Simple and Delicious Stuffed Cabbage

Years ago I learned a trick with stuffed cabbage that changes making them from an endless and pain in the neck job to quick and easy. Basically, if you can make a chopped meat mixture for stuffing, you’re good to go. All you have to do with your cabbage to both make it more tender and hasten it’s edible quality as well as easy to peel off the leaves and simplicity itself in rolling them up is to freeze the whole head of cabbage for a full 24 hours and let sit out to defrost fully.

There you go, that’s the big hack. I know there are others who tell you to plunge in boiling water etc. etc. Forget it. This is the simplest and easiest way to deal with the cabbage. Don’t even try to wash it off till it’s defrosted. Once defrosted, peel the leaves off carefully, one by one and rinse off and lay in a little (or big, depending on the size of your cabbage) heap on a cutting board to await the stuffing mix.

note the somewhat translucent color of the leaves. That’s as it should be, no worries.

Then peel (carefully, you don’t want them to tear) one by one, the leaves off the cabbage and lay them in a heap after rinsing them off, on your cutting board, like so:

Okay so it’s a small heap, there’s only two there but it turns into a heap. Onward. Prepare your meat filling. Now one of the traditional elements of filling tends to be uncooked rice but I just don’t like the texture so much so I use breadcrumbs or for Passover you can sub either matzo meal or potato starch.

Mix together the chopped meat, caramelized onions, ketchup, soy sauce/dissolved coffee, and breadcrumbs or matzo meal. Mix lightly to a smooth combo. Take a 9 x 13 rectangular pan and spray with oil. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Prepare the sauce in which the cabbage rolls will be cooked. This is surprisingly simple but tasty. Take two cans of tomato sauce, add a few tablespoons of caramelized onions, brown sugar and either vinegar or lemon juice. Stir till combined. It will be fairly liquidy. Set aside.

Now take your peeled off and rinsed leaves and start to stuff them. This is now easy since your cabbage leaves are limp and pliable. Take a palm full of chopped meat mixture and lay on bottom third of leaf.

Fold on top of the meat the two long ends of the leaf. Then pick up the bottom nearest you and start to cover and roll the cabbage leaf over the meat like so:

As you see, you completely encompass the filling with the leaf and if you wish to cut off the tougher stem end, you may as long as the meat is fully encased.

Good. Place your rolls in greased pan tightly together as you finish them. They are highly unlikely (never happened to me yet) to unroll since they are so limp and pliable. By the way, if you wish you can tuck the odd bits of cabbage that won’t work for a roll around the edges of the pan if you wish.

Finish all your meat mixture and cabbage leaves, and remember your sauce? Stir once more and pour the whole lot over your stuffed cabbage rolls. It will coat them and come up about 1/2- 3/4 of the way up the sides of the cabbage rolls.

Cover tightly with two layers of aluminum foil and place carefully in hot oven. Bake for 1 3/4 to 2 hours or till cabbage is tender and they are bubbling. These are wonderful as a first course or a main and I like to serve with a side of rice.

Simple and Delicious Stuffed Cabbage

1 large head cabbage, frozen for 24 hours and fully defrosted

Meat mixture:

750 grams (1.65 pounds, or a little more than 1 1/2 pounds) chopped beef
3 heaping tablespoons caramelized onions OR 1 medium onion, peeled, chopped and sauteed in 2 tablespoons oil till medium brown (this will give you enough onion for the sauce as well)
4 tablespoons ketchup
2 eggs
1/2-3/4 cup (60 gram-90 grams) breadcrumbs OR for Passover, substitute 1/2 cup matzo meal or 1/4 – 1/3 cup potato starch
2 tablespoons soy sauce OR for Passover, or those who dislike or don’t use soy sauce, substitute 1 rounded tablespoon coffee granules dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water

Sauce:

2 cans of tomato sauce
4 packed tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce OR 1 rounded tablespoon coffee granules dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water
2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar
3 tablespoons caramelized onions

Take a cutting board and peel the leaves off the defrosted cabbage, one by one, very carefully so they don’t tear and rinse gently. Shake off and put in a heap.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Prepare the meat mixture by mixing the chopped meat, onions, ketchup, eggs, breadcrumbs or matza meal and soy sauce or coffee together lightly till a smooth mixture is formed. Take a 9 x 13 pan and grease with oil. Set aside.
Make the sauce by mixing everything together and set aside.

Take a palm sized amount of meat mixture (about 3 heaping tablespoons worth) and put on bottom third of cabbage leaf (not all the way at the bottom, see pic above) and fold in the sides of the cabbage leaf. Then take bottom of leaf, pull up to partially cover meat mixture and continue to roll till all the filling is encased in the leaf. Since it’s been frozen and defrosted, it’s pliable and flexible and it will roll like a dream. Use up all the leaves and meat mixture, tucking them tightly together into the greased rectangular pan. Now pour the sauce over the lot, coating all the cabbages and it will go up halfway to 3/4 up side of pan. Cover pan tightly with two layers of aluminum foil and place in hot oven for 1 1/2- 2 hours or until cabbage rolls are tender and sauce is bubbling. Sauce will cook down and thicken up a bit. Wonderful for a first or main course.