Cabbage Roll Casserole is a super easy meal that you can prepare any day of the week.
Cabbage Rolls are delicious! I grew up on cabbage rolls made by my mom and grandma!
Recently, I’ve been making a cabbage roll casserole… so much quicker than rolling up the rolls themselves and equally delicious!
Here is one of my favorite things about recipes! You start with one thing and along the way the recipe gets tried and modified and shared and passed on. Finally, you may end up with something else that was just as wonderful or sometimes even better!
Last week, a reader had asked me if my Cabbage Roll Casserole recipe would work in the slow cooker… I hadn’t tried it! Well, Sue tested it out and I knew I had to try it out right away! I had a couple of different items in my pantry so I modified it a tiny bit further but let me tell you, the results were AMAZING!! This is my favorite cabbage roll dish yet! So a special thank you to Sue for inspiring this yummy recipe, you won’t be disappointed!
If you’re looking for another hearty dinner idea, be sure to check out my Cabbage Roll Soup recipe!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds lean ground beef or ground pork, or a mixture of the two
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 onion diced
- 15 ounces tomato sauce divided
- 1 cup water
- 10.75 ounces condensed tomato soup 1 can
- 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juices
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- ¾ cup long grain white rice uncooked
- 1 medium head cabbage
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese optional
Instructions
- Brown beef or pork, onion, garlic and seasonings over medium heat until no pink remains. Drain.
- Add 1 cup tomato sauce, 1 cup water and ½ can of tomato soup and diced tomatoes to the beef.
- Stir in rice, and mix well until heated through. Remove from heat.
- Chop cabbage into 4 wedges and remove core. Chop into chunks (mine were about ¾"x1 ½").
- Layer ½ of the meat mixture and ½ of the cabbage in the slow cooker. Repeat layers. Place half the meat and then half the cabbage in cooker.
- Combine the remaining tomato soup, remaining tomato sauce and ⅓ cup water. Pour over top of cabbage.
- Cook on low 4-6 hours or just until rice is cooked. Once done, turn slow cooker off, sprinkle cheese on top and let sit 10 minutes to set and melt cheese.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Casserole
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Your recipes look great, but. One perdo in our household absolutely hates rice, if there is anything that can be used instead of the rice, ? Thank you!
You could use riced cauliflower in place of the rice. I’ve made it that way with great results.
Can you use chicken and/or turkey instead of beef and pork?
Yes, that should work just fine.
I have never had this without sauerkraut. I also use whole tomatoes with juice in large can, no tomato sauce or soup, with the sauerkraut and juice in large size as well. Never thought to try in a crock pot. Always made the rolls but it sounds easy so must try this.
I have never had cabbage rolls without adding sauerkraut to the recipe. I also use whole
tomatoes and cut them up and do not use tomato sauce, just the juice in the big can of
tomatoes and the sauerkraut with the juice as well. This is also one of my favorite dishes.
Never thought of doing it in the crockpot but great idea.
Sounds delicious, thank you for sharing!
Great looking recipe! I planning on making it vegan with Quorn instead of meat and throwing in some shredded Brussels sprouts that need using up. Thank you!
Loved it! Shared with my son in England. Thank you!
My husband is diabetic and we have found even with rice in this recipe it doesn’t impact his glucose levels. I’ve been going to try it using cauliflower rice but haven’t had the opportunity yet
I love cauliflower rice in this dish! :) Enjoy!
# servings?
Nutrition info?
This recipe makes 8 servings. Find the nutrition information under the recipe.
Just love those Cabbage recipes for Soup, Cabbage rolls, and casserole will try and print them out Tks.
Recipes look delicious. Can’t wait to try them.
I made this last night. So delicious! I used ground beef and and just a few extra spices and worchestershire sauce, and because we love garlic, used 5 cloves, otherwise, followed the recipe! Yum! Will make again. Thank You Holly!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this Brenda!
Omg I’ve got this in the crock pot now and it smells delicious. I can’t wait to dig in!!!
Made this today and my family thoroughly enjoyed it! The only thing I did different was in mixed Xtra sharp cheddar cheese and mozzarella and let everyone put as much or as little on their serving. Made biscuits and iced tea and we are full as ticks!
I love the idea of adding the cheese on the side for those that want less (or more :) )! So glad you enjoyed it!
I had such great hopes for this recipe. The pictures looked wonderful. I followed the recipe but it turned out to be a big mushy mess. I’m not sure what I did wrong. The taste was okay but a little bland. Sorry, I don’t think I’ll make this again.
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this. We’ve made it so many times and it’s always great! It is possible your slow cooker cooks on the hotter side which would over cook the cabbage.
If I substitute the ground beef with ground turkey and eliminate the rice, do I need to make any changes to the measurements of the other ingredients? And would I need to cook it as long?
I have only made the recipe as written. If you eliminate the rice you may not need to cook it quite as long however the rice does absorb some of the liquid so your soup may not be quite as thick.
I make something very similar, but since we are vegetarian, I replace the meat with either crumbles or TVP. I also replace the tomato sauce, water, and ketchup with my favorite spicy version of spaghetti sauce. It is soooo good.
YES … I’ve used this recipe before and it can be frozen. Use a freezer to oven dish for storage …
I always double the batch and freeze one. It’s nice to have one around in case of unexpected company. Take it from the freezer and pop it right into the oven. Be sure to give it enough time to heat through.
I am so happy I stumbled upon this recipe! I pretty well stuck to the recipe as posted, except I added a little hot sauce, we like spicy! :)
Put the slow cooker on high for 3.5hrs, and when I got home from work, an incredibly delicious meal was waiting!
I can’t wait for hubby to try it later! :)
Perfect recipe – thank you so much for sharing it!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Marg!
Hi, made this casserole in the crockpot last night and put in fridge. This morning I took it out of fridge and let it set for an hour before turning on to low. It cooked on low for 7 hours and on high for 2 hours. The rice is still crunchy. Other than the rice being crunchy the dish is great, any ideas as to what went wrong?
Thank you : )
Hi Lynda,
I’m not sure why your rice wasn’t cooked through, 7 hours on low should’ve been plenty of time to cook the rice through. Did you use regular white rice (brown may take longer to cook)?
Yes Holly, I used regular white long grain rice. The only reason I cooked it for so long was because of the rice tasting crunchy. I’ve never had a problem with cooking rice before so I’m totally puzzled!
I agree, it’s really unusual and I’m a little baffled because I’ve made this many times. I hope someone else has some advice as well.
Did you add the water and undrained tomatoes? I’m trying to think of all of the things that could cause that (especially with white rice). I did some searching and all I could find was that not enough liquid can cause this issue. I’ll keep peeking and let you know what I find.
Just put this all together, put in fridge and will turn on tomorrow before work! Looks delish!