced finely

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 Egg beaten

PAM

dried oregano and parsley

pepper to taste

Buy a good sized head of cabbage. Cut the core out and pop in a big stock pot of boiling water. Let soak until the outer leaves start to get tender enough that they peel off. Remove with tongs and place in a colander to drain. Remove the remaining vein/core from each leaf.

Make your rice ahead of time and set 2 cups in a bowl. Add in 1/2 cup of the marina sauce.

In a skillet, lightly saute the onion, carrots and garlic with some Pam. Add this to the rice mixture. Toss in some pepper, dried parsley (1 T) and oregano (1 T). Also add a splash of red wine here if you'd like or wine vinegar.

When your cabbage leaves are dried off and ready to go. Add in the turkey to the rice mixture and mix well. Then add in the egg and blend well.

Place some of the sauce in the bottom of your pan. Lay a leaf out and place 1/4 cup of the meat/rice mixture - give or take - on one end of the leaf. Roll the sides in and then the top and roll it up to a tight little package and place in the baking dish. Repeat, and repeat and repeat!

Cover with sauce and bake in the oven at 350 for an hour to an hour and 10 minutes. They should be firm to the touch when done.

I did put this recipe, as it is, for 19 leaves in to the recipe builder on Spark People and these have 138 calories each. So a few for dinner is more than acceptable.

ENJOY! It's worth every bite - but make it on a weekend, it's a time consuming process - an hour to bake and about an hour to prep.