Mushroom and rice stuffed collard greens recipe

After making a somewhat traditional collard green recipe with my CSA collards last time, I decided to do something a little bit different. Heather from Flour Girl, and the creator of the Cooking Away My CSA group, brought up stuffed cabbage rolls on Twitter last week, and that got me craving the little suckers. As I was planning a course of action for my collards, I began to think that the large and flat leaves of collard greens might work as a fabulous substitute for cabbage.

Mushroom and rice stuffed collard greens

(Printable version)

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped and divided

2 garlic cloves, minced

8 oz. button mushrooms, diced

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1/4 tsp dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice

1 tsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes

1/2 tsp dried basil

salt and pepper to taste

6 large collard green leaves

Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat in a medium skillet. Saute half of onion until tender, and then add garlic and cook another minute. Stir in mushrooms, red pepper, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until mushrooms are brown and soft. Combine mushrooms with rice and set aside.

Add 1 tsp oil to the same skillet and saute the remaining half of the onion until tender. Then add garlic, cook an additional minute, and stir in tomatoes, basil, and salt and pepper. Let this simmer for 20 min.

Remove the end of the stem (past the leaf) from each collard green. Then fold each one in half length-wise so that the tough stem is on the outside. Trim some of the stem off, being careful not to cut leaf. Then plunge the leaves into a large pot of boiling water for 1-2 min, until tender. Remove from water and let cool for a few minutes.

Add about 1/4 cup sauce to the bottom of a medium baking dish. Assemble rolls by placing about 1/2 cup of mushroom and rice mixture at one end of a collard leaf and rolling it, folding ends in as you go. Place each roll in the prepared pan and top with remaining sauce. Bake at 350 for 30 min. Serves 3.

The collard greens worked remarkably well as a stand-in for cabbage. They were a bit tougher, requiring a knife or else resulting in a mess (guess which one I picked...). They also had a stronger flavor than cabbage, but definitely not in a bad way. I loved this simple filling, which was the result of throwing random things into a skillet. Once again, I have yet to find a vegetable that doesn't like to be stuffed. I'm submitting this to Weekend Herb Blogging, which is organized by Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once and is hosted by Lynne from Cafe Lynnylu this week.