Hello CharlieD and the others. I'm glad Discuss Cooking called me back to this thread. I'm a total gringo when it comes to these various food groups, and not much of a cook at that. For the family here in Ohio, USA, I taught myself about preparing the cabbage so it would roll nicely into cabbage rolls and learned to do a decent job of it. Then the grandchildren unroll all this work, scrape out the little bit of meat and eat that. The cabbage leaves go into the garbage and I hate to throw food away So I stopped and CharlieD taught me about his lazy cabbage roll recipe, which the grandchildren like, cabbage and all. Me? I like cabbage, never had any I didn't like - raw, boiled, cured into sauerkraut, fried, what ever.
I have tried beet leaves but by the time the beets reach the market here the leaves are in sad condition and that was a waste of time. I had not thought to try all those various leaves but I think I'll stick with cabbage. Thanks for all the information - and especially the photos (I need photos to see what all this food should look like) and thanks for the video about the Serbian food festival. OH MY! Thanks everyone.
One question - are grape leaves worth the hassle? I would have to find some that are sold in a jar and I know they are somewhat expensive.