My Meatless Golabki

One traditional dish for Wigilia is meatless golabki.  In fact, all of Wigilia dishes are meatless.  However, I didn't grow up with meatless golabki for Wigilia, and could not find a clear recipe either online or in any of the 4 Polish Cookbooks I own.  So, I made one up based on what I thought would taste good together and some traditional Polish ingredients. 

I served the golabki with my own mushroom gravy.  The dish was a hit with all 3 generations of my family.  Even my picky 5 year old loved it. 

So, I wanted to share it with others who might be looking for ideas for Wigilia dishes, everyday Vegetarian dishes, or even for a frugal dish to stretch the family food budget.

Ingredients:
one Cabbage head
Potatoes, peeled, diced and boiled
2 packs of Mushrooms, stems only, diced and cooked until no liquid remains
1 Egg
2 Egg yolks (I merely was using them instead of another egg since I had left over yolks from baking cookies)
1/2 Onion, diced and caramelized in butter
1 Carrot, diced and boiled until soft
1/2 teaspoon Vegeta (but you could use salt and pepper instead)
2 tablespoons Sour Cream
a couple of sprigs of fresh Parsley, chopped

 

I used a Savoy cabbage head, since that was on sale at the local grocery store.  Yesterday, the cabbage was frozen and this morning I pulled it out to thaw.  After about a couple of hours of thawing, I cored the cabbage, peeled off the large green tougher leaves to use as a protective cover on top of the golabki while baking later.  The leaves which were too small to stuff, I chopped up to use in the filling.

Potatoes were diced and boiled.  Mixed into that were the cooked stems of mushrooms, the caps were used for my mushroom gravy.  Also added were a 1/2 onion diced and caramelized in butter, 1 egg, 2 egg yolks, 1 carrot diced and boiled until tender, 1/2 teaspoon of Vegeta, a bit of fresh parsley, and two tablespoons of sour cream.

On top of the golabki, I added 2 more diced and boiled carrots, a very light drizzling of oil, and a sprinkling of Vegeta.  They were tucked in under their blanket of tough outer cabbage leaves (the "blanket" keeps them moist and protects them from any burning) and put into the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.  I think the dish would also be nice with diced bacon added in the filling to stretch some meat in a frugal dish, but again, Wigilia is traditionally meat free. 


Smacznego!