alex’s mom’s stuffed cabbage
And really, I have all sorts of places to blame for how long it has taken me to actually make the recipe at home. The first is Neptune on 1st Avenue, only my favorite place to sit outside for beers in the summertime and if you think that stuffed cabbage can’t taste good after a few Polish beers on a warm night, you obviously haven’t tried it yet. (With a side of kielbasa and pierogis, thank you.) The second is Veselka, also in the East Village — this is where I go for my winter stuffed cabbage fix. (Also cabbage soup. Small hands… smell like cabbage. Nobody else gets that, do they?) And the third is Alex’s mom herself, who often brings us extra that she has made, rendering it completely unnecessary for me to make any effort whatsoever to decipher my four year-old notes.
Alas, this week it brutally cold and officially Time to break it out. And of course my notes made no sense but fortunately with some phone counseling I think I did alright for a newbie. What I forgot to do — dry the cabbage leaves — led to a too watery sauce and also I under-seasoned it — I hate that. But it’s not like you could test uncooked beef. — and yet it was still totally delicious. And I love it when I try to break recipes and they still come out well. I consider it a good omen.
One year ago: Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares
Two years ago: Miniature Soft Pretzels and Sour Cream Bran Muffins
Alex Mom’s Stuffed Cabbage
1 head Savoy cabbage
1 pound ground beef
1 small to medium onion, chopped small
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 carrot, shredded
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1 parsnip, shredded
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 to 2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 to 4 cups of your favorite simple tomato sauce, tomato juice or V8
Cut the core out of the cabbage but leave it whole. Place it, with the empty core area facing up, in a large bowl. Boil a small pot of water and pour the water over the cabbage and let it sit for ten minutes.
Heat the oil in a saute pan. (I like to use the large one I will cook the final dish in — a deep 12-inch saute pan — to save dishes.) Cook the onions until they are soft, add the carrot, celery and parsnip and saute them for a couple extra minutes — until they are also soft. Season the mixture with salt and pepper, transfer it to a bowl and let it cool a bit. Mix in the meat, rice and tomato paste and season again with salt and pepper.
Drain the head of cabbage. Pull off large leaves, cut out the large vein — if the leaf is very large, you can make two rolls from each, if it is smaller, you can cut the vein out partially and pull the sides to overlap before you roll it into one roll. Pat the leaves dry with towels. Roll about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of filling in each leaf (depending on the size of your leaf) and arrange in a large, wide pot. Pour in enough juice or sauce to cover the rolls. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat, letting them simmer covered on the stove on low for about 45 minutes. Serve immediately. If sauce has thinned a bit, you can heat up any additional sauce you didn’t use and pour it over as you serve the rolls.
[These also freeze very well.]
I read this on eGullet somewhere, I think, but I remember a chef suggesting that you take a bit of the meat (which is easy to do since you’re using mince here), sticking it on a plate and microwaving it.
The texture won’t be right, but you should be able to taste for seasonings that way.
1 small to medium onion? chopped small? Can’t think of what else the mystery ingredient might be. :-)
May – I do that with any meat mixture I am making for meatballs, stuffing, etc. I make a tiny patty and saute it to check for seasoning – especially for salt.
Carneys…small hands…smell like cabbage :)
Carnie people small hands smell like cabages. One of our favorite quotes
Looks very very good! Cabbage is not sour (pickeld), is it? I know a course (cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and minced meat) named “sarma” made from sour cabbage – it is a dream:)
Oh how I miss my grandmother’s stuffed cabbage.
She made it for Rosh Hashanah, and it was Jewish style, stuffed with meat and rice, but with a cinnamon stick and crushed GINGERSNAPS!!! The sweet way with raisins too!
Have you ever heard of that one? in a tomato sauce.
It was my favorite. I have never attempted it.
I am so glad that you mentioned these freeze well. We have my father-in-law for dinner every Sunday. My hubby and father-in-law love anything cabbage- but they’re the only ones. I think I will make this for them next Sunday and put the rest in the freezer. Perfect! And I just may have to try it as it is filled with such yummy stuff!
This looks absolutely delicious. I’m definitely going to try it. Thanks for the laugh with the Austin Powers reference!
Would a garlic clove and maybe 1/4 cup of parmesan be out of place here?
What kind of rice are we talking – brown, long grain white, “quick cooking”? I wonder if we can substitute quinoa since it cooks just like rice but has more protien?
I’m going to put this on next weekend’s menu!
I’ve cooked cabbage rolls Scandinavian style: filled with rice, shredded cabbage and ground beef. Thanks for the idea to switch things around a bit, and use veggies and tomato sauce. Cabbage rolls are usually under-appreciated , they are really good and worth the work!
mmm… these look fantastic!! I’ve never had cabbage rolls so I’m looking forward to trying them.
Wow I’ve never been to Neptune on first ave…perhaps I’ll give it a try!
Love, love family recipes. There’s a whole group on flickr that collects them:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/heritagecookbook/
My nana makes awesome cabbage rolls, but they are called halupki and slightly different. They add sauerkraut to the tomato sauce and don’t include carrot or parsnip in the mix. Soooo good. I keep looking for large heads of cabbages in the Farmer’s Markets down here, but they’ve been too small all winter.
Though nana would kill me if I made someone else’s recipe, I think that the addition of veggies in the mix is something worth trying.
I just woke up and am still pretty groggy, so I was so confused when I saw this.
My fiances name is Alex, I posted version of his (Hungarian) mother’s stuffed cabbage in November, and when I saw your post, I was like what? Who made Alexs moms stuffed cabbage??
Anyway, yours look delicious, I might try grating the veggies next time.
These are “go??bki” in Polish. I made them hundreds of times with my mom when I was a kid. Yours look really impressive!!! May I ask, from where does your mother-in-law come from?
oups…the polish signs didn’t apear, I meant “golabki”, of course ;-)
It also helps to put a heatproof plate on the cabbage and press it down before you cover the pan and leave everything to simmer — to weigh the cabbage down and keep it compact and under control. I find it incredibly difficult to stuff cabbage and vine leaves elegantly, so my hat off to anyone who’s got the knack.
Oh Austin Powers, what a good laugh. Haven’t heard that phrase in long time! Never tried stuffed cabbage, shame on myself being Polish and all.
My aunt makes such lovely cabbage rolls, I don’t think hers has veggies though. Since leaving home I’ve not had any (as she used to routinely bring extra to my parents). I’ve been looking at the cabbage heads in our supermarket longingly the past while, I think I might try this! With the addition of garlic. My life is not complete without garlic. heh. And it’s really good to know they freeze well as it’s just the two of us!
