I like to go on and on about my coworkers because they really are wonderful people. The occasional bad day at work is always mitigated by their warmth, friendliness and humour.
The fact that many of them are fabulous cooks and bakers also helps.
One particular coworker is dear to my heart (for many reasons) because of the wonderful stories she has of growing up in a close-knit family where food was at the heart of it all.
On one occasion, we happened to be talking about food traditions and she mentioned her mother’s cabbage rolls.
I am somewhat of a cabbage roll fiend in that I love them and love to hear about them. Strangely, though, we rarely make them in my family. My grandmother would make them from time to time but it’s not a dish in my mother’s repertoire and for some reason, I’ve just never stepped up to the plate (no pun intended) and tried them myself.
Well one thing led to another and before you know it my coworker and I had booked a day for me to travel to her home where she would enlighten me with her family’s recipe for cabbage rolls.
At this point, I feel that I should have paragraphs to share with you about the glory of cabbage rolls and what a life-changing event this was but the fact of the matter is that it was an enjoyable day spent with a lovely friend making comforting cabbage rolls. And that’s about it. I could say more, but that would be like adding too much filling to a cabbage roll: unnecessary.
Instead, I give you a photo journal of the process.
Cabbage Rolls 101
We started off by gathering all the ingredients, which included cabbage, rice, butter, cooked ground meat, onions and eggs (hard to see in the picture but they’re there).
We got to work by adding the eggs to the cooled filling mixture and onions.
In goes the uncooked rice.
With our filling done, we got to work by carefully coring the cabbage.
The cabbage then took a dip in a pot of simmering water.
As the leaves began to soften, we gently separated them from the core.
The separated leaves were transferred to a baking tray to cool and drain.
We carefully removed the top of the thick stem at the base of the cabbage leaves (the part attached to the core.)
We began filling the rolls by placing some of the filling in the top part of the cabbage leaf.
The roll begins by first rolling the uppermost part of the leaf over the filling.
After completing a roll the edges of the leaf are tucked in.
The end result is a tightly rolled, neat looking cabbage roll that’s placed in a baking dish to wait for all its little friends.
All our rolls in a row!
We topped the rolls with tomato sauce and seasoning.
Our rolls went into the oven (covered with foil wrap), where the liquid was absorbed until the rolls were nice and tender and ready to be served.
I want to extend the warmest of thanks to my dear friend and coworker and by extension her mom and sisters who offered much advice and many tips!
Ciao!
Cabbage Rolls
Recipe courtesy of a dear coworker.Makes between 36 and 40 cabbage rolls.
1 lb ground beef
½ lb ground veal
½ lb ground pork
salt and pepper to taste
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large eggs
½ cup long grain rice, uncooked
1 to 2 small heads green cabbage (depending on how many cabbage rolls you want to make)
1 16 oz can crushed tomatoes
water (if the tomatoes are not enough to cover your rolls, you can add water)
½ tsp. oregano**You can use oregano, basil, paprika, chili pepper or any other spices that you like in the quantity you like.
1. In a large sauté pan, cook the meat over medium heat until browned (there should be no pink visible in the meat). Season the meat with salt and pepper to taste. Drain the meat (it release some juice during cooking) and place in a large bowl to cool slightly.
2. Wipe out the sauté pan and add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Cook the onions on low heat until they are soft and translucent. Let the onions cool and then add to the cooked meat.
3. Add the minced garlic, eggs, uncooked rice and any spices that you’re using to the meat and onion mixture. Mix thoroughly and set aside to cool.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two baking dishes (13 x 9-inch or whatever size you have).
5. In a large pot, bring a few inches of water to a boil.
6. Core the cabbage as best you can, being careful not to damage the leaves.
7. Carefully place the cored cabbage in the boiling water. Let the cabbage sit in the boiling water for a few minutes and then, using a sharp knife and a set of tongs, gently cut away each leaf and let it fall in the water as you cut it from the core. (The consistency of the cabbage shouldn’t be too soft or too stiff, but somewhere in between so that you can easily roll the leaves when stuffing them).
8. Once the leaves fall into the water, remove them to a large cookie sheet lined with paper towel to drain.
9. When cabbage has cooled slightly, take a paring knife and remove the thick spine on each cabbage leaf (this is the part of the cabbage leaf that was attached to the core).
10. Place the cabbage leaf flat on a plate or on the counter and put approximately one tablespoon of the meat filling in the centre of the leaf leaf and roll once, forming a tight fold over the filling. Tuck in the sides and then roll the leaf the rest of the way. Place seam side down in a baking dish (we used two 9 x 13-inch pyrex baking dishes).
