Cabbage casserole

Last night I made a lovely cabbage casserole…

LIES. That photo is of the Vegetarian Times’ version of the final product.

I did make a cabbage casserole but mine looked like this:

Cabbage casserole a la Katie

Vegetarian Times Cabbage Casserole

12 large leaves savoy cabbage (I just used Napa)
3 tsp. olive oil, divided
3 small leeks, halved, white and light green parts cut into 1/2″-thick pieces (1 cup)
1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
3 slices lemon
2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
1 15-oz. can chopped tomatoes
3 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley
8 oz. low-fat ricotta cheese (1 cup), drained (I did half with white bean puree instead)
3 Tbs. toasted pine nuts (Forgot about this…)

1. Blanch cabbage leaves in large pot of boiling salted water 7 minutes, or until softened. Drain, pat dry, and set aside.

2. Sauté leeks in a little olive oil and broth topped with lemon slices. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook 25 minutes. Drain in colander, remove lemon, pat leeks dry, and set aside.
3. Sauté garlic about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, and cook 10 minutes, or until most of liquid has evaporated. Stir in parsley.
4. Place 3 to 4 cabbage leaves on bottom of prepared baking dish. Spread 1/4 cup tomato sauce over leaves, top with one-third of leeks, dot with one-third of ricotta, and sprinkle with 1 Tbs. pine nuts. They say you can repeat this layering two more times but I only had enough for two layers.

5. Bake 25 to 30 minutes in a greased pan at 350 degrees, or until strata begins to brown on top.

I made half of our casserole pan with the ricotta cheese and the other half using a puree of white beans, garlic and olive oil to have a vegan option. I haven’t tried it yet but Stew liked the ricotta side.