Healthy Turkey Cabbage Rolls

Every year my family celebrates the new year with a New Year's Day lucky feast.  Being a southerner, good luck rituals have always been important.  As a native of south Louisiana, and a pure bread Cajun, pork usually plays a role in the menu.  My mother always prepared a pork roast for health, cooked cabbage for prosperity and black-eyed peas for luck, a tradition which dates back to the Civil War.  Her pork roast was seasoned with a Creole seasoning blend and stuffed with garlic.  She made a thin gravy with the drippings to go with white rice, a staple of every meal.

My husband grew up in an Irish family and his tradition is a little different.  On New Year's Day his mom prepared a boiled corned beef brisket, with cabbage, carrots and potatoes.  She always added a tablespoon of liquid crab boil in addition to the little pack of spices that comes with the corned beef to kick it up a few notches.  She also cooked a pot of black-eyed peas which seems to be a feature of every southerner's menu.  

Every few years, I go rogue.  On these years, it's corned beef on toasted rye sandwiches and coleslaw.  Instead of the standard pot of black-eyed peas, I made a black-eyed pea salsa, sometimes referred to as Texas Caviar.  The salsa contains diced tomatoes, onion, red bell pepper, corn, and diced jalepenos.  It is seasoned with salt, hot sauce, cumin and the juice of a couple of limes.  It is served with tortilla chips.

This year, when shopping for cabbage, I noticed many loose cabbage leaves in the bottom of the bin.  I picked out my cabbage and stuffed the extra leaves in the bag and picked up a package of corn bread stuffing mix and fresh turkey Italian sausage.  I took out a jar of my homemade spaghetti sauce (extra healthy with hidden veggies).  

After sleeping in on New Year's Day, I woke to the smell of boiling corned beef (hubby couldn't wait).  I began my pot of black eyed peas flavored with a ham bone I had frozen from our Christmas eve feast.  We had our lucky lunch and later I started on the cabbage rolls.  Traditional Cajun cabbage rolls use a combination of ground beef and pork and almost always include rice.  My recipe comes from my inner Italian and the stuffing is more like a meatball.  I used turkey Italina sausage (one of my favorite ingredients) to lighten the dish up a bit.  I served these with cornbread.  The gold color of the cornbread is also lucky for prosperity.

Healthy Turkey Cabbage Rolls

Serves 6
Weight Watchers Smart Points: 7 per serving

Ingredients:

12 loose cabbage leaves

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 pound Turkey Italian Sausage, casings removed 

1 onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

1 cup cabbage, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 box cornbread stuffing mix

2 eggs

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1 1/2 cups water

Method:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Blanche the cabbage leaves by placing a couple of leaves at a time for about 30 seconds.  Drain the leaves in a colander.

To make the stuffing:

In a pan, crumble and cook the turkey sausage in the olive oil.  Add the vegetables and cook for a couple of minutes.  Remove from heat and cool.  Add the stuffing mix (you can add a little water if the stuffing is too dry).  Add the eggs and stir.

To make the rolls:

On each cabbage leaf, add a large spoonful of stuffing and roll up, making sure that the stuffing is encased in the cabbage.  Place the rolls in the bottom of a large pot (it's ok to have several layers).  Add water to the pot, but the water should not cover the rolls.  Add tomato sauce to cover all of the rolls.  Cover and cook the cabbage rolls on medium heat for about 30 minutes.

Serve along side buttered pasta, mashed potatoes or spaghetti squash.