Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
A classic and flavorful recipe, these Stuffed Cabbage Rolls are a dinner recipe everyone loves and they always come back for seconds!
AN EASY CABBAGE ROLL RECIPE
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls are a classic, comforting recipe that has been around for ages. They are really easy to make and use easily available ingredients that you can find at your local grocery store. They are a great dinner or even appetizer recipe. With a tasty filling that is wrapped in cabbage and surrounded by a tomato based sauce, you can create a truly filling meal that feeds an entire family with affordable ingredients. If you haven’t made Cabbage Rolls in a while or have never tried them, go grab the ingredients and make it tonight!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Sugar cuts down on the acidity of the tomatoes. You’ll find nearly all good tomato sauce recipes have a little bit of sugar to balance out the flavors.
Instead of microwaving, you can cook the whole cabbage in a large pot of boiling salted water until the leaves are soft enough to remove without tearing. Or you may remove the leaves and cook the leaves in boiling salted water for about 3 minutes each.
Keep it simple since the stuffed cabbage rolls are a pretty filling meal by themselves. Steamed or roasted broccoli, corn on the cob, egg noodles, German spaetzle, garlic bread and/or a salad.
Yes, they will still be delicious with just the ground beef. Use 1 pound of ground beef and don’t worry about the pork. Keep everything else the same.
Yes, you can cover and refrigerate or freeze the cabbage rolls unbaked. When they are filled, placed in the pan, and covered in tomato sauce, you may then keep them in the fridge for a day before baking, or in the freezer for up to a month before baking.
Yes. The meat will fully cook in the oven when you are baking the cabbage rolls.
Cabbage rolls can be frozen. Place in a freezer container and they will keep for up to 1 month. Let defrost in the refrigerator overnight. If you just want to store leftovers, place them in an airtight container where they will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR THE FULL RECIPE)
- cooked white rice
- cabbage
- ground beef
- ground pork
- onion
- parsley
- salt and pepper
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- tomato soup
- diced or crushed tomatoes
- sugar
HOW TO COOK STUFFED CABBAGE ROLLS:
Spray a 9×13-inch baking pan. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Use a long, thin knife to remove the core from the head of the cabbage.
Place the cabbage in a covered microwave-safe dish with ½ cup of water. Cook on high power for 5 minutes.
Turn the cabbage over and cook for another 10 minutes. Drain the water out of the cabbage bowl completely and allow it to cool enough to handle.
Then, peel the leaves off one at a time and allow them to dry and fully cool on a kitchen towel.
While the cabbage is cooling, stir together the ingredients to fill the rolls. Combine the rice, ground beef, ground pork, chopped onion parsley, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. Set this aside.
Mix the tomato soup, diced/crushed tomatoes, and sugar in a separate bowl. Set this aside.
Pat the cabbage leaves dry with paper towels. Remove the hard ridges in the center of the cabbage leaves with a knife, creating two separate pieces.These would be very difficult to roll up.
Taking one cabbage leaf at a time, place about 1 ½ to 2 Tablespoons of filling into each leaf.
Roll up the leaf and tuck the ends under.
Pour half of your sauce in the base of the dish.
Place rolls seam-side down into the baking dish. Place the cabbage rolls in two long rows, close to each other. (If your dish is smaller and you must layer the cabbage rolls, cover each layer with some tomato sauce.) Then pour the tomato sauce overall.
Cover the pan tightly with tin foil and bake for 90 minutes.
Let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving.
CRAVING MORE RECIPES?
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 large head cabbage
- ¾ cup cooked white rice
- ½ pound ground beef
- ½ pound ground pork
- 1 small onion, small diced
- 1 Tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 10 ounce can tomato soup
- 15 ounce can diced or crushed tomatoes
- ½ teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
- Use a long thin knife to remove the core from 1 large head cabbage.
- Place the cabbage in a covered microwave-safe dish with ½ cup of water. Cook on high power for 5 minutes.
- Turn the cabbage over and cook for another 10 minutes. Drain the water out of the cabbage bowl completely and allow it to cool enough to handle.
- Then, peel the leaves off one at a time and allow them to dry and fully cool on a kitchen towel.
- While the cabbage is cooling, stir together the ingredients to fill the rolls. Combine ¾ cup cooked white rice, ½ pound ground beef, ½ pound ground pork, 1 small onion, small diced, 1 Tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ tsp garlic powder, ½ teaspoon onion powder and ½ teaspoon pepper.Set this aside.
- In a separate bowl, mix 10 ounce can tomato soup, 15 ounce can diced or crushed tomatoes and ½ teaspoon sugar. Set this aside.
- Pat the cabbage leaves dry with paper towels. Remove the hard ridges in the center of the cabbage leaves with a knife, creating two separate pieces. These would be very difficult to roll up.
- Taking one cabbage leaf at a time, place about 1 ½ to 2 Tablespoons of filling into each leaf.
- Roll up the leaf and tuck the ends under.
- Pour half of your sauce in the base of the dish.
- Place rolls seam-side down into the baking dish. Place the cabbage rolls in two long rows, close to each other. (If your dish is smaller and you must layer the cabbage rolls, cover each layer with some tomato sauce.)
- Then pour the tomato sauce over all of them.
- Cover the pan tightly with tin foil and bake for 90 minutes.
- Let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
- All beef can be used in this recipe instead of a beef and pork mixture.
- Make sure you are using cooked rice.
- You can use diced or crushed tomatoes.
- The sugar added to the tomato sauce cuts down the acidity.
- These can be frozen, see my tips above.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
These were delicious! The only thing that I added was a couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and minced garlic to the meat mixture. Family love them!
That is so wonderful to hear Nancy – thanks so very much!
This recipe is excellent. They are just like my Mom made. My husband couldn’t believe how good they were and he is a picky eater.
Recipe sounds amazing and I will give it a whirl. I have been craving me some cabbage rolls recently and bought a cabbage a couple of days ago in preparation for making some. I have made cabbage rolls a few times and always struggle with separating the leaves. I like your idea of using the microwave. What I have done, with success, was freezing the entire cabbage, thawing it and then pulling off the leaves – no need to blanch or cook (read: no cabbage-y smell permeating the house!). Another tip I read and tried was instead of cutting out the thick ridge was to shave off some of it so that it is flat like the remainder of the leaf. Much easier to roll. Finally….I do not eat beef but I do eat venison so have made these with that…as well as using ground chicken or turkey. All are great! Thanks for your recipe – I have printed off so many of your recipes, I need to create a folder just for your creations!!!
Freezing is an excellent idea as well! I will give that a try next time!