Cabbage Roll Question
Posted by yabbitgirl on Nov 13, 2010 · Member since Apr 2006 · 14266 posts
I'm trying to veganize my Czech uncle's recipe for cabbage rolls. Instead of meat, I thought maybe mushrooms and rice and nuts (he used pine nuts, and maybe walnuts or almonds would go well too). What can I use as a "binder" so that it will clump together? He, being omni, used either meat or egg, depending on his budget and the time of year.Would silken tofu work?
You could try adding wheat gluten with water and/or cornstarch/arrowroot to the filling before baking the rolls. In my experience, adding too much cornstarch/arrowroot to a stir-fry makes everything stick to each other; I can eat it just fine, but it ends up looking kinda funky.
Maybe potato starch...I can't get arrowroot and I am trying to avoid wheat products.
I'll have to try that.
I would think anything starchy would work. If you're using mushrooms and rice, the rice might make it stick together without needing to add anything else. I've made dolmades before (stuffed vine leaves) and you only partially cook the rice, mix with the rest of the filling ingredients, stuff the leaves, and simmer them. The rice cooks the rest of the way inside the leaves and it swells up and sticks together pretty well.
Potato starch or mashed potato or rice flour would probably work too.