Lazy gołąbki to calm and comfort

Making Polish food easy

Half term is proving quite tiring, so making proper gołąbki – Polish stuffed cabbage rolls – felt beyond my capabilities today. During hectic times, I try to keep food simple and nutritious, and definitely aim to stay away from anything faffy. Yet, a head of spring greens and some mushrooms were staring at me from the Riverford box. “Where there’s a will there’s a way”, they seemed to say. So, I made “lazy” gołąbki instead.

It’s not just half term wearing me out. The past couple of weeks have been incredibly intense and shocking, for reasons I cannot disclose. My nervous system needs a break and one of the ways I do that is through food. I believe that the nervous system needs food that takes it back to a time when you felt safe.

A recipe for spring greens, barley and mushroom bake

Gołąbki do that for me. It could also be that light tomato sauce they are in that whispers of childhood dinners and safe places. Food is so much more that just nutrition to me, yet as I am doing a nutrition course at the moment, it is probably worth mentioning that using barley rather than the traditional rice also has the benefit of having plenty of fibre and many more nutrients than white rice. I personally love the "meaty" texture of the barley grain.

Lazy golabki

Ingredients

• 400g pot barkey

• 200g mushrooms

• Shallot, finely sliced

• 2 litres vegetable stock

• 100ml tomato passata

• 1 head of spring greens

• 1/2 teaspoon allspice

• 1/2 teaspoon paprika

• 2 carrots, grated

• Organic rapeseed (canola) oil for frying

• Salt and white pepper

  To serve: mashed potato

Directions

• Separate the larger leaves from the spring greens and wash under running water. Place the leaves and rest of the head in a large pan and pour boiling water over it. Cover and leave to soften for about 10min, then remove onto a fresh dish towel and pat dry. Remove any hard stalks and cut the leaves into halves or quarters.

• Cook the pot barley in half of the vegetable stock until the water has evaporated, then cover and allow to steam.

• Fry the mushrooms in batches using a drizzle of rapeseed oil each time, set aside.

• Fry the shallot and carrots together in more rapeseed oil until soft, then combine with the mushrooms and barley.

• Combine the rest of the stock with the passata, then add the spices and seasoning. Stir.

• Place a layer or leaves on the bottom of a glass baking dish. Place the barley mixture on top, even it out and pour some sauce on top. Cover with more leaves and another layer of barley and sauce. Continue until everything is used up. Cover with tin foil and bake for about 30min.