I’m glad you finally got the chance to make these. They look great! My Hungarian MIL sometimes adds a can of tomato rice soup to hers too. Weird, but very tasty. I’m wondering what kind of rice you used. Does it matter?
Also, I love Stacey’s idea of adding cinnamon & raisins. That sounds really nice!
Deb, I’ve never had stuffed cabbage before – but they look great. Question: how are they rolled… Like burritos, with one set of edges folded in and the other edges folded over? And the they just stay stuck together after cooking? Or am I missing something? Thanks!
circus folk….
May: (and in a way, also Deb) I don’t get it. What’s the problem with tasting a little uncooked meat? It’s not gonna kill ya. And can actually be pretty tasty. :)
YUMMmmmmm. These are a staple in my very large Polish family. It makes me want to make them myself. Our ’secret’ is to line the pot with bacon (just for flavor) while cooking. It adds a fantastic, smokey richness to them. We also freeze the whole head of cabbage for about an hour, then peel the leaves off before steaming them — it allows the leaves to come off perfectly without burning your hands. My grandmother uses a mixture of beef, pork and veal for the filling, but we ususally use whatever is available. Your pictures are gorgeous, by the way. Totally mouth-watering. I’ll have to try it with the veggies inside! It looks delicious!
Stuffed cabbage is a very typically Egyptian dish — we make it here all the time and sometimes make it a bit spicy which is fabulous!
These look delish too!
Interesting…my Polish/Lithuanian grandmother has a recipe quite similar to this but we call them stuffed pigeons (don’t ask me why…). She substitutes condensed tomato soup (campbell’s) for tomato sauce/paste and doesn’t use parnsips.
I love stuffed cabbage. We call it “piggies.” I’m also a fan of “fake piggies,” where you make meatballs out of the stuffing, chop the cabbage, put everything in a pan with the sauce and stick it in the oven. All the flavors, none of the work!
Deb, I adore you, but this is stuffed cabbage sacrilege!! Being Romanian and having my own recipe, I of course assume that every other recipe is an abomination. Melrose probably had our version – sarmale.
First you pickle the cabbage leaves by boiling the entire heads in a huge lobster pot with lots of salt and lemon. The stuffing is made by grinding your own lamb shoulder (beef?? atrocious!), then mixing it with a mixture of sauteed onions, rice, tomato paste, and VEGETA! (It’s the secret ingredient that ensures a perfectly seasoned dish. I have no idea what’s in it, but it’s magic. I get mine at the local middle eastern market. It comes in a blue can.)
Next, roll the mixture in the pickled leaves. One leaf should yield at least 2 rolls – they should be the size of your pinky, not a coke can! A friend of mine who makes the most perfect sarmale learned her rolling technique from Romanian monks. Layer them in your biggest Le Creuset (sauerkraut optional); then cover with a mixture of water, tomato paste, and more VEGETA! (Mixture should be very runny, not pasty at all, and use water, not chicken broth!)
Boil them on the stove for half an hour, then finish them off in the oven until most of the liquid has evaporated. I eat them with gallons of sour cream and polenta, but I don’t think that the sour cream is traditional.
Sarmale are a labor of love, and one batch takes me around eight hours (rolling 500 pinkies does not go quickly!) They freeze like little miracles of deliciousness. This is a traditional Romanian holiday dish, and I’m still eating through my Christmas batch. Thanks for sharing your recipe, and thanks for letting me vent about my own. It makes me so happy to think of my traditional Romanian dishes. :)
I find it so fascinating how all of these (for me) comfort foods are make differently from one person/culture to the next. My family are very Ukrainian and our pierogies and cabbage rolls are different from most Polish ones. I even discovered that Canadian/Ukrainians do things differently still… My Aunts and Uncles would occasionally have family competitions to see who makes the best :) I always preferred my Mom’s cabbage rolls though… she uses rice, ground beef, bacon, and onion in the filling – that’s pretty much it but it’s OH SO TASTEY! She also cooks the onion beef and bacon first and then tosses in the rice just to brown it slightly. That would allow a person to check the seasoning too. Thanks for sharing and making my hungry!
I have never heard of stuffed cabbage- i like that you have two places that you regularly visit for such a dish. They look good though- kind alike egg rolls. = )
This is very, very close to my Mom’s recipe, something I haven’t had in years, unfortunately, due to both distance and her arthritis. She would also add some of the real link breakfast pork sausage to the pot and they would be come out oh-so-tender. and I think maybe stretched out the pot for a family of 8. Add some mashed potatoes and it’s dinner! Thanks for the memories!
austin powers!
Memories…like the corners of my mind
My mom used to make these when I was a kid, but I have never made them and haven’t eaten them for years. I will add them to the menu for this week. Thanks for the memories…
Oh, that third ingredient is an onion, right?
The third ingredient is an onion — now fixed!
Rice questions: Just general, everyday rice works — Uncle Bens, whatever you have. I am sure other varieties would work, but we just use the basic stuff.
I now can’t find the question but: Alex’s family is from the Ukraine, so that would be the origin of this dish.
Betsy — Yes, like a burrito.
Thanks ACA — I’ll be sure to tell my mother that her recipe is a “sacrilege”.
I love “golubtsy” and your recipe looks great. For a delicious middle-eastern variant of this, made with lamb and pine nuts, check out Luisa’s post on this (http://wednesdaychef.typepad.com/the_wednesday_chef/2007/03/lambstuffed_cab.html).
These look hearty and delicious. Thanks so much for the new idea.
My Polish wife cooks something very. very similar to this quite often. One day I’ll blog about it, but I’m sure it wont look as appealing as yours!
I was just talking to a friend about how I don’t like cooked greens – collard greens, spinach, cabbage, etc. Truthfully, I’ve never had them made well or in a good recipe. I should make this for my mom, she loves cabbage.
wow, this took me back. We use to eat these growing up. I love them. I guess I need to make some now because I’m drooling.
I can’t find parsnips here at this time of the year (Spain), and I don’t think I’ve seen them around in the market for some years now. Can you think of any substitution?
I’ve read most comments. I’ve tried Romanian and Egyptian style cabbage rolls, and they tasted different, though I loved both. I’d like to give Polish cabbage rolls a try too :-) Thanks for the recipe!
This actually looks a lot like Dominican stuffed cabbage. We also do rice, tomato paste and ground beef in the filling, though ours has garlic. We don’t cook in in tomato sauce, just water, and we put whole allspice in the liquid. My Mom just boils the cabbage for a bit to separate the leaves.
It’s one of my favorite foods, especially since it doesn’t get made that often.
