Tender Cabbage Rolls filled with beef, rice, and herbs are baked in a savory tomato sauce – perfect for a cozy, comforting dinner.
Tender cabbage leaves filled with Italian-seasoned beef and fluffy rice and baked to perfection in a tangy tomato sauce. Cabbage Rolls are a completely scrumptious comfort food recipe, and even your kids will crave them!
Here’s Why You’ll LOVE Cabbage Rolls
Stuffed cabbage rolls are FAR more about the stuffing than the cabbage! We use a single, softened cabbage leaf as the “shell” to wrap up the filling like a delicious dumpling! The savory stuffing is the true star of this show! It’s reminiscent of your favorite spaghetti with meat sauce, but rice replaces the pasta for a soft, satisfying, scoopable texture.
Homemade Cabbage Rolls (called “golabki” in Polish) are also simple to prepare and are loaded with protein, complex carbs, aromatic seasonings, and so much yummy flavor!
Other Recipes to Serve on St. Patrick’s Day
- Grandma’s Potatoes are the ultimate side dish – especially for a Saint Paddy’s celebration!
- Corned Beef & Cabbage Chowder is an irresistible Irish stew that goes great with Cabbage Rolls!
Ingredients
Filling: Extra-lean ground beef is ideal for the cabbage roll filling, but you could use just about any ground meat you like, from sausage to chicken! This recipe calls for cooked (but underdone) white rice. I used basmati, but Minute Rice will work just fine! Olive oil, minced garlic, and Italian seasoning give this European dish tons of fabulous flavor!
Veggies: We’ll use the large leaves from a full head of cabbage to make the wraps, some onion and garlic to add flavor to the filling, and tomato basil pasta sauce for the filling and baking.
Broth: Low-sodium chicken broth is going to make these cabbage rolls tender and tasty!
How to Make Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
STEP ONE: Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook the onion, garlic, and ground beef until the meat is fully browned. Add in the salt and Italian seasoning and stir well. Pour in a half cup of the tomato sauce and continue cooking until warmed. Turn off the heat, then mix in the pre-cooked rice. Set aside.
STEP TWO: Add 1/2 cup of tomato sauce to the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish, spreading the sauce into a thin layer. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, then submerge the entire head of cabbage. Cook for a couple of minutes, then carefully remove the cabbage from the pot.
STEP THREE: Gently peel off individual leaves, one at a time, keeping them intact. (If this is still too difficult, return to the pot to boil for two more minutes.) You want lovely, big, whole leaves for making cabbage rolls. In each cabbage leaf, add 1/2 cup of filling to the center of the leaf and wrap it up, leaving enough room that the leaf overlaps and seals. This will allow the rolls to puff and steam. Place each roll, seam down, in the pan.
STPE FIVE: Once you have enough rolls to fill your pan (don’t overcrowd), pour in the chicken stock, then cover the rolls with the rest of the tomato sauce.
STEP SIX: Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 60-70 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Tips for Success
- Any cabbage will do, but the leaves of the Savoy Cabbage are just the right shape and texture for making cabbage rolls!
- A spoonful of brown sugar and a splash of apple cider vinegar added to the tomato sauce gives a really luscious sweet & sour component!
- Ground beef can be substituted for virtually any other ground meat or ground meat combination you prefer.
- With the leftover ingredients: Boil the remaining cabbage for another couple of minutes, then chop it finely and add the remaining filling ingredients for a delicious deconstructed cabbage roll bowl!
What’s the Best Way to Remove Cabbage Leaves?
Cabbage is much stiffer to work with than lettuce, so removing individual leaves can be a stubborn job! To make it easy, submerge the entire head of cabbage into a pot of boiling water for 2-4 minutes (flipping it over about halfway through cooking). Please remove it from the boiling water, let it drain and cool, then slice off the end about ¾ of an inch above the stem. Now you can peel the large leaves from around the outside for easy cabbage rolls!
Can You Make Cabbage Rolls Ahead Of Time?
Homemade stuffed cabbage rolls are a phenomenal make-ahead recipe! Follow the instructions, leaving the chicken broth and tomato sauce for later. Once the filling is cooked and the cabbage leaves are stuffed and rolled, allow them to cool, then cover with a double layer of plastic wrap and an outer layer of foil. Freeze them for up to 3 months! When you’re ready to use them, thaw overnight in the fridge. Once thawed, remove all the plastic wrap, add the broth and tomato sauce, cover with foil only, then bake according to the instructions. Easy!
Other Recipes for Wraps and Rolls!
- Crispy Spring Rolls
- Ginger Shrimp Lettuce Wraps
- Fresh Vietnamese Summer Rolls
- Paleo Pork Lettuce Wraps
- Tex-Mex Spinach Rolls
- Lasagne Roll Ups
Ingredients
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound extra lean ground beef
- 1 small yellow onion peeled and diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 ½ cups tomato basil pasta sauce divided (20 ounces)
- 1 head green cabbage
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Add the rice and 1 ½ cups of water to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat with the lid. Turn the heat down to medium-low and put he lid on. Cook for 9-10 minutes until slightly underdone. Remove from the heat and let rest for 10 minutes. Fluff and set aside.
- While the rice is resting, place a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, add the ground beef, onion, and garlic, and cook until the beef is browned through, breaking up the meat as it cooks.
- Stir in the salt and Italian seasoning and cook for another 30 seconds. Pour in 1/2 cup of tomato basil sauce, stir, and cook until warmed through. Turn off the heat and mix in the cooked rice. Set aside.
- Pour 1/2 cup of tomato sauce into a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish and spread it evenly over the bottom. Set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the entire head of cabbage and cook for 2 minutes. Carefully remove the cabbage (using a small strainer or tongs) and peel back one leaf at a time. *If you get too much resistance, you can boil the cabbage for another minute at a time, as needed, as you peel the leaves off layer by layer, so they don't rip.
- If any of the cabbage leaves have a too-big/tough stem, trim it slightly to make wrapping them around the filling easier. Place 1/2 cup of the beef and rice filling in the middle of each cabbage leaf. Fold the sides over the filling, then roll up the leaf like a burrito so that the outer seam easily covers the inner seam.
- Place the cabbage roll seam side down in the baking dish and repeat with the remaining leaves. (see note) The baking dish should hold about 8 rolls with a little space between them. Pour the chicken stock into the baking dish and spoon the remaining tomato sauce over the rolls. Cover the baking dish with foil.
- Bake for 60-70 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool fr about 10 minutes before uncovering the dish and serving.
Notes
- The rice can be made ahead of time, or you can use leftover rice from dinner the night before to cut down on prep.
- There will be extra cabbage that’s par-cooked, and I usually have some extra filling (about 1 cup). You can chop up the cabbage and combine it with the filling to make a deconstructed cabbage roll for lunch the next day.
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