11. Once all of the rolls have been formed and placed in the dish, cover with the crushed tomatoes and sprinkle on the spices of your choice and bake at 350 degrees F. for approximately 30 minutes. The cabbage rolls are done once most of the liquid has been absorbed and they feel soft when pierced with a fork.
12. Let the cabbage rolls cool slightly before serving.
13. Enjoy!
39 comments
Rita
What a helpful post! I always wanted to make those, but never really got around doing it.
Arlette
your cabbage rolls (we don’t use pork-we mix lamb and beef) and the way your prepare them are similar to the Lebanese .
seems both of us are thinking about dolmas(stuffed vegetables) these days, last night I posted the Lebanese Stuffed Grape Leaves.
I enjoy your blog very much, it was one of the reasons, I started mine.
thank you Arlette
Wandering Coyote
I LOVE cabbage rolls. My mom used to make them and they were so good!
pelin
I love cabbage rolls. In fact in our country we also make it approximately by the same recipe. there some differences of course,for example we make it smalIer and we put uncooked meat .I am very surprised to see that you cook cabbage rolls too. By the way I reallya fan of your blog .
Lien
I love cabbage rolls, I made them very often… once, before my children told me they hated cabbage… maybe I’ll make it again soon, you never know if they like it now. At least I would a lot! Wonderful step-by-step pictures.
peabody
I am hoping that I could get my husband to eat cabbage this way! Looks good.
Sally
I’m with Rita on this one – I love them but never made them figuring they were too “difficult”. Thanks for the step-by-step instructions.
Katie
Oh wow, they look like bigger versions of stuffed vine leaves, and I LOVE stuffed vine leaves. Therefore, bigger is certainly better!
I will defiantly be stealing this recipe, in the very near future hopefully!
Katie xox
Ben
I love any recipe that replaces carbs for a healthy green leaf. Lovely pictures, I know what I am making for dinner tomorrow night 🙂
MyKitchenInHalfCups
Gosh Ivonne yes I need to do cabbage rolls again. My grandmother made them always, my mother I don’t think ever 😉 That may say something about cooking in the 50’s.
I know Gorn would enjoy this. He loves it when dinner is in the oven and I can sit with him.
Mira
It brought tears to my eyes to see my sisters hands work the cabbage just like Mom…way to go! What a great website.
VeggieGirl
NOSTALGIA ALERT!! My mom always made the best cabbage rolls 😀
Sarah
Watching you make these was like being in the kitchen with my mom… we used to do these all the time back in the day (though I despised them as a kid). Thanks for the memories!
Kim from Toronto Canada
Hello Ivonne…
My Mom has made cabbage rolls for years and her recipe is similar but she uses gr.beef only and adds grated carrot in with the onions, and makes a sweet and sour tomato sauce using br sugar and vinegar with sauteed onions on top. Now, my sweet hubby doesn’t really like her sauce and prefers savoy cabbage with a veal only filling, like Ma makes (of course!) I am definitely going to try this receipe, thanks so much for sharing. Kim
Maria
I’ve never made cabbage rolls, sounds like fun!
Maria Jose
M e ha gustado muchisimo tu paso a paso, solo puedo decir bravo!!! es una receta que copio con tu permiso…besos
snooky doodle
What a nice dish! I m not a cabbage fan (sounds funny 🙂 but baked like this I think I ll eat them. Look really good. Nice friends you ve got 🙂
Jenny
What excellent timing! My husband was asking me for these just the other day and I did not have a recipe to go to for it. Guess I will have to make them now. 🙂
Carolyn T at tastingspoons.com
Hi Ivonne – just in case you’d enjoy making a really, REALLY simple version of cabbage rolls, I posted a story about it recently.
http://tastingspoons.com/archives/933
These aren’t done in the traditional way – they’re un-rolled ones – basically steamed cabbage served with the filling (with all the appropriate flavors included) and you just spoon the sauce over the cabbage. Takes less than an hour to make start to finish. I thought it was delicious and will definitely make them again. It was a magazine recipe.
Jerry
These look like great cabbage rolls – so often they are full of rice but little else. Ewww
thereddeer
I used to love cabbage rolls – but then one day I found my grandmother’s band-aid in one – ewww.
cakebrain
Oh boy…cabbage rolls! I haven’t made them in ages! and I love them so much. They are a labour of love…kind of time-consuming to make. Yours looks absolutely delicious!
