The Spicy Spatula

The holiday season is here and in Romania that means you’ll run into sarmale pretty much everywhere you go from family gatherings to weddings, funerals, and even just a drop-in on unsuspecting family or friends.

I’ve been married for longer than I’ve been vegan so the first time I tried sarmale I was hooked. I’d had it before I had dolma so it kind of set the standard. Back then we still lived in the United States but my husband had a large community of Romanians around and yeah, there was sarmale pretty much everywhere.

I loved it.

I still do.

With exceptions.

My mother-in-law is the best and she’s made variations of vegan sarmale for us over the years with mushrooms, chopped vegetables and even vegan meat alternatives. Last year, my hubs even made a deconstructed sarmale, which was delicious and went over quite well with the teenagers in the family. Who knew?!?!?!

This year I spotted this vegan version in the grocery store! It’s not all that surprising because Kaufland is a German company and there is a large vegan population in Germany, which is also where we lived when we went vegan.

But I found them and had to get them and try them out.

How Was It?

The easy answer is…not bad. This particular product was actually done well. The cabbage wasn’t too vinegary and the vegetables were cooked well, and honestly it just needed an extra pinch of salt to bring out the taste of the individual vegetables, which was hard to add after cooking so really that’s my only complaint.

The sarmale was the perfect size for 2 bites so you don’t really have to cut it if you don’t want to. This is one of my biggest issues with sarmale, is that once you cut into it, it kind of just explodes and now it’s a casserole.

How To Cook It?

I placed it in a small ramekin and baked it in the oven for about 10 minutes. I used the extra cabbage provided as a bed to avoid sticking and place it on top, covering the ramekin with aluminum foil so it would sort of steam rather than bake.

That did the trick. It was warm all the way through, no problems.

What To Eat With It?

Traditionally you’ll find sarmale as part of a meal: sarmale cu mamaliga which is sarmale with polenta. And since I recently discovered a new way to enjoy polenta, I made polenta cakes to go with it.

And you can’t have sarmale without muraturi on the side. Muraturi are just picked veggies but they don’t taste like any other pickled vegetables I’ve had before. My favorite is the cauliflower and cabbage, but sometimes the tomatoes are really good as well. And the pickles? Well I’m from Chicago and a pickle girl so there’s no surprise that I love them madly.

Verdict

It was good and I have no regrets about it. Would I buy it again? Probably not because all of my Romanian family members always make a small vegan portion for me and the hubs and they taste the same or better, plus they’re made with love!