Old-Fashioned Stuffed Cabbage

There is nothing like bringing out an old cookbook or recipe card and thumbing through it for a nostalgic recipe. You know those recipes that your grandmother used to make, or the recipes passed down to your mother. One day, those recipes end up sitting in your very own card deck or cookbook. Those recipes hit a place in your heart that no other recipe can. This is the recipe for me.

Looking back and seeing how many times this was made and graced our table growing up still makes me long for a place that time has forgotten, but not in my memories or heart. Even though these stuffed cabbages look a bit tedious to make, they really are not. They are really very easy and simple to make. The only thing here is the time it takes to make them. It doesn’t require a lot of time to put them together; however, the bake time is what takes the longest.

Before we get started, let me tell you this… For every one person, you will need 1 to 2 cabbage leaves. I like to cut the root end of the cabbage and pull the exact number of leaves from the head of the cabbage. This ensures that I don’t rip the leaves or spend 45 minutes boiling a whole head of cabbage in my stock pot.

So, let’s get started.

INGREDIENTS:

8-10 Cabbage leaves (pulled from the head of the cabbage and rinsed clean)
1 lb. Ground beef ( or you can use any other ground meat you like)
1 Carrot – grated
1/2 Onion – Finely chopped
1 Egg
1/2 C. White rice ( you can use uncooked or parboiled/instant rice)
3/4 C. Water or broth
1/2 C. Seasoned bread crumbs ( or you can use plain and add your favorite spice mixture)
Salt and pepper ( I use about 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper- adjust to taste)
2 Cloves of garlic- finely minced

FOR THE SAUCE:

1 large jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1/2 C. Water

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over medium heat. In the meantime, cut the root end of the cabbage off and pull the leaves from the cabbage head. Be gentle and try not to tear the leaves. You want them intact. Gently rinse them under cool water and set them to the side. Preheat the oven to 350*.
2. Once the water comes to a boil, add the leaves one at a time until fully submerged in the water. Let them cook about 5 minutes or so, or until they are just tender and pliable. Remove from the water and drain in a colander. Let it cool while you mix the filling.
3. In a large bowl, combine the bread crumbs, carrots, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and rice. Add the water and the egg and mix until combined, and the bread crumbs absorb some of the liquid. Add the ground beef and gently mix the ingredients together until just combined. You don’t want to overmix the ingredients, so only mix them together until everything comes together.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the pasta sauce and the water until well mixed. Set to the side. In the meantime, grease a 8×10 inch baking dish and add about 1/2 of the pasta sauce to the bottom. Make sure to spread the sauce out to cover the bottom of the pan.
5. Divide the meat mixture with your hand or a butter knife into however many sections that you have in cabbage leaves. So if you have 8 leaves, then divide the meat mixture into 8 portions. This makes sure you have equal amounts of mixture for each leaf.
6. Place a cabbage leaf on a plate or cutting board, and take some of the meat mixture and place it in the center of the leaf. Gently pull the left and right edges over the meat, and then pull the edge closest to you over the meat and roll up. You want them tight but not too tight that they split. Gently place the stuffed cabbage seam side down in the prepared pan. Repeat with the remaining cabbage leaves, filling them, rolling them, and placing them in the pan.
7. Once all of the stuffed cabbage is rolled and placed in the pan, pour over the remaining pasta sauce. Spread the pasta sauce evenly over the stuffed cabbage.
8. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes covered.
9. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 30 minutes. This ensures that the rice is fully cooked. If you are using instant rice, do the same process and then cover and cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, and then remove the foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
10. Remove the stuffed cabbage from the oven and let it cool for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

• If you do not want to add rice to this, you can certainly skip it. You can add riced cauliflower instead. I would do the same process as above, cover, bake for 50 to 55 minutes, remove the foil, and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. This time also allows for adding neither rice nor riced cauliflower. You want to make sure to cook it long enough that the center of the stuffed cabbage cooks through. The last thing you want is putting in all that effort, and the center is undercooked. You can always check the center of the stuffed cabbage with a meat thermometer. It should read around 170*. There will be a carryover temp that will rise about 5* or so while cooling.
• Adding the extra water to the pasta sauce and the meat mixture ensures that the rice has enough liquid to fully absorb and cook properly. You don’t want crunchy rice in stuffed cabbage. lol
• You can double this recipe to fit your family or cut the recipe in half to fit your family.
• You can add any ground meat to this recipe that you like. I typically have ground beef on hand, but I have made these with ground chicken as well.
• Please let the stuffed cabbages rest for about 5 to 10 minutes before serving. It helps the sauce to thicken and the liquid to redistribute throughout the meat, so nothing is watery. Serve with your favorite sides and enjoy!