Make Stuffed Cabbage
These are best when cooked together with the cabbage soup for a delicious one pot meal. Add them to the soup for the last hour of cooking.
Contents
Ingredients
- 1 head of cabbage
- Ground meat
- 1 cup of rice
Steps
Preparing the Cabbage
- Boil the cabbage.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, and put in the head of cabbage to soften the leaves.
- Leave it in the water for about 15 minutes until you can remove each leaf.
- Split the cabbage.
- With a paring knife, carefully cut half the spline off of the cabbage to allow it to roll without splitting.
- The cabbage spline tends to crack due to being too dense.
- Remove the leaves.
- Pull off the top leaves carefully.
- Pull from close to where it meets the center, to avoid tearing the leaf.
- When you get as many large leaves as you want, set them aside.
Preparing Your Stuffing
- Consider stuffing with beef, rice, and tomatoes. Brown ground beef, cook wild rice, and mix both (once cooked) with heated stewed tomatoes and any seasoning of your choice. Salt and pepper are good.
- The amount of beef and rice is dependent how many people you intend to feed. One pound of beef, 1/2 cup uncooked rice, and one can of tomatoes should serve a family of three or four.
- Consider stuffing with pork, sauerkraut, and pickles. Brown ground pork, dice pickles of choice, and mix both together with sauerkraut. Seasoning should be unnecessary, but you may consider pepper or celery salt.
- The amount of pork is dependent how many people you intend to feed. One and a half pounds of ground pork, 1 cup sauerkraut, and two large pickles diced should serve a family of three or four.
- Consider stuffing with quinoa, onions, and lime. Slice or dice your onion and cook in butter or oil with garlic seasoning or whole garlic. Mix with quinoa and cook quinoa. Mix with a tablespoon of lime juice when done.
- The amount of quinoa is dependent how many people you intend to feed. Three cups prepared quinoa and 1 medium onion should serve a family of three or four.
Finishing Your Stuffed Cabbage
- Fill cabbage leaves.
- Fill each cabbage leaf with about 1/3 of a cup of your chosen stuffing.
- Place the filling in an oval at the center of the leaf, perpendicular to the line of the stem.
- Be careful not to overstuff!
- You can use the leaf to sort of pre-roll the filling, by using it to compress it into the shape you want.
- Roll the leaves.
- Roll the cabbage with the mixture inside, and set aside.
- Start at the bottom, where the stem begins and roll upwards following the stem.
- Once you have rolled to the halfway point, fold in the sides.
- Continue rolling until it is closed.
- Serve your stuffed cabbage. You're done!
Tips
- If you don't have the time to make rolls, you can easily layer cabbage and meat mixture in a casserole dish.
- After removing the leaves you need for the stuffed cabbage, shred the remainder for use in cooking the cabbage soup.
Warnings
- Instead of using toothpicks, you can roll it and push the ends inside to keep the meat from splitting out
- If you stuff too much meat into the cabbage leaf it will split while cooking.
- Put toothpicks at the ends of the roll to keep the meat inside.
