One of the most famous and popular winter dishes in Balkan is sarma, which is filled with minced meat and rice.
I prepared a vegan version in which I combined mushrooms, smoked tofu and walnuts to get a meaty texture.
Ingridients:
1 whole fermented cabbage
2 cups of rice
2 cups of vegetable stock or water with some salt
200 g of button mushrooms
150 g of smoked tofu
100 g of ground walnuts
2 garlic cloves
1 onion
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons tomato sauce
6 dl of vegetable stock or salty water
1/2 teaspoon of marjoram
black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon of vegetable salt or salt
juniper berry
a teaspoon of red sweet pepper
Preparation:
- Finely chop the onion, mushrooms, tofu and garlic. Wash the rice with plenty of water and drain. Boil 2 cups of vegetable stock.
- Place a large pan on the stove and fry the onion in olive oil. Add the baked mushrooms and stir occasionally until they release water. Add drained rice, smoked tofu and garlic and fry for another minute while stirring. Add boiling vegetable stock, marjoram, black pepper and vegetable salt or salt to taste. Cook on low heat for 4 minutes then cover it with a lid and set aside for 5 minutes. Add ground walnuts and mix well.
- Take the cabbage leaves apart and cut off the hard bottom part of the veins. Place 2 leaves on your desk, put 3- 4 tablespoons of the mixure on the leaves, fold it on left and right side and roll it up.
Cut the rest of the cabbage into thin slices.
- Place some of the sliced cabbage on the bottom of a baking tray and put sarma on it.
Place the rest of the sliced cabbage on top.
Mix 6 dl of vegetable stock or salty water with tomato sauce, add one juniper berry (use only one as it has a strong taste), red sweet pepper and pour it on sarma.
- Put in a preheated oven to 200 °C for 40- 50 minutes or until it gets some nice crust on the top.
