Sauce: prepare the sauce as instructed in the blog post above. Take half the sauce and combine it with the cooked rice and stir till well combined. Set aside for when you assemble your cabbage rolls. Save the other half of the sauce for when you're placing your rolls into the casserole or baking dish.
Fill a large deep pan with enough water to cover your medium-sized cabbage and bring it to a boil. Before boiling, remove and discard all torn or off outer leaves of the cabbage. Use a paring knife or small knife to cut at an angle around the core and remove as much of it as you can. Put the cabbage core-end up into the boiling water and cook until the leaves soften. The leaves will begin to lo0sen from the cabbage making it easy to tear off. Use a large fork or set of tongs to loosen leaves if they become stuck (try not to tear them though). Remove each leaf and repeat until you have 10-12 whole cabbage leaves.
Take the 10-12 leaves and place them into a colander and rinse over cool water till easy to handle. Once cooled, pat them dry and trim the thick rib from each piece of cabbage. Grate 1 cup of the leftover cabbage into your meat sauce + rice mixture and stir till well combined. Taste for seasoning and add as necessary or needed.
Place a cabbage leaf concave up (like a glass) and have the stem end toward you. Place around 4 tbsp.(more for large leaves, less for smaller ones) of the rice mixture near the stem end and mould it into an oval shape. Fold the stem up over the filling and then fold each of the sides toward the middle. Roll the filling up the rest of the leaf. Try and make this as tight as possible. Repeat till you have 12 rolls. Any remaining stuffing can be enjoyed as is with lovely fresh avocado and fresh cilantro.
Spread half the leftover plain meat sauce evenly over the base of your casserole dish or large dutch oven and begin placing the cabbage rolls seam side down on the sauce in a single layer. They will be a bit tight but this is perfectly fine. Cover the rolls with the remaining sauce and cover with a sheet of tin foil or lid and cook for 1 hour or until the cabbage is pull-apart-soft.
Enjoy with vegan sour cream and a side of beautiful sauerkraut.
Notes
Feel free to add fresh herbs like dill or fresh parsley to the meat sauce, this will add extra depth and flavour to the overall dish.This is inspired by my Greek roots and is by no means a traditional filling but is delicious, nutritious and fragrant nonetheless.