Low Carb Cabbage Lasagna

Low Carb Cabbage Lasagna (Updated)

1 lb. lean ground beef
3 cups (28 oz. jar or more of spagetti sauce) I use Emerils Roasted Red Pepper sauce. This does have some carbs in it, but less than others. There are some marinara sauces that have only 2 grams, but my kids prefer the Emerils.
32 oz. bucket of ricotta cheese
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon dried basil and 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or 1 teaspoon Italian spice
one large cabbage
4 cups (16 oz. mozzarella cheese)
1/4 to 1/2 cup grated parmesan

Put cabbage in freezer for 24 hours so it softens the leaves so you don't have to parboil it. Take out cabbage so it can partially thaw and get more soft while you prepare the other ingredients for the lasagna. (I parboiled this for the first time at my SuperBowl party. It wasn't watery at all! To parboil, boil a large pot of water, cut off the bottom of the cabbage so you can have individual leaves or it is easy to pull individual leaves off the cabbage itself. Plunge in boiling water (watch your hands) and then let the leaves sit for a minute and pull out or continue to roll the cabbage and pull off the topmost leaves as they have sat in the boiling water for a minute. Continually roll the cabbage until you have enough cabbage leaves.)

Heat oven to 350.
In a large skillet, cook meat until browned; remove from heat. Drain.
In a small bowl, stir together ricotta cheese, egg, basil and oregano.
In a 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish, cover the bottom with your spagetti sauce.
Peel off cabbage leaves and cover the bottom of the pan. It doesn't matter if the cabbage tears. Just overlap the leaves slightly and make a puzzle.
Spread about half of the ricotta mixture evenly over the cabbage.
Spread half the hamburger over the ricotta.
On this layer, don't top off the hamburger with the spagetti sauce, but do top off the hamburger with 1/3 mozzarella and 1/3 parmesan.
Make another layer of cabbage. Repeat with the ricotta, hamburger, this layer do add the spaghetti sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan.
Top with a layer of cabbage. Put on remaining spagetti sauce and cheese.
For the first 45 minutes, don't cover with tin foil, then put on tin foil (if you have convection bake, use this to help dry it out.) Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes total if you froze the cabbage or 1 hour total if you parboiled the cabbage -- either way, bake until cabbage is soft. (And watch yours because if the lasagna is thicker then this could effect the cooking time.) I cooked mine one day before for one hour and then for 35 minutes the day of the event when I parboiled. When I put the cabbage in the freezer, I cooked it for 1 1/2 hours and then one hour the day of the event. Either way, I think this is what may have made it taste extra good!

Leave your comments on what you think!

If you prefer lasagna with noodles, you can get low carb noodles here.

Comments

[julie]

I tried this recipe...I found it quite wet...so I used a turkey baster to suck out some of the liquid from the corners of the pan during baking. The final product was Very Good! I'll try Katherine's suggestion of cooking over 2-3 days. Thanks...yummy!

[Cindy]

I have a suggestion about the cabbage - instead of boiling it I usually cut out the core a little then pop it into the microwave say for around 5-8 minutes on high.
Peel off the outer leaves and continue until you have the softened leaves that you need.

[K C]

instead of cabbage, try layering with thin zucchini and eggplant slices that have been Pre-baked in oven to remove some of the water content...yummy