Vegan Slow Cooked Stuffed Tempeh Cabbage with Sundried Tomatoes

This is the stuffed cabbage after slow cooking all day--I added some chopped scallions to the slow cooked yukon gold garlic mashed potatoes.

My fall garden--hard to believe the broccoli is finally coming in!

I had a eureka moment yesterday as I sat staring out the window watching the dark day turn darker and the rain fall and fall and fall. It would be a great day to 'slow cook' something for dinner. A cruciferous sort of meal would be nice. This is, after all, cruciferous season! I used not one, but two slow cookers to prepare dinner yesterday--the house smelled of yum all day--well, there is a cabbage smell for a little bit, but then it goes away! I bought my first slow cooker last holiday season during a Black Friday promotion at Macy's--I just LOVE it! It is a six quart cooker. I have a three quart cooker, too--it belonged to my mother, though I can honestly say I don't recall her cooking from it (but I did leave home at eighteen, so who knows?) It became mine when she passed away.

If you have a chance to peruse the slow cooker section at any book store, you will note that this section of cookbooks has grown quite a bit over the past five years. In fact, if I were to guess, I'd have to say, it probably outpaces our friends in the vegetarian/vegan section. I am always drawn to the slow cookbooks because nothing says home or comfort like a good slow cooker recipe. I have a wonderful cookbook: Fresh from The Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robinson (author of the newest 1000 Vegan Recipes)--I love her recipes! There is some great slow cooking action within the pages of this book. My favorite by far has been this tempeh recipe. This recipe is a variation on a theme of one of the stuffed versions she shares. I amp it up by adding sundried tomatoes and two cans of diced fire roasted tomatoes plus a can of sauerkraut. She also stresses that pre-cooking some of the veggies is helpful in bringing out more flavor in slow cooking--I adhere to this principle because I find it truly does help. Slow cookbook authors have also cautioned that the use of garlic in slow cooking can really (and I mean really)--turn a great dish into something like a vampire dish! I don't know why, but just trust them on this--I had doubts about the ability to over-do it with garlic until I did over-do it once thinking, "if two garlic cloves are called for, four must be better" because no one loves garlic more than I do! My bad. I learned a good lesson from my own mistake in that area. So, in making this dinner here is what we had going on. One, a slow cooker filled with the stuffed tempeh cabbage and two, another slow cooker with chopped yukons, TWO cloves of mashed garlic and a dash of olive oil with some spike seasoning and just a bit of veggie broth--set on low for about 4 hours--then mash them and you are ready--no soy cream, no soy margerine--they were perfect as is when I opened the lid in the evening! For the stuffed tempeh, however, there is a bit of pre-work required--like about three pots and pans worth--but not a big deal. Just note this in case you want to prep this for the next morning and leave it sitting before heading off to work--i.e., I don't think you'd have time to do this in the morning unless you have an hour to spare.

Oh, and in the dark day yesterday I wandered down to my garden and was thrilled to find that my little broccoli had begun to take shape--I took a lovely picture for you! This was totally easy to grow, but it sure did take its time coming along! I will plant more next year.

Vegan Slow Cooked Stuffed Tempeh Cabbage with Sundried Tomatoes

1 head cabbage, cored and placed over a steamer to loosen the leaves
3/4 cup barley with 1 cup water and 1 cup veggie stock (will give you about a 1 1/2 cups cooked)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package of tempeh--about 8-10 ounces
1 onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
4 sundried tomatoes packed in oil, diced
2 cans diced fire roasted tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon Spike seasoning or S & P to taste
1 can sauerkraut
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

First, begin cooking your barley (my package says it takes about 50 minutes to cook)--I put about 1 cup of water with 1 cup of veggie stock in a pan, then add about 3/4 cup of barley, cover and in about 40 minutes it is ready (let the liquid come to a boil, then turn down and allow to simmer the rest of the time). Next, set the cabbage in the steamer so that the leaves are easy to pull off the cabbage head--this will take about 15 minutes. Next, place the tempeh in a small pan with water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and
let the tempeh sit in this water for about 15 minutes, then drain and set aside. Next, heat the olive oil in a saute pan and add the chopped onion and carrot and saute for about 4 minutes, just until the onions begin to soften. When the tempeh is cool enough to handle, crumble this into the pan with the onions and carrots. Add the seasoning and two of the diced sundried tomatoes and mix well--keeping the heat on medium low (you don't want to burn the onions and carrots). When the barley is done, drain it and add this to your saute pan with tempeh--cook a bit longer and turn off heat. In a separate bowl, add the canned tomatoes, remaining sundried tomatoes brown sugar and apple cider vinegar. Carefully begin to pull leaves from the cabbage and stuff with about 2 tablespoons of filling. Roll the cabbage up around the stuffing, tucking the sides in and keeping the seam side down, place carefully in the bottom of a six quart slow cooker (the rib of the cabbage should be facing outside the parcel). Fill as many leaves as your stuffing and cabbage will allow. Take the tomato and brown sugar mixture and pour over the stuffed leaves. Finally, drain the can of sauerkraut and place this over the entire mixture. Cover and slow cook on low for about 6 hours or on high for 4 hours. (Each slow cooker is going to have a different cooking time--so this is my best guess. If you have all day--keep it on low!) Serve with slow cooked garlic mashed potatoes!