Scintilla@Bell'avventura
Thanks for the tip on how to separate the cabbage leaves!
I’ve always made them with the wrinkly type of cabbage because I couldn’t get the leaves apart without tearing them!
gastroanthropologist
Thanks for posting this. I’m desperate for cabbage recipes as its always in my veg box and I’m running out of things to make! Looks delicious.
tina
I LOOOOOOVE Cabbage Rolls! Love’ em! I must confess to almost never making them at home now that the kids are gone and just two gather around the table, it seems silly to have an army of food that if the truth be told only one person actually enjoys! I order them out when I see them on the menu somewhere but confess to being most disappointed when they arrive.
Yours look delicious and upon careful consideration find no reason at all why you couldn’t make ‘a few’ just to make ME smile.
Consider me on the case!
brilynn
Comfort food indeed! The cabbage rolls look great! Reminds me I need to make things like lasagna…
Deanne
Mmmmmm, I love cabbage rolls. My mom, grandma, and I have perfected a similar recipe. We use sage and now I am thinking it would be a good meal for the weekend.
Sue from Atlanta
I adore stuffed cabbage, one of my all time favorite things to cook, I make them slightly different then you…I pre-cook the rice (al dente) and then layer the rolls into a crock pot…I add a bit of dark brown sugar to my tomato sauce and let them cook all day…They are so good you can’t eat enough of them…
Nurit - 1 family. friendly. food.
I couldn’t stand Cabbage Rolls as a child, but now I crave them. Same goes for stuffed peppers.
Arlene
Thank youfor this tutorial. The last time I made stuffed cabbage, I didn’t like the way they turned out. I’ve always used cooked rice, but will try these next week when I’ve shopped for the ingredients. I guess you don’t remove the vein; that’s what bothered me.
breadchick
OH man I love Cabbage Rolls and it is one of the dishes I can’t wait to make the week after St. Patrick’s Day as a great way to use up left over cabbage. OH yum….
tigerlille
Lovely tutorial, lovely, comforting dish. I’m with the lady who adds grated carrots to the filling; I add raisins too, and yes, I also use a sweet and sour tomatoe sauce. Really, the tomatoe sauce is key if you want a truly flavorful dish. Othewise it is rather bland, but bland has its’ meris too.
Monique in TX
If you like cabbage rolls, you can achieve the same taste without the blanching, rolling, etc. Just mix rice, tomato, spices, cooked meat and onion, shredded cabbage, raw rice, and water in a big ovenproof casserole. Bake covered, at 350, stirring once, until cabbage is soft and rice is cooked, about an hour. Nummmmm.
marilyn
as a personal chef, i developed a stuffed cabbage recipe for my clients. to my delight, it was a huge hit. for all who love stuffed cabbage, i offer you this version using ground lamb. saute lamb, onion, garlic, finely chopped carrots and zucchini, pine nuts, currants, some oregano or thyme, and cooked short grain brown rice. follow the directions in this post for filling the cabbage and top with a simple tomato sauce with a bit of lemon juice and brown sugar added for that wonderful sweet and sour effect! bake, eat, enjoy!
Michelle Smith
I really like this recipe, i did not use the veal but put in extra beef instead. The only problem that I had with this recipe was that I had to cook it for an extra 20 minutes to get the rice done, which in turn, dried out the meat. Also with the 30 minute cook time I felt that the cabbage was not done enough for my personal taste, but I am from Georgia and we cook all our vegetables to death anyway. I think that next time I am gonna try either cooking the rice b4 putting it in the meat filling, or at least par-boiling it. I did like the recipe overall and they were very beautiful to serve, I served them to my husband for Father’s Day and he loved them onced I got the rice done that is. I also used a little more tomato sauce than requested, but I feel that is a matter of personal taste. Thank you for a great recipe and the step by step guide was a tremendous help.
GEORGE
HI ALL TRY PUTTING CABBAGE IN FREZER AND PULL IT OUT A DAY BE FORE YOU NEED IT AND YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO
BOIL IT AT ALL IT WORKS GREAT JUST A HINT
Ania
Hi, in Poland we call this: “gołąbki” that means “pigeons”. I have no idea why ;)And here is link with my recipe, invite:
http://pszczolkowegotowanie.blox.pl/tagi_b/5234/golabki.html
Greetings!
tanya
hello,
when i cook my cabbage rolls the cabbage itself is always chewy and hard when i take them out of the oven. icook them in liquid for a long time but this always happens. any tips?
admin
Hi Tanya – Not sure what to suggest here. Maybe try cooking them a bit less?
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