A little nutmeg, cinnamon, or allspice is sooooooo delicious in a stuffed cabbage. Just a teensy pinch is enough. :)
Lovely! This sounds like another case of technique over recipe. Bet you could stuff any number of fillings in those lovely, living wrappers (unless, you were going for replicating specific flavors). Glad you finally tackled it and learned from it as well. I always learn at least one new thing whenever I cook or bake, even if it’s just an idea for a variation later on. Thanks for this:)
For some reason, I have been so wanting to try making cabbage rolls lately! I am definitely bookmarking this, thanks!
Wow! I haven’t thought of stuffed cabbage in a very long time. Now, I can’t stop thinking about them. I’m off to the store for ingredients..
Thanks for sharing.. finally!
;o}
My mum does golabki in a similar way, however she fries the meat first and then adds some sausage/ smoked bacon to the filling.
Never gave me the recipe, though. So… Thank you Deb :)
Maybe sometime in near future I shall master the art of putting things together ;)
These bring back mouthwatering memories of last November’s trip to Eastern Europe. I had both Polish and Hungarian takes on golwubky that left me burstingly full but wanting more! This looks amazing and I’ll be making it soon. The Hungarian stuffed cabbage was covered in a paprika spiced sauerkraut that defied criticism and would have convinced any pickled cabbage non-believer.
Hi Deb,
I just sat down with my bowl of leftover stuffed cabbage for lunch…typed in your website and there it was…my lunch! My recipe is my Mom’s and quite simple: ground meat, rice, parsley flakes, salt and pepper, and paprika…rolled and cooked in the oven in a bath of diced tomatoes and thinned tomato paste…topped off with sour cream. Even on a warm afternoon in Florida it is delicious. What a nice surprise to be in sync with Smitten Kitchen. Thanks for all your great posts! *-)
I stumbled on to your blog today and couldn’t stop reading! I love your writing/recipe/picture! Thank you for putting together such a wonderful food blog.
The cabbage roll looks so good. The recipe seems simple enough to make a quick dinner. I grew up in Taiwan. We actually eat a similar cabbage roll. The only difference is that we don’t cook it in tomato sauce. We just cook in regular stock/soup. Then the cabbage roll is eaten with a sweet chili sauce. I shall try your recipe very soon. ^^
Oh man! I do love cabbage rolls. The ones I’ve eaten aren’t an ethnic icon though. I just make my BettyCrocker porcipine meatballs recipe and roll the mixture into wilted cabbage leaves and simmer them in a tomato based sauce. I’m going to use part of Alex’s Moms’ recipe next time, the grated veggies part, and add it to my mix. Thanks, Deb.
I haven’t had golubzy in years now; mum used to make them while I lived at home, but honestly I think they are a bit too much hustle :) However, there is something called ‘lazy golubzy’, don’t wag your fingers please:), which tastes almost the same and you don’t have to burn your fingers separating the cabbage leaves or wrap them! You just chop the cabbage leaves into large chunks, boil the same way as you do with the ordinary ones, make smallish patties out of the mince mix, then layer with cabbage and cook.
As for the tasting, I remember mum tasting the raw mince with no consequences at all. You can always spit it out:)
I also make these, my grandmother’s recipe handed down from generations and I always like to see how other people make stuffed cabbage. My Great Grandmother who came here from Poland was unbelievable in what she cooked, and of course my father swears her Golabki were the best, even to his own mother! I try not to stear away from the recipe and always find that the cabbage ususally is the culprit, whether it is off season, not tender or too small. I think I will have to repost my recipe. I can tell you that I use a lot of kitchen space, a lot of time and a lot of pots for one final pot to cook them in!
Yum! I grew up on these from my Hungarain grandmother (Bubee). She calls them ‘halupchkas’. I think she uses a drop of sauerkraut and brown sugar/gingerale? perhaps in the sauce. A mild mild pich of cinnamon perhaps in the meat. Don’t know exactly. This is a staple at our Jewish holidays. (then there is the humbler weekday hungarian dish of fried cabbage and onions mixed in with pasta called kapostasz . . . something). When I lived in Israel I grew to love the mediterranean version of this East European/Ukranian stuffed cabbage dish–the yaprach or yabra–it is vegetarian and delicious!!! Stuffed grape leaves or onions with a very lemony rice. Then there is the mediterranean (Syrian) meat version called kubbeh–yum!!! ground lamb/ crushed pine nuts stuffing wrapped by fried buckwheat! On Friday’s I always went to the open aired market in Jerusalem, to Zidkiyahu’s, for these gastronomic delights . . .
o–and I think one of the ’secrets’ of the dish is freezing the cabbage leaves in order for them to hold together well.
This looks like the perfect stuffed cabbage recipe! The last version I made was vegetarian with a lentil and rice filling. I just love savoy cabbage, I really prefer it to traditional green cabbage.
I love stuffed cabbage…At home It’S always been my father who prepared them with on week-ends.I really like your mother in law version:)
I am entertained by all the debates over which ethnicity truly OWNS this dish . I am truly shocked, though, that no one has brought up the smash top 40 hit by the Schmenge Brothers, Yosh and Stan, aka the Happy Wanderers – “Cabbage Rolls and Coffee”!
mmmh, looks great. i remember my mother making a variation of these a few times as i was growing up, i believe she used two kinds of meat and some kind of spice, maybe cinnamon (but it was not any kind of ‘authentic’ eastern european recipe).
i go to veselka often, but i have never had their stuffed cabbage. i will remember next time.
My mother-in-law is Serbian and she taught me her recipe about 5 years ago. It’s my husband’s all time favorite and I am delighted to have it. Our recipe differs in a few ways. Rather than cutting the rib out, we just shave the raised part off, leaving a whole leaf with no gaps to work around. The meat is a mix of 75% ground beef and 25% ground sausage, plus a couple handfuls of uncooked long grain rice. Diced sauteed onions, but no other veggies. Tuck garlic cloves in amongst the cabbage rolls, and add saurkraut with it’s juice to the tomato sauce. I just dump it on top of the rolls and the simmering action helps the shreds work their way down through. We serve them with mashed potatoes. Don’t boil too hard or they’ll unwrap themselves. Fabulous on a cold day! I make a huge batch in the fall and freeze multiple containers to pull out throughout the winter.
This look great, very similar to what my Polish grandmother made, but a lot healthier. She used pork, beef, and veal for the meat mixture. She also used bacon in the bottom of the pan. I’ll have to try this recipe – thanks for sharing!!
I so love cabbage roles. Aren’t they called “Gwumpkies”? Okay – don’t laugh …the spelling is prob. WAY off.. but they are great! My ex-mother in law made,what I thought, were the best. I think I still have the recipe but since then, I’ve gone vegetarian so when I attempt YOUR recipe (or rather your Mother in law’s), I’ll have to sub. with a vegetarian “beef” substitute. They look delish!
