‘I’ll never go out for dinner again!’ My husband Dan said.
He was all over this cabbage lasagna and ate two portions! It was good!
‘Stop eating! There’s always tomorrow.’ I have to stop him from eating the extra portion.
As I was winding down the evening before, I was thinking how can I make use of the cabbage I harvested from my garden, and still in the refrigerator. The funny thing is, when I woke up the next morning, there was only one word came to my mind.
LASAGNA
Why am I thinking of lasagna first thing in the morning?!
No I don’t want to eat lasagna. So I thought.
LASAGNA… it came back again as I was getting ready for the day.
And than the lightbulb moment turned on… Oh, I can make lasagna with cabbage!
So I hurried out to the grocery store to get the ingredients… That was an inspired moment.
It took me about 30 minutes to prepare the ingredients and about 1 hour for both cooking and baking.
The ingredients I used was…
- ¼ head (180g) of a small cabbage, soften
- 1 ½ pound (680g) ground pork (or beef)
- 4 tablespoons lard
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ cup green bell pepper, diced
- ¼ cup red onion, diced
- 1 cup Homemade tomato sauce (will show you how to make this below)
- 1/3 cup red wine
- 2 tablespoons basil
- 2 tablespoons oregano
- ¼ cup water as needed
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ cup whole milk ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese)
- 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
- 1 cup brown mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Let’s prepare the home made tomato sauce…
Place a large tomato in the food processor and puree it till smooth.
Pour tomato puree into a saucepan and bring to simmer.
Add 1 tablespoon paprika, 1 teaspoon basil and let it simmer for 15 minutes until it reduced a little.
While tomato sauce is simmering, prepare the cabbage.
Place leaves of cabbage in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave the cabbage for 5 minutes. Or until soften.
Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 325F (163C). Grease a deep baking dish size: 8x8 with butter.
To prepare the meat sauce: Heat a large skillet with lard and cook the ground pork/beef. Add black pepper and stir to mix. While stirring, break the meat into small pieces with the spatula.
Let it cook for 5 minutes over medium high heat to lightly brown. Stir and let it cook for another 3 minutes until meat is not pink.
Add green pepper and onion. Stir to mix. Add tomato sauce, red wine, basil, oregano and water. Stir to mix well.
Let it simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add a little more water if is dry.
Taste before adding salt.
While waiting, prepare the cheese spread. In a bowl, mix together ricotta cheese, egg and parsley.
Now we are ready to layer the lasagna. Spread half of the meat sauce onto the bottom of the baking dish.
Layer half of the cabbage to cover the meat sauce.
Lay the sliced mushroom on the cabbage and spread half of the ricotta mixture on top.
Cover the ricotta cheese with half of the mozzarella cheese.
Layer again with cabbage, and than top it with the remaining meat sauce, ricotta mixture, mozzarella cheese, and lastly cover top evenly with Parmesan cheese.
Place the lasagna in the oven to bake for 40 minutes, or until the top of the cheese lightly browned.
When is ready, let it stand for 5 minutes before cutting into sections. In fact, after I cut it into 4 portions it was too much for me to finish. This recipe serve 6 portions.
You are ready to serve.
Each serving contain 11.7g total carb, 9.3g net carb, 43g protein and 54.4g fat
Here is the recipe…
- ¼ head (180g) of a small cabbage, soften
- 1 ½ pound (680g) ground pork (or beef)
- 4 tablespoons lard
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ cup green bell pepper, diced
- ¼ cup red onion, diced
- 1 cup Homemade tomato sauce
- 1/3 cup red wine
- 2 tablespoons basil
- 2 tablespoons oregano
- ¼ cup water as needed
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ cup whole milk ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese)
- 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
- 1 cup brown mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Preheat oven to 325F (163C). Grease a deep baking dish size: 8x8 with butter.
- Let’s prepare the homemade tomato sauce. Place a large tomato in the food processor and puree it till smooth. Pour tomato puree into a saucepan and bring to simmer.
- Add 1 tablespoon paprika, and 1 teaspoon basil and let it simmer for 15 minutes until it reduced a little.
- Place leaves of cabbage in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave the cabbage for 5 minutes. Or until soften. Set aside.
- To prepare the meat sauce: Heat a large skillet with lard and cook the ground pork/beef. Add black pepper and stir to mix. While stirring, break the meat into small pieces with the spatula.
- Let it cook for 5 minutes over medium high heat to lightly brown. Stir and let it cook for another 3 minutes until meat is not pink.
- Add green pepper and onion. Stir to mix. Add tomato sauce, red wine, basil, oregano and water. Stir to mix well.
- Let it simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add a little more water if is dry. Taste before adding salt.
- While waiting, prepare the cheese spread. In a bowl, mix together ricotta cheese, egg and parsley.
- Now we are ready to layer the lasagna. Spread half of the meat sauce onto the bottom of the baking dish. Layer half of the cabbage to cover the meat sauce.
- Lay the sliced mushroom on the cabbage and spread half of the ricotta mixture on top. Cover the ricotta cheese with half of the mozzarella cheese.
- Layer again with cabbage, and than top it with the remaining meat sauce, ricotta mixture, mozzarella cheese, and lastly cover top evenly with Parmesan cheese.
Let us know how you like this Cabbage Lasagna recipe in the comment below!
If you like this post share it with your friends!
Simple and nice
I wish there is a nutritional info on this recipe…I am on a low card high protein diet but can only have 1100 calories a day…
Hi Kim, the nutritional info is at the bottom of the page below the last picture.
Okay…thank you for sharing
Does anyone know how much fiber is in this recipe?
I made this last night. Added fresh garlic and it was delicious. Will definitely make it again. Used sweet Italian sausage for the meat. Reheated it tonight for dinner and I think it was even better than the first night.
Glad you like it Suz! This was one of the popular recipe here. 🙂