The word “malfouf” in Arabic means both “cabbage” and “rolled.” So in Lebanese and Palestinian culture, cooks must have felt that it was only natural to roll up the cabbage around rice, and the popular dish malfouf was born.
Stuffed cabbage leaves are popular in so many countries, from Russia to Poland and Sweden. But for some reason, Middle Eastern people feel the need to stuff every vegetable imaginable – eggplant, squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes and, of course, cabbage all get the rice-filling treatment.
As a child growing up, I didn’t think there was any other way to eat cabbage, because to me, malfouf was the ultimate comfort food. Tender leaves filled with aromatic rice, herbs and either lamb or chickpeas was one of my favorite afterschool snacks.
I attended an Irish Catholic elementary school growing up, so St. Patrick’s Day was a huge celebration with heaps of corned beef and cabbage served to all at fundraisers. While I enjoyed the corned beef, the Middle Eastern in me thought the plain steamed cabbage on the side looked kind of lonely compared with the stuffed cabbage I grew up with.
So one day I brought some malfouf to my Irish friends at school to show them a new way with cabbage. They loved it so much that they were willing to trade their mothers’ homemade Irish soda bread for some malfouf rolls. I absolutely loved those cross-cultural food swaps – to this day I still crave that soft Irish soda bread.
While malfouf is not a St. Patrick’s Day staple, it’s a dish I enjoy making this time of year to bring back that those great childhood memories. To make this meal vegetarian and Lent-friendly, my mother, Vera, created her own version of malfouf using chickpeas rather than the traditional cubes of lamb for the filling. There are so many herbs and spices in this recipe that I guarantee you won’t miss the meat. This dish is also fun to assemble with children – the bonus is kids are more apt to try new foods they help prepare in the kitchen.
Malfouf rolls make a pretty and elegant presentation for Easter as well. You can either invert the pot like an upside-down cake or line up the rolls individually on an oblong serving platter.
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Shopping List:
Green cabbage
Rice
Garbanzo beans
Parsley
White onion
Scallions
Tomatoes
Cumin
Allspice
Olive oil
Lemons
Garlic
Hi Blanche,
Hope you are wel.
I LOVE rolled cabbage leaves. I had not heard of vegetarian leaves and it sounds so good. I have had a meat/rolled cabbage recipe for a few years, but couldn’t figure out how to remove the cabbage leaves! I had even looked on you tube (some instructions included using power drills!). That was so sweet of your mom to teach us, She did such a good job, I love the way she explained it!! And she looks like a movie star! I had planned on making these several times, and made grape leaves instead (I didn’t know how to get the cabbage leaves).Thank you so much. Kind regards :). Shirley, El Paso TX
HI Shirley–thank you so much for your sweet comments, I will pass along your kind words to my mom 🙂 Oh my goodness a power drill? We want to cook, not die! LOL So glad we offered you an easier, or shall we say safer method. 😉 You can certainly use grape leaves or even Swiss chard leaves for this recipe. Hope you subscribe to our youtube channel so you can get all the latest videos as we upload them! Have a great week! -B
I haven’t had these since my Sitty died over 20 years ago and found your video and made them right away and they are just like hers!!! Love your videos and can’t find the page again to sign up for monthly recipes, please email that link to me at don@donmilton.net
Thx, Don
Hi Don, so glad to hear that! You can sign up for my updates by clicking the button right under my picture in the right hand corner where is says “Sign me Up” right here: https://feastinthemiddleeast.wordpress.com/
Otherwise, you can also subscribe to my youtube page, and get my videos as soon as I upload them https://www.youtube.com/user/blanchetv Just click the red subscribe button on the right. Thanks and hope you have a lot more great cooking experiences!