I wait with bated breath for every recipe from you, Deb. So I was especially pleased and surprised to see this recipe. My German mother who would have been 100 a couple of Fridays ago made something very similar and called it “Halluption”. Not an appealing-sounding name for such good food. This is one of the recipes that I didn’t inherit, so I’ll give yours a try, and probably add sauerkraut. I could make my own sauerkraut with the “schliessl” (?) I did inherit, along with crocks and cabbage stomper. Cabbage being out of season, however . . .
OK, that sounds awesome, and like something which could make use of all these strange European veggies we get (like parsnips and savoy cabbage). Thanks!
Carnies! I can’t say cabbage without quoting that line!
There must be a million different recipes for cabbage rolls, but all of the ones that I’ve tried have been wonderful. In my family, we layer the rolls in the pot with bacon or slices of pan fried pork and sauerkraut along with tomato juice. Great eating on a cold winter day. Deb, your recipe looks fabulous and I will give it a whirl next time I make cabbage rolls. The veggies look great.
Our family makes stuffed cabbage “Jewish Style”…the family was from Poland and Russia. Always ground beef, raw rice…the inside very similar to yours except no vegetables in it except onions…and then the tomato sauce has some brown sugar and lemon juice to make it sweet and sour and some raisins thrown in….delicious!
I freeze the whole head of cabbage over night…works great, the leaves just come right off and are soft enough to roll…
Joan Nathan has a very good recipe that uses cranberry in the sauce….something a bit different…
Oh, dear Deb! This is such a great topic! Stuffed cabbage that connects all these European nations! (well, I didn’t know about Egyptian stuffed cabbage).
This is the way MY Hungarian mother makes it: she uses a whole head of sour cabbage (that was pickled with the regular sauerkraut) to wrap the filling.
The meat is pork (talking about sacrilege, spec. for Jewish people), mixed with rice, salt pepper and paprika. In a BIG pot she makes layers of sauerkraut, stuffed cab., some smoked pork (ham hocks or sausages or both!!) sauerkraut, stuffed cab, and some more kraut on top,+ few bay leaves, some extra peppercorns, water and she cooks it VERY slowly for many hours.Serves it with sour cream.Tasted even better the next day. It is a typical dish when a pig gets slaughtered and also at Christmastime OR anytime throughout the year.
One thing is sure: my mom never EVER uses VEGETA. That is a commercial spice mix also available in Hungary but one of the ingredients is MSG.
Reading all these comments so far I think we shouldn’t criticize other folks’ stuffed krauts/pigeons/rolls/cabbages but rather be happy that we are “citizens” of this giant melting pot of Culinaria. After all , this dish alone is different from one part of Hungary to another. And it is a small country……
Wishing you many more stuffed cabbages no matter what language they speak! Piroska from sunny New Jersey via Hungary
Tip: To test uncooked beef/pork/chicken filling, I always fry up a little spoonful in a small pan before stuffing. Works for cabbage, dumplings etc. That way I assure that I always get the seasoning right. Thanks for the recipe.
I have a large cabbage in the freezer waiting to be made into golompki, It takes a few days for the cabbage to freeze through. Takes overnight to defrost. The leaves becomes very limp and make rolling a breeze. My secret is using alot of fried onions and lots of ground pepper, but no vegtables. I found that tomato soup makes a nice smooth sauce but tomato juice separates and is more watery. I add extra water to my soup sauce and bake it in the oven for at least 2 hrs. starting the job at 350 then reducing to 325 and then 300F. The sauce will almost disappear during the bake.
Wow! I love stuffed cabbage and I am Chinese. My mother used to make them and they were stuffed with pork, a bit of dried shitake, onion. Hers were a bit on the sweet and sour side, using ketchup I think as a base, but always delicious. I think she had them at some Jewish deli in Los Angeles and created her own version (she tried burritos Chinese style with less success). I have always dreamed of making them but have not had a chance. All the comments are wonderful and I’m completely inspired. Thanks to everyone for the many variations.
My Mum used to make something very similar to these too and I wonder where she learnt because her family is Scottish!
I love all kinds of stuffed cabbage rolls, these ones, middle eastern style ones and a local vietnamese restaurant does a fantastic version with a plum sauce instead of tomato. All so good!
My boyfriend loooves stuffed cabbage, but he is restricted from eating meat for medical reasons. Any suggestions for a different filling for stuffed cabbage, but one that still works?
You can make meatless cabbage rolls. You just need alot of fried onions to give that wonderful flavour. You mix the onions with cooked rice, of your choice, salt & pepper. You can also use buckwheat which is very healthy. Finish baking the same way you would if using meat.
About how many rolls does this typically make? I’m trying to calculate how many weight watchers points it would be :-) Looks delicious and healthy!
This looks very similar to my grandmother’s recipe! Yum! Many happy memories. If you want even MORE flavor, tuck some slices of kielbasa in between the rolls.
Hi Katie — I made (quickly inventories photo of whole pot) 10 or 11. They had about 1/3 cup filling in each.
Deb – These look amazing! My mom makes a dish very similar to these. They are so yummy.
zesty
As usual, I love your recipes, Deb! I get hungry just looking at and reading your blog-always a pleasure during my day to catch up on your new posts.
Anyway, my mother-in-law essentially makes the same dish but it is “reconstructed” (perhaps “exploded”?!) like Katya’s (#51) and she also adds a sweet and sour twist to it with brown sugar and lemon juice. She uses beef (ground sirloin) most of the time, but has made it with fresh ground lamb. My grandmother used to make the stuffed version, also with a sweet and sour touch. My family and that of my husband have grandparents that are from Ukraine as well as Jewish, I have always thought that is why sweet and sour notes appear in so many of our family dishes.
And I just want to add that I love cabbage in any form: stir-fried, steamed, baked, stuffed, in soup, or raw.
(BTW-do you have any knockout borscht recipes? Another one of my favorites!)
I’m curious what you think of Veselka’s pierogis … I went there for the first time this past summer and was surprised at how bad they are. Maybe it was just an off night.
Deb, I’m starting to think we’re related. This looks incredibly similar to my Zaide’s stuffed cabbage…though, I don’t have the recipe in front of me (Kosher dairy kitchen…no point in having meat recipes around), so I’m not positive. We make it once a year on Rosh Hashanah.
We also have the same honey cake and apple cake – though, I think one of those might’ve been an old recipe from the NYTimes.
so excited about the AP quote – I bust it out all the time and very few get it
oh I have a very soft spot for stuffed cabbage. thanks for praising a seriously underrated dish!
cheers,
*heather*
These look delicious! I love cabbage, so I’ll be trying these. Incidentally, I still write in a planner…I’m from the Stone Age apparently!
My family makes these… we are Hungarian and we call them “halupki” or “haloopkey”.
