Cabbage Casserole

This is a casserole I’ve made all my life . . well, after I learned to cook. Did I ever say on here that I had never even boiled water on the stove til I got married? I can’t even imagine how horrible my cooking was back then.

In one of my Louisiana groups on Facebook, someone was talking about this recipe the other day and I realized I haven’t made it in a long time. I had one jar of ground beef that didn’t seal and I had one pound of ground beef that didn’t fit in the canner when I was canning ground beef so . . I had 2 pounds of ground beef!

I also had two large cabbages I had purchased to make cabbage rolls and never got around to doing that. So, I had everything I needed to make this recipe.

If you don’t like cabbage, you’re probably not going to like it but if you halfway like cabbage, I think you’ll love it.

The best things about this recipe, in my opinion, are:

• As it is, without changing anything, it’s low carb.
• It’s quick . . almost a one pot meal.
• There will be leftovers. If you don’t want leftovers, it’s easy to divide the recipe in half and you’ll still have leftovers but not as much.
• There are several ways to serve this dish to make it almost seem like it’s not leftovers. I’ll talk about that below.

Cabbage Casserole:

2 lbs. Ground beef
1 large (not extra large but not small) head of cabbage, shredded as for cole slaw
3 carrots, grated
4 green onions, chopped
4 T. minced garlic
1 large onion, chipped
4 T. soy sauce (I use low sodium)
4 T. sesame oil
4 T. grated fresh ginger or 2 tsp. ground ginger powder
red pepper, black pepper and salt, to taste
NOTE: If using regular soy sauce, you may not need more salt

• Brown the ground beef, remove to a bowl using a slotted spoon.
• Throw out grease and wipe pot clean.
• Add sesame oil, chopped onion and garlic. Saute.
• Add carrots and cabbage.
• Cook til cabbage is almost as tender as you would like it.
• Add browned ground beef to the cabbage pot.
• Add soy sauce and ginger.
• Taste to see what seasonings are needed.
  

I’ve always served this with a baked potato and I mix the cabbage casserole with the potato so I’m sure it would be good over mashed potatoes. I’ts also good over rice.

Even with us eating large portions, I had almost a half gallon left over.

Leftovers from this that do not seem like leftovers:

• Add a couple of cans of diced or crushed tomatoes, a bit of oregano and whatever other seasonings you like and make it into a soup. It’s really good!
• Add a can of diced tomatoes, grated mozzarella cheese, a package of turkey pepperoni, mix it all up and bake it and it’s almost like a pizza casserole.
• Fried Pistolettes – I have never been able to find pistolette rolls anywhere except Louisiana so you may have to improvise but they’re a bigger roll and the outside gets crunchy when baked. Here’s a recipe for Crawfish Pistolettes but stuffing them with cabbage casserole is the same concept. This cabbage casserole is so good in a fried roll and leftovers are perfect for this.

Speaking of pistolettes, I have never made this recipe for homemade pistolettes but, as soon as I can get back in my kitchen and make a mess on the floor, I’m trying it!