Vegetable Medley with Meat, Rice, and Cheese
Main Dishes | European cuisine
⏳ Time
1 hour 30 minutes
🥕 Ingredients
15
🍽️ Servings
12
Description
Vegetable medley with meat, rice, and cheese
Ingredients
- White Cabbage - 2 lbs
- Ground meat - 2 lbs
- Rice - 14.1 oz
- Carrot - 1 piece
- Courgette - 3 pieces
- Eggplants - 4 pieces
- Tomatoes - 4 pieces
- Orange Bell Peppers - 4 pieces
- Onion - 3 heads
- Garlic - 2 cloves
- Salt - to taste
- Grated Pecorino Pepato Cheese - 4.6 oz
- Mayonnaise - to taste
- Vegetable Oil - to taste
- Ground Black Pepper - to taste
Step by Step guide
Step 1
Shred the cabbage (1–1.2 kg), 1 large onion, 1–2 carrots, and 2 bell peppers; season with salt and sauté in vegetable oil.
Step 2
Cut the eggplants into cubes and salt them for 10–15 minutes, then rinse. If you prefer them soft, it's better to sauté them in a pan covered with a lid.
Step 3
Boil the rice in salted water until half-cooked, drain in a colander, and rinse with cold water.
Step 4
Mix together: ground meat, rice, onion (one large head), and 1–2 cloves of garlic (you can grind the onion and garlic together with the meat); season with pepper (we use a mix of allspice and black pepper), add salt, and half a glass of water. It's better to use lean beef for the filling, as the dish tastes better when it's not hot, just slightly warmer than room temperature.
Step 5
Grease a thick-bottomed roasting pan with a diameter of 35–38 cm and a height of about 6 cm with vegetable oil. Place the diced zucchini at the bottom, chop one large onion and 1–2 bell peppers (optional), then layer the eggplants. Finely chop 2 tomatoes (you can use liquid tomato or tomato paste instead). Season with pepper.
Step 6
Add the meat and rice mixture, then top with the sautéed cabbage, and finally, cube 2 tomatoes on top.
Step 7
Level the top so that the center is slightly higher, and spread mayonnaise on top. The thickness of the dish should be about the height of the pan, no more than 5 cm (only the center can be slightly higher). If there is too much (for example, if packed more tightly in the same pan), it won't cook through!
Step 8
Place in the oven for about 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. Ten minutes before it's done, sprinkle with grated cheese (100–150 g, preferably Russian cheese as it melts well) and put it back in the oven until the cheese melts.
Step 9
The dish should not be mixed but served on a plate like a cake or herring under a fur coat — if it is mixed, even when already cooked, the taste will noticeably diminish! Serve warm, slightly warmer than room temperature — unless, of course, you used fatty meat.
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