It’s interesting to see how common they are.
Stuffed cabbage is one of my favorite meals of all time, thank you for posting!
looks beautiful. very appropriate for the recession budget. My friend put ginger snaps in hers which was curious. cinnamon with a tinge of added sugar. YUM!
Another variation for this food: use brined cabbage (like Sauerkraut, but whole leaves), add also marjoram and thyme in stuffing and between rolls, and for a smoked taste spread some large pieces of smoked meat between rolls.
I love it when you post these wonderful recipes that are gluten-free by default! No tweaking, no substituting — just ready to go. This looks wonderful. Can’t wait to try it. Thank you, I appreciate it!
Melissa
Deb – I just made these last week and I also use my mother-in-law’s recipe. The one piece of advice I can give you is that you should put the whole cabbage in the freezer for a day or two and then take it out and leave it in a huge bowl to defrost. The leaves are so soft and easy to work with. Then you dry each one carefully before stuffing and rolling. My tomato sauce has some sauteed onions, lemon juice and brown sugar in it and it makes a really delicious sauce. Try freezing the cabbage – you’ll thank me.
STUFFED CABBAGE!! So nostalgic for me :-D
I subscribed to receive your updated posts via email, and have not been receiving them!! I’ve missed so many posts!! :-(
Yum! I’ve never had cabbage rolls but I just happen to have a cabbage in the fridge. I bought it with the intention of picking up a corned beef but forgot. I was just wondering when I would have time to get back to the store when I saw your new post! We will be having this for supper tonight. I love reading all the comments about the different European cultures and their versions of this dish. The only dish I ever had cabbage in while growing up was cole slaw (I grew up in Alabama). As an adult I have learned to make a fabulous corned beef & cabbage dish. I’m excited to have a new page added to my recipe collection!
I love these and once you get the hang of rolling and tucking they’re so easy (and cheap!) to make. I know them as holubky or golabki, which I believe means “little doves” in Slovak–because of the size & shape. We make them without the carrot, celery & parsnip, and with the sauerkraut and sometimes some kolbas in the sauce though. I always add some garlic and Hungarian paprika to the meat as well.
I’m making these tonight, because I have a pound of ground elk that needs to be used ASAP. Ground elk: how’s that for sacrilege?
One thing you can do to test the flavoring of the beef is to take a walnut sized piece of the mix and put it in the microwave for a minute until cooked through. The texture will be different then in the cooked dish of course but the flavor should be a very reasonable approximation. I do it all the time to test meatballs.
My dad used to make these. He called them galumpkis…a real Polish specialty. I always knew he was making them because I could smell the cabage from outside the house. I never actually ate them. Maybe now I’ll give them a try. :-)
Carnies! Circus folk… nomads, you know… LOVE THAT.
Carnies….Well played.
My mom makes cabbage rolls but uses beef broth as a base and adds cinnamon to the ground beef mixture–more lebanese style. both versions are great. I’ve been making what I call cabbage roll soup lately. Tastes just like cabbage rolls, but without the time commitment!
oh yum. my husband’s family is romanian and we love eating these, though the recipe is a little different. i might try this recipe because i hate pickling the cabbage first. I’m pregnant and I can’t tell you how delicious this looks. I love how many variations there are for this dish and how everyone thinks their own is the only “authentic” way to do things…
My grandmother used to make these and always called them “pigs in a blanket”, they were so delicious! Another old friend calls them “halupsi”. Thanks for the memories AND the recipe!
Just made a version of these and had about 2 cups of the meat filling left – any ideas what I can do with it? I’m afraid if I stick it in the freezer, it will get forgotten…
Wonderful to see all the variations on a theme. My Mother was born in Russia (Siberia), and I use ketchup for the sauce. I saw Martha Stewart’s Polish mother using Campbell’s Tomato Soup. I also used pre-cooked rice, Uncle Ben’s. It needs to be pointed out — this is one of those recipes where an extra set of hands is a big help. It is time consuming. NOT eight hours like one of your readers spends. That post says she makes them the size of a pinkie finger. Mine were the size of a small burrito, and I roll them exactly like a burrito. Also, NEVER eat raw ground beef to check for seasoning. NEVER NEVER EVER. Just pinch off a small piece and fry, then taste. Please.
I also wanted to recommend a recipe for escarole, since it’s your new favorite. Google “Braised escarole with garlic and lemon”. It was a Tyler Florence recipe on Food Network. I skip the garlic and red pepper but try it, you’ll like it.
I learned this trick … core cabbage then place in freezer bag and freeze till frozen (overnight). Take out and let thaw for a non-cooked wilt for rolling. You will still have to slice off hard stem in middle of leaf but it works.
It’s a tossup whether the Polish or Ukrainian influence is stronger here but whichever it is, halupchis, halubkis, etc, etc are on the menu for almost every civic feast. Usually with at least 20 different recipes – each touted as the world’s best. After all what monster is willing to admit that anyone has better recipes than his or her grandmother. One of my fondest memories is of a end of term party at the Sokol Hall (Polish organization) catered by the ladies group there – cheese, bread, sausage, kielbossa, a hundred varieties of pickles, halupchi, pirogies, all the beer you could drink over a period of six hours. Wow.
One of the bar snacks at the Hall was a “Polish chicken sandwich” – fried kielbossa with raw onion on black bread.
Aw memories.
I’ve actually never been tempted by stuffed cabbage before, but these look lovely! I recently made homemade pierogies… these would make a great addition to my Polish cooking repertoire. Thanks!
awesome. i’ve been trying to recreate my grandma’s recipe for years. hopefully this one is close!
I am surprised to see so many suggestions (well over a dozen now!) that one freeze the cabbage first, for either a day or overnight. I always err on the side of what is faster and easier, and steeping it for 10 minutes certainly seemed like it is. Perhaps someone could clarify the benefit of the other method.
I haven’t the patience to read through all your commenters cause there are soooo many and all terrific comments…this has probably been said but in our house these are known as Holishkas (?) and I had lost the exact recipe from my mother-in-law who is a polish Jewish lady- so a great thanks cause now I know what I am going to make for Sunday dinner this weekend.
She has been known to chop up any remaining cabbage and spread them out to cook too, so there is no waste; BUT make sure you use the Beano first!!!
This recipe (as with all of your stuff) looks amazing! Just a tip — a great way to test any uncooked meat mixture that you’re worried about the seasoning level (e.g. meatloaf, filling for Deb’s mother-in-law’s delicious stuffed cabbage, etc.), is to cook a tiny piece in a small skillet. I often do this for meatloaf and meatballs. Even with tried and true recipes, I just feel so much better about the end result if I’ve tasted a small amount of the mixture first. I’ll just add a tiny spoonful to a skillet on medium or medium-high until it’s safe to eat, give it a taste, and adjust the seasoning from there. Hope this helps! :)
I was told by MIL that freezing works just finel, but there is a slight textural difference in the cabbage. Her personal preference was to simmer the head, so that’s what I do. Never tried freezing, so I can’t say.
