Cabbage Roll Cups

Use 12 silicone muffin pans (or tin muffin pans) to make these delicious “cabbage rolls” that don’t require the skill to roll cabbage leaves.

Ingredients :

• 1 tsp. vegetable oil
• 1 lb. (500 g) lean ground beef
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 carrot, coarsely grated (3/4 cup grated)
• 1-1/2 cups cooked white rice
• 1-1/2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• pinch of black pepper
• 1 Savoy cabbage
• 2 cups tomato sauce, for garnish

Cooking Procedures :

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Place 12 cups silicone muffin pans (or tin muffin pans) onto baking sheet. Ready a piece of parchment paper large enough to cover muffin pans, plus another baking sheet of the same size. Set aside.
2. In a large skillet, heat oil to medium-high. Add ground beef, onion and carrot. Cook while breaking up meat into small pieces. Cook until beef is lightly browned and onions and carrot are soft. Remove from heat. Stir in rice.
3. In a bowl, whisk together tomato sauce and egg. Blend into meat mixture in skillet. Mix together salt, nutmeg, oregano and pepper; stir to combine. Set aside while blanching cabbage.
4. To prepare cabbage for blanching, bring a large pot of water to simmer (If pot is not big enough to hold head of cabbage, use a large sharp-ended knife to cut cabbage in half lengthwise through core so that cabbage halves can be blanched in two smaller pots of water). When water simmers, place cabbage in pot. Simmer 10 minutes. Drain. Fill pot with cold water to cool down cabbage. Drain again after cabbage has cooled enough to handle.
5. Pull off large pieces of cabbage leaf (disregard the tough part centre “rib” section of leaves) and line silicone muffin cups with them, adding about an inch of overhand above rim of cups. Overlap pieces of cabbage to avoid gaps in lining. Fill each cup level with meat mixture, pressing down gently. Fold over leaf overhang to cover filling. Press down gently to hold leaves in place.
6. Cover muffin pans (which are on baking sheet) with parchment paper. Place second baking sheet over top the parchment (this prevents cabbage from curling up during cooking). Bake on middle rack of oven, about 30 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, just before baking time finishes, heat 2 cups tomato sauce in a saucepan to spoon over cabbage roll cups to serve.
8. To unmold rolls, hold both baking sheets—sandwiching muffin pans— turn over. Remove muffin pans to release cabbage roll cups. Serve immediately with hot tomato sauce over top.
9. Makes 12.

Tips: Cabbage roll cups freeze well. Cool to room temperature then set in single layer inside large plastic freezer bag to freeze. To reheat, preheat oven to 400°F. Drop 1 tsp. water into each silicone muffin cups, place frozen cabbage roll Cups (do not thaw) into silicone cups. Cover with parchment paper (top baking sheet is not needed this time). Bake 45 minutes, or until heated through.  If only reheating 2 cabbage rolls, adjust baking time to 30 minutes.