Cabbage Rolls

In my mind cabbage rolls scream fall. Yes, scream. As a result it is no wonder that when the weather turned cool here and cabbages bigger than your head started to flood the market I started to crave cabbage rolls.

Generally I cheat and make something called a 'cabbage roll casserole' which has all the ingredients but not the fuss of pre-cooking the cabbage and then rolling those leaves around the savoury filling. Yes, I've read the tip of boiling the entire head of cabbage and just pulling off individual leaves as they cook. . . I always end up with mushy outer leaves, undercooked inner leaves, and scalded finger tips!

Happy days though - I was searching for a new recipe online and popped into the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog (who knew? Of COURSE I knew as someone who has eaten many treats prepared by Mennonites over the years) and found this amazing tip:

In the bag that you brought your savoy cabbage home. . .place the cabbage in the freezer and leave for 12 hours or overnight.. . .remove and leave to thaw at room temperature. .this will take awhile. . so I often take it the night before the day I want to make the cabbage rolls. The leaves will be soft and easy to use without having to boil them.

It WORKS!

There are a gazillion different recipes for cabbage rolls out there. Some include lots of rice, some very little. Some have herbs in the mix, others don't. Heck, I've even seen recipes with raisins in the filling. That being said - this was the first recipe that called for adding eggs to the filling.

I figured that since I was relying on their amazing cabbage tip that I might as well follow the entire recipe. I'm glad that I did for these may have been the best cabbage rolls that I have eaten. A perfect fall classic. You'll see from the picture below that I had some filling left over and a lot of late season peppers - I just hollowed out the peppers, filled them with the leftover cabbage roll filling, and baked them up.

YUM

Cabbage Rolls

1 large savoy cabbage
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 medium to large onions
2 tablespoons canola or olive oil .. or even butter is fine
1 cup white or brown rice. . . and 2 cups water
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 cans tomato soup
2 small bottles (individual serving sizes) tomato juice or vegetable cocktail . .like V8
1 can or small carton chicken broth

In the bag that you brought your savoy cabbage home. . .place the cabbage in the freezer and leave for 12 hours or overnight.. . .remove and leave to thaw at room temperature. .this will take awhile. . so I often take it the night before the day I want to make the cabbage rolls. The leaves will be soft and easy to use without having to boil them.

In a small saucepan or a microwave safe covered dish. . .cook the rice. . set aside to cool. The rice can be made the day ahead and kept chilled in the refrigerator overnight.

Chop the onions fine and saute them slowly until they are golden brown. . .set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, break apart the ground beef, add the salt, pepper, eggs, sauteed onions and the rice. . mix together until combined. . use your hands.

Remove the leaves from the cabbage, cutting away the tough part closest to the core.

Spray your large casserole or two small casserole dishes with cooking spray.

Put about a 1/3 to 1/2 cup meat mixture at the bottom of the leaf and roll up. . the meat amount varies depending on the size of the leaf. . repeat until all the meat is used up.

In a large mixing bowl. . .combine the tomato soup, juice, and broth. . pour evenly over the cabbage rolls. Cover with foil. . or the lid.

Bake the cabbage rolls slowly at 325 for two hours. . serve or cool on the counter. .remove the foil (if you don't. . you will have little bits of foil on your cabbage rolls where ever it touches. .) cover with plastic wrap. .and either refrigerate or freeze.

For reheating . .thaw first if frozen . .remove the plastic wrap and cover with a lid or foil. . and just reheat in the oven. . for about an hour .. at 325. . . or if you want, they can be reheated beautifully in the microwave on sensor reheat.

Comments

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The leaves will be soft and easy to use without having to boil them.

[rose king]

I always use savoy cabbage. I don't have to freeze it as the leafs just peel off easy. I peel them, cook them for a few minutes and then make the cabbage rolls....never any issues and very yummy in the tummy!!!

[Vicki Crawford]

Wow, what an amazingly simple tip for the cabbage leaves. I will try it. I love cabbage rolls as well but don't make them as often as I would like because of the cabbage leaf issue. Interesting to see the instructions say Savoy cabbage. We tend to see the common green cabbage in the shops here and that is what I usually use.

Great idea to stuff peppers with the left over filling.

[JDeQ]

I know Rose - perfect comfort food.

It is a great tip Vicki - I still can't believe what a difference it made.