I think I have to make some of these in the next week. They’re such a great winter food. I make mine with ground turkey – talk about sacrilege! – onions, salt and pepper. My grandma used mostly pork in her meat mixture but also left out the rice. I’ll have to try them with savoy cabbage. I always use green.
I know them as golabki (pronounced “gowombkey”). Cat, you probably know them as pigeons since golabki is the word for pigeons, diminutive.
re: Veselka, I think their Polish food is so-so. The stuffed cabbage is too mushy and has too much rice. For the price, the pierogi are mediocre… too dough-y, imo.
DCA If I have extra filling I usually make small meatballs and tuck them in amongst the rolls to cook. Just as tasty, and they will appeal to the fussier eaters that don’t like cabbage. The filling does freeze well if you make them regularly (and remember to get it out to thaw) It seems to be a take on the lazy version above.
“But it’s not like you could test uncooked beef.”
Haha, I love that you said this, because I majorly cringed when my Mom was teaching me how to make golabki two years ago and she told me the only way to test the seasoning in the raw beef/pork mixture was to taste it. I’ve only made the recipe once since and I just couldn’t bring myself to test the raw meat. Maybe one day!
Deb, thanks for the recipe; it’s still winter-food season here, and believe it or not I’ve had stuffed cabbage on my mind, even though I haven’t had them in decades because my Polish step-grandmother Frieda died. She served them as one of about a dozen courses on Passover and Rosh Hashanah. Hers were a little sweet, so if I do get to invest the time in these I’ll try a little brown sugar. I always assumed it was a Polish recipe, but it sounds like it got scattered around the region.
Dear Deb – I love your blog and get raves from guests on your recipes. In your head notes you mentioned that you forgot to dry the cabbage leaves, but I did not see any mention of how to dry them in the recipe itself, other than draining the cabbage head. Is that all that is needed. Great winter comfort food recipe!
That looks absolutely delish. We have a lot of ground beef from our grocery shopping yesterday — this will definitely be one of the things I’ll be making from it! Thanks!
What kind of bread would you recommend with this dish?
Linda — I mention in the recipe that right before you roll them, you should pat them dry with a towel.
Sheryl — Bread? I’m not sure I’d eat bread with a dish with rice. But, if you’re going for Russian Traditional, black bread is always welcome. My favorite favorite favorite recipe is over here. I seriously think that anyone with an even slight interest in black bread should make it — it is perfection.
Hi all – just a very quick comment. There are a couple of posts about recipes that include ginger snap crumbs. Oddly enough, I went to a chef demo this past weekend at Chicago’s green market and the chef, Hans Letz, I believe was his name, from the Intercontinental in Chicago, did a demo of german sauerbrauten. His recipe also included ginger snap crumbs. He said that it was traditional – that sauerbrauten was usually made around the Christmas holidays and that every house would have ginger snaps or ginger bread, and you would use it up by putting it in recipes. So that could be the origin of the ginger snap crumbs in these recipes as well.
Oh, I’m hungry just looking at your beautiful pictures! I love stuffed cabbage and have made them a few times (being from Polish decent), but it takes so long! My MIL makes an unstuffed cabbage which is basically delicious meatballs, sauce and chopped cabbage. Her sauce is a mixture of tomato sauce, vinegar and sugar. I can’t seem to get the proportions of the sauce right and she just does it by taste (like many MIL’s do). Do you think yours would be good “unstuffed” dropping the meatballs into the sauce to cook and just cutting up the cabbage?
My mom makes rolled cabbage every year for Rosh Hashana. Like other commenters, she just uses beef (or ground turkey) and rice for the filling, and the sauce is a sweet and sour one. She freezes the leftovers in individual Ziploc containers and wraps them in foil. Just let them defrost and heat up and they are great.
Oh, girl… this is getting made pronto. I’ve always wanted to make stuffed cabbage, but I needed a mom/grandma endorsement. Alex’s mom will do just fine. YES. I’m super excited.
Ooh, fun–something else to do with the parsnips in the garden! They’re almost ready, too.
I have been meaning to try Neptune. There is this great place in greenpoint that I love for polish food. I want to try making my own stuffed cabbage so thanks for the recipe.
Ohh I am so glad I found your blog and this recipe for halupchis (my mother’s family is from the Ukraine and I grew up going to a Ukrainian church..that is how they pronounce them). She always tries to tell me how to make them…because she knows how to make them without a recipe and can’t give me a good recipe. SO…THANK YOU!!! I am going to make this recipe and freeze them and send them to her to taste! Of course, regardless how good they are..they’ll never be as good as her’s or my grandmothers!
I just made these on saturday…and failed miserably.
BUT, this definitely gave me some technique ideas. Thanks!
My recipe is a Bulgarian version, but it’s very, very similar.
My goodness, Deb – my mom used to cook these! She loved them, and so did my father. When I was single, I used to make these sometimes for him, for good old day’s sake.
Thank you for the lovely trip down memory lane, darling.
It was a success! I posted a comment yesterday that I was going to attempt these last night. I did and they were so YUMMY! Now I definetly am going to practice this dish a few more times before I make them for anyone else. I live in CT and there are a lot of people here of European decent. I am sure I would give someone a heart attack to see how poorly I wrapped my cabbage rolls! So even though mine were not nearly as pretty as yours – the taste was FANTASTIC! My husband and kids practically licked their plates clean (after filling them 2 or 3 times)! I did not have the type of cabbage you recommended and I found that the leaves were too stiff to work with after soaking the head in the boiling water. So I just put some plastic wrap over the bowl and them microwaved it for a few minutes – worked like a champ. THANKS!
OH – I forgot to tell you that I also made your chocolate chip cookie recipe as an after-school snack for my sons and their friends. They are awesome! They are the most chocolatiest ones I’ve ever had!
My mother in-law occasionally makes her golubsy (can’t spell that word properly in English, unfortunately) as (again, can’t spell this properly) lenevia golubsy, or, ‘lazy golubsy’, which involves just shredding the cabbage instead of making little packages. Cuts prep time down by quite a bit, and leaves it tasting just as wonderful.
Why, I have had a cabbage roll with beers, thank you :) Cabbage is excellent for drinking! There is some sort of enzyme that helps prevent hangovers in it.
Love cabbage rolls – my past attempts have not gone well; might try this one.
so neptune is better for stuffed cabbage than veselka. good to know. (have never been to neptune)
this inspired me to make cabbage (for the second time ever!) and i made cabbage and ground lamb for dinner last night. delicious.
