It’s March, so besides Portland Dining Month as I wrote about earlier, I was also inspired to look forward to St Patrick’s Day. Though I’m not a fan of green beer or over-drinking, or food with green dye (in fact I intentionally wrote a post last year promoting recipes for food that is naturally green).

Last year I also made Reuben Sliders

This year I was inspired by the Vegetarian Times recipe for Cabbage Casserole with Leeks, Ricotta, and Pine Nuts. It is completely vegetarian, and ok, maybe doesn’t really have anything green in it either that stands out except for the parsley – but hey it uses cabbage for those of us who don’t want the corned beef. With the red and green colors, I would consider making this for Christmas too.

Cabbage Casserole with Leeks, Ricotta, and Pine Nuts with Butter Tomato Sauce

Serves 4-6. It’s important to remove as much liquid as you can from every part of the dish before you assemble them in the casserole. My trick to doing this is by baking it in a foil lined 8″ by 8″ pan. Then after baking, I can pour any extra liquid out and since it’s on foil easily lift and transfer the casserole onto a serving platter.

In many ways, this is essentially a kind of eggless lasagna that uses cabbage instead of pasta for the layering.

The original recipe makes a tomato sauce using just chopped tomatoes, minced garlic, and parsley. However, I made my own version with a butter tomato sauce that utilizes just tomatoes. To keep this vegan follow the original recipe instead, and then swap the low fat ricotta with a cashew ricotta or tofu ricotta. By using my version with the butter tomato sauce I was trying to add a little extra flavor then their simple tomato sauce, but the original version, I admit, is healthier.

Ingredients:

• 1 can crushed tomatoes in its own juice (28 ounces)
• 1 whole onion, peeled and cut in half
• 5 tablespoons of butter
• 12 large leaves of savoy cabbage
• 3 teaspoons of olive oil, divided
• 1 cup of chopped leeks (about 1 leek)
• ½ cup low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1/2 of a lemon, cut into slices
• 2 teaspoons of minced garlic
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 1/2 cup of low-fat ricotta cheese, drained of liquid
• 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

Directions:

1. In a small pot, simmer the can of crushed tomatoes with the peeled onion halves (cut it lengthwise so it will stay intact) and 5 tablespoons of butter for about 30 minutes, stirring once a while to distribute the flavor.
2. Meanwhile, heat 1 1/2 teaspoons of oil in a small skillet. Add the 1 cup of chopped leeks and saute until they are bright green. Now pour in the 1/2 cup of low sodium vegetable broth, add lemon slices on top and let everything simmer until there is essentially no broth left, probably about 30 minutes. Remove lemon and set aside the lemon and broth flavored leeks – again, keep in mind there should be no liquid.
3. While those two pots are reducing, boil some salted water and blanch the 12 large savoy cabbage leaves by letting them soften in the boiling water for about 5 minutes or so and then immediately plunge each leaf in iced cold water. Remove each leaf from the cold water and pat dry on both sides and set aside for layering your casserole shortly.
   
4. By this point, your tomatoes should have absorbed most of the flavors from the onion and butter. Discard the onion,  or set aside for another dish. In a medium sized skillet over high heat, add 1 1/2 teaspoons of  oil. Saute the minced garlic for about a minute and then add about 1 cup of the crushed tomato only using a slotted spoon to use up the chunky tomato flesh parts – you can use the leftover of your sauce for spaghetti that is left in the other pot. For now, after adding the 1 cup of tomato to the minced garlic in the skillet, stir for a few minutes and then stir in the 3 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley, and season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Now it’s time to assemble the cabbage casserole. Coat an 8 inch square baking dish with cooking spray – or do what I did which is I used a foil layer inside the baking dish, and then sprayed that with cooking spray so that I could easily lift the casserole out later and serve it on a platter.
6. Place 3 of the large blanched cabbage leaves on bottom to start the layers.
   
7. Spread 1/4 cup of your tomato garlic parsley mix over the cabbage leaves layer.
   
8. Top with 1/3 portion of your lemon vegetable broth flavored leeks (1/3 because you will need to do 3 layers of this in assembling the cabbage casserole).
   
9. Now spread 6 generous tablespoons of the low fat ricotta, and sprinkle 1 tablespoons of the toasted pine nuts. Season with salt and pepper.
   
10. Now repeat these steps, adding 2 more layers. At the end, top with your fourth layer of 3 cabbage leaves and last of the tomatoes mixture.
11. Bake in the oven 30 minutes.

If there is a lot of liquid that comes out of the casserole, drain the liquid.

Then serve in slices, just like you would any lasagna or casserole!

Are you doing anything for St Patrick’s day, or making any special green or Irish inspired food? Are you too looking forward to the evenings when you come home and there is still some sunlight / natural light to enjoy now that we’ve gone through Daylight Savings time change and leapt forward?