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
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Made this today as written – very good and easy – will maybe use a dash of hot sauce too. Will use again soon.
Found this receipe amazing. My family loved it an went for seconds.. I cooked for 6hrs an came out perfect. I did tho change/added some stuff… I did half an half on the meat (1/2 Italian ground sausage/ 1/2 ground beef-pork) and added green chilies. Also instead if 3/4 of long grain rice, I did 1cup… Will be making this again but will add a little more cabbage (I had a small head if cabbage). Thanks for posting this receipe…
YOUR RECIPE SOUNDS GREAT, JUST AS WRITTEN. JUST WONDERING IF IT MAKES YOU NUTS FOR PEOPLE TO REWRITE IT SO IT DOES NOT EVEN RESEMBLE THE ORIGINAL AT ALL AND SEND IT BACK TO YOU?
While I only try and test recipes exactly as written, I love hearing different ideas and seeing how people adapt the recipe to their tastes. It helps inspire future recipes and also helps readers who may be sensitive to certain ingredients. :)
What if everything is thrown in raw all at once into crock?
I have only tried this as written. If you try it that way, please let us know how it works out for you!
I made it and was great, then I actually froze the remainder to have later. I need to know can I freeze the leftover casserole?
Yes, you can freeze and reheat the leftovers!
I also add a drained can of whole kernel corn. I serve it with fluffy mashed potatoes, yummy
Can’t wait to make Friday!! Looks great, love crock cooking.
I loved this dish
Can I use red cabbage?
I haven’t tried it that way but I’m sure that would work just fine. Please let us know how it works for you if you do try it!
I have not made this recipe YET. I did make you unstuffed cabbage casserole last evening for dinner. It was great. I am not a fan of cabbage rolls. perhaps its all that work and my kids used to unwrap them. Now that we are empty nesters – I can make what I want. My husband RAVED over this. I was telling my friend at lunch today and she asked could this be made in the crockpot. Can’t tell you how happy that I found you modified your recipe for the crockpot. Will try it in a couple weeks.
I am glad that you liked the recipe Adele! I hope when you try the crockpot version you love it too!
Made this tonight and it wass excellent! Cabbage rolls without all the fuss and mess. 2 men complimented. I love not having to find a big cabbage to get the leaves large enough. This can be done easily with a small cabbage in no time.
I am so glad that this was a hit with your guys!
What do you do with the 28 oz can of diced tomatoes? The recipe calls for 15 oz of tomato sauce, a 28 ounce can of undrained diced tomatoes and a can of tomato soup. The instructions outline what to do with the tomato sauce and tomato soup, but nothing is said about when to use the diced tomatoes. Please clarify? thank you :)
Oops, I found the answer in the recipe! Sorry for the oversight
Enjoy Jean!!
I have made this for years the only thing I do differently is I’ll use tomato juice and or v8 juice and Motts Clamato juice!! It gives this recipe the best flavour and everyone loves them and ask how I get them to taste so fantastic and they also ask me for the recipe
If you are going to use instant rice, dont put it in until there is around an hour left.
I put it in at the start, and the liquid broke down the rice down in to mush.
Can’t wait to try. Love crockpot meals and cooked cabbage
When you get a chance to try the recipe I hope your family loves it!
Excellent recipe! Easy to make, inexpensive, and filling. I only had instant brown rice and it worked fine without adjusting anything else. I will definitely make this again. I think I’ll add some dived potatoes nqext time.
Potatoes would be great in this recipe!
Thanks for the recipe! I made this yesterday and would like to share few notes: Be sure your slow cooker is at least 4.5 to 5 quart capacity. Mine is a 4 quart and the juices kept overflowing onto the countertop. Also, since I used dried thyme (fresh vs dried is not mentioned in the recipe and I only had dried) I reduced the amount from a full teaspoon to just a pinch and the flavor was still very pronounced. The next day it was less prominent, but for the stuffed cabbage flavor I grew up with I’ll probably eliminate it completely next time. To make this gluten-free, I subbed tomato paste thinned with a bit of water for the condensed soup. Cheers from the beautiful mountains of Western NC!
Thank you for sharing this! How wonderful!
Why does it look like rice sprinkled on top of the casserole
That’s rice! And cilantro leaves.
The one change I’d make to this recipe is to at least double the amount of rice. We found when we tried this that the rice mostly ‘disappeared’ in the recipe. Mixed in some extra rice the day after with one of the containers we were using for leftovers, and it was much more ‘balanced’. Just our thoughts.
Thanks for sharing!
i just made this …. didn’t have tomato soup but i used cream of celery …. it taste so good thank you for this recipe…. oh and we use cheddar cheese…..yummie
Those sound like amazing substitutes!