A question: Does the rice get cooked when the stuffed cabbages simmer in the tomato stock, or should it be cooked prior to adding it to the stuffing mixture? Many other recipes I’ve seen call for cooked rice. Thanks for another great recipe!
It cooks on the stove, with the meat and everything else. See how easy this is?
oh wow, too weird!…I saw there’s another comment above from a Natalie who grew up in a Ukrainian family and know these as holubchi…me too! :D
I’ve been avoiding making these so far (Ukrainian food-making is time-consuming! So far I’ve mastered varenyky, yum! But not much else). But it looks like I’ll have to try this recipe – it looks delicious!
I love stuffed cabbage, being the Polish person that I am. My mom sometimes makes a stuffed cabbage casserole. You can cheat and buy a bag of cole slaw and basically layer the ingredients in a deep skillet, cover and simmer.
Deb – just to clarify why freezing the cabbage is easier. Even when soaking the cabbage in water, when you try and remove the leaves, they often tear. They’re still stiff and when the cabbage leaves are kind of folded into each other, it makes them hard to remove carefully. Freezing then defrosting them makes the leaves simply fall apart, leaving whole, perfect and untorn leaves to work with. Also the center rib is as soft as it can be and it makes them a cinch to roll up.
Hope that helps!
Deb – this is the first time I’m leaving a comment here…. have been a fan of your website for a while now and I had to leave a comment after I saw that. It instantly took me home to Poland:) My mum and nana make the best golabki in the world (i guess you can translate golabki as ‘little pigeons’ – no idea why, I remember when I was a kid I used to think they are made out of pigeons… haha) – I was always scared to make them but I guess I should try… Ohhhh, it’s 12 am now and I’m drooling… the taste of golabki with boiled new potatoes and tomato sauce…aaaahhhhh….
The leftovers are now in the freezer. We loved! this dish and it has been added to the list*.
I had a problem soaking the cabbage as you suggested – the hot water did not seep throughout the head, so I eventually removed all the leaves and boiled them for 5 minutes (lots of tearing). Next time I’ll boil either boil it or try the microwave method Joanna used – my freezer is way too small to try putting a cabbage in there.
I look forward to the next time I make this, when hopefully, the rolls will look as good as the dish tastes!
* – Acceptable recipes for frequent rotation.
Made this recipe tonight. Was delicious. Planned to freeze the second batch (didn’t have a big enough pan for them all), but everybody wanted seconds!
I get the quote . . . it’s from Something About Mary.
Just wanted to let you know that I LOVE your blog. I love to cook and hardly ever make the same recipe twice. My husband always talked about his gramma’s stuffed cabbage. I’m going to make this for him this weekend as a surprise. (And we just got a brand new big fridge so I now have room to freeze leftovers!)
Thanks again!!!
My favorite Polish restaurant with knock-out stuffed cabbage (we pronounce it something like “gwompke”) is in the Greenpoint neighborhood in Brooklyn, called Kings Feast on Manhattan Avenue (there is a life size knight in armor outside!). It trumps Veselka without a doubt! And, the Kings Feast has a “Polish Plate” entre option that comes with three pierogi’s, two gwompkes, two large and lovely potato pancakes, and a small hunk of kielbasa. Before your meal they bring you warm pickled beets and onion coleslaw. All for $8! I grew up on Polish food, and this place is really good and homey (and you can not beat the price, either).
I couldn’t read all the comments but a short video demonstrating how to roll up the cabbage rolls would be helpful to most people. Me? It’s in my genes … czech out the name.
May (poster#1), thanks for the great tip! Makes me say duh! Why didn’t I ever think of that?
Deb, thanks for the recipe. It’s a great time of year for stuffed cabbage. St. Patty’s isn’t too far off..
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I wasn’t expecting it to be because I had a really hard time rolling my leaves. They weren’t the prettiest, but they sure were tasty. I used a pork/beef combo. Thanks for the recipe!
I made this a couple of nights ago and it turned out great. My husband wasn’t excited about it but he loved it! Thanks for the great recipe.
This is a wonderful comfort food recipe. My mom would use the tomato soup instead of tomato sauce and after putting the stuffed cabages in pot would top it with a can or two of drained sauerkraut–delicious! I’m not sure where this sauerkraut addition originated though. My mother was of irish and english decent. It’s the way her mom made it and now I make it this way too. We never used carrots, parsips or celery in it but we do add the minced garlic and a little chopped onion.
Oh, I love stuffed cabbage! I usually make dolmathes but when I don’t have vine leaves, this is the next best thing!
these were fantastic — made them saturday night. my only problem? the rice seemed to take forever to cook. we were in no hurry, and enjoyed the aromas as this simmered away on the stove. even tastier the next day. (and the next!!)
Excellent recipe! I added some caraway seeds to both the filling and the sauce for a bit more Eastern European flavor… some quality sauerkraut (as mentioned above) would also be a good idea.
I tried this recipe on Monday and froze the leftovers. Had some leftovers tonight! Delicious. Thanks for sharing!
This didn’t work for me. After 40 minutes the cabbage was soggy and burnt and the brown rice never cooked through. Prep was east enough but parsnip dominated and meat underseasoned. Thankfully I also made the gingersnsp & chocolate thing wow!! Rocked my world.
Brown rice takes longer to cook. Also, if the cabbage burnt, there may not have been enough liquid in the pot. It should cover the cabbage rolls. Simmering on low in a covered pot for 45 minutes should not burn it with adequate liquid.
I also err on the side of faster and easier (#107), which is why I don’t stuff the cabbage at all. I cut it into 1/2″ strips and put it on the bottom of the pan. Make the filling as usual and form it into egg shaped and sized “balls”. Lay those on top of the cabbage, pour the tomato/liquid over and cook as directed. Presentation isn’t quite the same, but the taste is and it’s easier and faster to prepare.
I’m so lazy. I make the meat filling using lamb, onion, garlic, and middle eastern spices. Layer Savory Cabbage and the filling until baking dish is full. Top with Tomato Soup and bake until cabbage is done.
Serve with rice that I cooked in my NEW Zojirushi Fuzzy Logic Rice Cooker (such a neat new appliance).
Oh, I saute the meat filling before layering, so I can drain the grease from the meat.
Great blog. My mother’s recipe added 1/4c brown sugar and two lemons, sliced very thin, to the sauce. The lemons were layered with the cabbage rolls. This gives a lovely sweet and sour flavor- very Eastern European Jewish. I make it the same way, usually with beef, sometimes with turkey, and sometimes with a vegetarian filling- rice and cracked wheat, rice and beans, etc.
you know whats really scary about this
is my fiances name is alex and his mom makes exactly the same thing
itssss ooo goood
but we’re both kinda freaked out here cause we NEVER see this anywhere
Great recipe! The wife and I are looking forward to trying it.
