Kåldolmar (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)

I needed inspiration. I needed variety. I needed...Melissa Joulwan. As I wandered through her recipes, I learned about something called Dolmas. However, having no grape leaves handy, I wondered how I could adapt the idea. Lucky for me, she included a bit of history about dolmas, so I started researching and wikipedia-ing. (Yep, I just made an instaverb out of a noun. Don't lie, you do it too.)

My wanderings led me to Anne's Food, where she shares the Swedish version of the dish. After making some conversions for the difference between metric and not, it was easy to adapt the filling to Paleo.

Here we go.

Paleo Kåldolmar

1 medium head cabbage
1 lb. ground pork
1 1/2 c. cooked quinoa
2 T. coconut milk
1/2 T. salt
1/2 T. chili powder
1/2 t. pepper
1/2 t. fennel seed
dash cayenne pepper

Remove cabbage core. Steam cabbage head 6 minutes in microwave. Carefully peel cabbage leaves whole. As leaves become firmer toward the center, return cabbage head to microwave as necessary.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Mix ground pork, quinoa, coconut milk, and spices. The filling will be soft and fairly loose.

Fill leaves with about 1 T. filling (I used a medium cookie scoop) and roll tightly to form a package. Place in an oven-proof dish, seam down. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake 40 minutes.