Learning to cook healthy meals is an enriching experience in a great many ways.

In our third class of the semester, Bayard chef Glorielys Gonzalez found she was even richer than she expected.

The class was cooking an international recipe for Polish Stuffed Cabbage known as Golabki.

One of the first things chefs have to do is peel off the biggest leaves from the round head of cabbage so they can be “blanched” and softened in boiling water.

Glorielys thought it was great fun to harvest the leaves this way, and then her imagination took over to show how “enriching” the experience was.

“Look! I’ve got money!” she announced, fanning the bright green leaves out in front of her face. “It looks like money!!”

It’s always great when young chefs use their imagination to share what they are learning about the look, feel, smell and taste of foods.

And indeed, the bright green leaves of Napa cabbage DID look like beautiful fresh Benjamins straight from the bank.

Seeing what Glorielys had, Liam Ortiz Espiritu wanted some money, too, and the two of them soon were laughing wildly as they divided and displayed their cache of “cash.”

The Golubki recipe is fun to make for young chefs, because it has lots of unusual steps beyond cutting and measuring.

Even the name is fun — pronounced (Ga-LOP-key) — and our class loved learning that the family of a Polish friend of Mr. Peter had an even funnier name, calling the rolled cabbage “Piggies.”

Even the name is fun — pronounced (Ga-LOP-key) — and our class loved learning that the family of a Polish friend of Mr. Peter had an even funnier name, calling the rolled cabbage “Piggies.”

“That name was hilarious,” Liam said.

The name put our class in a great mood, and there was a lot of joyful laughter as the chefs diced and sautéed onions, peppers, garlic and celery, added ground turkey and covered it all with rich tomato sauce and fresh dill.

“I got to stir … and stir … and stir…” Yeremy Munoz said enthusiastically, “and after I was done stirring I got to wrap up the little cabbage thingies and then we got to eat the cabbage thingies.”

Wrapping “the little cabbage thingies” was the highlight of the class for everyone in Week 3.

“My favorite part was when we put the turkey in the cabbage and rolled it up,” Yohana Almonte said.

“We held it together with toothpicks!” Liam exclaimed. “I had three!”

The assembly was such fun, that Glorielys and Yeremy started “just singing a song and vibing,” she said.

“We were singing ‘California Gurls,’” Yeremy explained later. “We were having a good time.”

And how was this unusual, international, fun-to-make recipe?

“I liked the food,” Liam said. “It was really good.”

“It was very, very, very, very good,” Yohana declared, adding three extra “very’s” to stress her point.

“It was really tasty,” Yeremy asserted. “I loved it. The cabbage not only was good it was healthy.”

Nathan Sanchez liked making the recipe so much he started copying it into his notebook to take to his mom.

“The class was really good,” he said after we gave him the class copy of the recipe.

“The best cooking class ever!” Yohana exclaimed as she headed out the door at the end of the day.