One question: at the end of the post you mention the they freeze well. Is this cooked or uncooked?
Thanks!
hi, this is my favourite recipe in the world! Here in Romania it’s a traditional dish that we serve to weddings and Christmas , it’s called sarmale and it’s eaten with mamaliga (polenta) . we stuff the cabbage ( pickeld cabbage in salty water) with pork , rice, onion, carrots , tomatoes and i personally boil them in wine mixed with tomato juice for several hours, in a clay pot. it’s has the same look though ;)
I’m so excited this is my first post on ANY blog! Reading all of your comments and ideas made me crazy to make these. I froze the cabbage 3 days. Great idea! It took 2 days to thaw. The cabbage was soft and easy to roll and fill. I used an ice cream scoop for even size and the rolling directions I read,(roll once fold in 1 end finish rolling and tuck in other end with finger) worked perfectly. I made 2 fillings. Beef, pork, onion, carrots and rutabaga ( I forgot parsnips, Oh well) precooked seasoned brown rice. Awesome. I made two pans of these, one with just tomato sauce the other also had sour kraut and bacon. The second was Asian style. Pork, beef, onion, green onion, red pepper with soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and ginger. These were simmered in an Asian style soup broth. They were a knock out with hoisin sauce on the side. Thanks for the inspiration everyone!
I always make Golubtzy for Rosh ha Shana. I toss a bunch of raisins in the sause and a spoon of plum/prune preserves and brown sugar to give it a touch of sweetness. In Russia we used to roll stuffed cabbage, then fried them briefly on both sides till the cabbage leaves browned and then put them in the sause.
OK, two months later, but I just ran across this. My mother also made great cabbage rolls, so I had to comment. I’d have to look at her recipe again, which she hand wrote for me before she passed away, thank goodness, but it is pretty similar to this. I do know she added a boneless pork rib to the pot to add flavor to the sauce. Thanks for the memories.
Dear Deb,
I made these tonight, with….wait for it… soy crumbles instead of meat protein. And you know what? Amazing. I’m sure it’ s a “sacrilege” of some sort make these vegetarian (or even, really, vegan) but wow. Fantastic and very much like I remember my friend’s mother making them. I paired them with your quick pierogies and this was a meal fit for a queen. So good. So, so good. Thank you.
deb
I tried to make these vegetarian with firm tofu rather than beef. Final outcome: disappointing. In one batch I added in some feta which helped, but the overall lack of rich flavor still made them mediocre. However, I had left over mix which I simply didn’t have room to stuff into cabbage in the pan, and the next day I broke in an egg and fried the “batter” up like latkes. Topped with plain Greek yogurt (substitution for sour cream), they were yummy! I may attempt the stuffed cabbage recipe again, this time using a soy protein with a flavor closer to meat or maybe with eggs. But then again, considering the effort and my previous result, I may not.
I just made this last night for my husband and our 4 sometimes picky boys. OMG they were amazing!!! We are now going to include these on our favorite meals list…yeah something new to do w/ ground turkey!!! Oh I should say that I used ground turkey because we try to eat healthy and I added 2 garlic cloves (minced) to the meat mixture. I also used my homemade spaghetti sauce and then we sprinkled parm cheese on top. UMM UMM!!! Thank you!
I’ve only recently discovered your site – and I’m completely addicted. Thank you! Have you ever stuffed a whole cabbage? I’m planning to try it this weekend, but every recipe I’ve seen leaves the tough bottom on. I know cooking with soften it, but I’m curious if you’ve ever tried cutting core from the bottom. I’m not sure if the leaves will fall apart without the thick bottom. If you’ve never tried, I’ll let you know if I end up with fallen cabbage layers instead of stuffed whole cabbage :-) Keep up the great work – you’re a great inspiration for us cooks-in-small-spaces.
I just made this using Kangaroo mince and a little sausage mince, added some chilli flakes(goes great with kangaroo!) with a tomato and eggplant passata sauce and cooked it on low in the slow cooker which I lined with cabbage leaves first. Can you say, delicious?
I just had to say that these are very similar to my grandma’s rolls (Polish). I decided to try your recipe, however, because hers does not have carrot and celery. And I’ll do just about anything to get some extra veggies into the kids.
Thank you. :)
Jewish/ Hungarian verson: Add saurkraut and brown sugar to taste before baking. I just use ground beef, eggs and rice for the filling. If you are worried about the rice being fully cooked, use instant. People love, love, love this dish!
My mom is full blooded Italian and she made these without the veggies and rice. She says rice is just filler. She called them pigs in a blanket. If you want the real deal, mix together the ground beef, garlic, onion, breadcrumbs, one egg and some straight tomato sauce. Then stuff your leaves with that. You can even add some ricotta cheese to the meat mixture. I like to mix egg, ricotta, and garlic and let set overnight. Then mix it up with the rest of the stuff before stuffing. Mom also added more juice to the pot and threw in quartered potatoes so you just scoop and eat. OMG!!!! I’m going to make some right now!!!!
to stop Golabki burning put large leaves of cabbage on the bottom of the pan so its completely covered, i usually use ones from outside that were to ugly to get stuffed :) mniam
Deb I just made this tonight and OMG it was good. Different recipe from the last one I used and it was unbelievably delicious. I once had it at a friends and they got the bottom layer all crispy and I’m wondering if you have a suggestion as to how to get it like that. Will cooking it in the oven make the bottom layer crispy?
tried the recipe and it was an absolute hit! would you suggest freezing after they’re cooked or before?
oooooooo :)
you should try to put cut cellophane noodles it this recipe too….
I use leftover mandoo* stuffing, and put it in the cabbage.
*mandoo is a korean dumpling
grace, do you have a good mandoo filling recipe you could share?
Deb,
I have made these several times now. They come out just perfect EVERY time. These are now a part of regular menu at home. I love love love them. I could eat them everyday.
Thank you for sharing the recipe.
My mom used to make us this dish and stuffed grape leaves all the time. Now, these are emotional foods for me and my favorite foods.
2 comments –
Cat said that her Polish/Lithuanian family called stufed cabbage rolls “stuffed pigeons”. That’s probably because in Ukrainian “holubtsi” are “pigeons”.
The recipe sounds lots like my mom’s with some differences. She would always pre-cook the rice about half done. Also she often used pork instead of beef.
Mmm, comfort food. I followed this recipe exactly after several mishaps with other more elaborate stuffed cabbage recipes; my search ends here. This was the flavor I was looking for all along. Thank you and thank you to Alex’s mom for sharing.