JULIE WELLS: Cabbage rolls a healthy dish that’s worth the effort

This week’s featured recipe, stuffed cabbage rolls, was a little challenging for me to prepare, but worth the extra effort.

First of all, who knew wrapping steamed cabbage around anything could be so difficult? It was for this newbie-at-cabbage-rolls. I managed to tear just about every leaf of cabbage that I was wrapping around the meat, but that’s OK, it all turned out great in the end.

I probably overstuffed my cabbage rolls as well, but at least I’ll know what not to do next time.

Most people use a combination of ground beef and pork in their cabbage rolls recipe, but we had ground turkey on hand, so that is what I used.

By the way, ground turkey is considered a white meat, so when cooking with it, keep in mind that it won’t turn dark brown.

Unlike a lot of quick and easy recipes I share with you, this one is a little time consuming and has more steps than usual.

Also, a lot of people tend to put stuffed cabbage rolls in the Crock-Pot and cook them for six to eight hours. I baked mine in the oven nice and slow. But do what works best for you and your schedule.

One last thing — don’t worry if your cabbage rolls look more like squares, they still taste the same.

Julie Wells writes The Recipe Box food column for the Rockdale Citizen.

STUFFED CABBAGE ROLLS

What you need …

1 pound of ground turkey