Lola and Riley's Culinary Quest: Low Carb Cabbage Roll Stew (Recipe)

In light of our recent quest for culinary excellence, Lola and I have decided to get together once a week to bring to life a new savoury creation. We will be choosing new and innovative recipes that have caught our eye during our recent Pinterest obsession. We will also try to choose foods on the healthier side, as ladies let’s be honest, we need to mind our waistlines! At times, we will also pair our new dish with a sweet treat, as we should all indulge every now and again!

So I was up to bat first! I wanted to choose a recipe that involved my slow cooker, as I was recently the recipient of brand new ‘6 quart Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker!’ I won it in the Heart and Stroke Lottery in April, and I’ve been dying to try it out! What can be better than cooking with a slow cooker….you just prepare the food, set it and forget it! That’s my kind of thing!

A couple of weeks ago, I came across http://www.skinnyms.com/, which is a calorie-conscious website dedicated to posting healthy recipes, along with the nutritional information. It was here that I found the recipe for ‘Low Carb Cabbage Roll Stew’. The recipe itself didn’t stand out in any way, but I have always loved cabbage rolls, and so I decided to give this one a try.

So first things first…I made a list of all of the required ingredients and made my way over to the grocery store. I had some issues locating the minced garlic, but after 15 minutes of searching, I found it neatly stocked in the refrigerator section above the bagged salads. Next thing on the list was ground turkey, but there was none to be found in any of the freezers! So I asked the butcher, who seemed somewhat peculiar, to search in the back for me. He came back with two freshly packaged parcels of ground turkey, but before handing them to me, he leaned over the counter and said: “I’ll give you these only after you give me a smile pretty lady”. After I showed my teeth, the meat was released into my hands, and I quickly moved along to get the rest of my ingredients.

When I arrived back at home, I reviewed the ingredients once more.

1 medium onion….check

1 14 oz can stewed tomatoes…check

1 14 oz can low sodium tomato sauce…check

1 tbsp minced garlic…check

1 tbsp worchestershire sauce…check

1 cup low sodium chicken broth…check

1 tsp pepper…check

½ tsp hot chilli flakes…check

½ head of cabbage…check

1 pound extra lean ground beef…check!

Wait a minute, that says beef! I bought turkey! Why did I buy turkey?? I’m still not sure how I managed to read turkey when it clearly said ‘beef’, but I decided to go with the turkey anyways…it would be a nice, healthy substitute.

I then went right to work and began by chopping up the onion. After shedding a few tears, I combined the turkey and onions together in a medium pot and cooked it over medium heat for 10 minutes. Once the meat was no longer pink, I set it aside, and moved on to chopping up the cabbage.

I then pulled out my slow cooker, and placed all of the ingredients inside (except the meat mixture and cabbage).

After giving it a good stir, I added in the meat and cabbage, and I stirred it all once more. I set the timer for 5 hours and 30 minutes and let it simmer on LOW. My part here was done and it was now up to the slow cooker to take over!

So 5 hours and 30 minutes later, I was drawn to the kitchen by the succulent scent of homemade cabbage rolls! I turned off the slow cooker, and voila…a fabulous meal awaited my taste buds! In the end, the meal exceeded both Lola’s and my expectations. We had been slightly sceptical of the idea of cabbage rolls without rice, since it is typically the main ingredient. But the stew turned out great, and it didn’t appear to lack anything. It was both refreshing and flavourful, and left you wanting more!