This stuffed cabbage rolls recipe is one I enjoyed from my grandma’s kitchen for years and years.
Tender cabbage leaves are filled with a beef and rice mixture and baked in with a simple tomato sauce.
This dish can be made ahead of time and reheats and freezes well.
Types of Cabbage Rolls
This cabbage rolls’ recipe comes from my grandma and my mom. My grandma immigrated from Poland so we have enjoyed many cabbage dishes or even just simple fried cabbage. Between pierogi and rouladen, Grandma’s kitchen always smelled incredible and there was always something amazing to eat!
There are many many different ways to make cabbage rolls based on family tradition and location. Polish cabbage rolls usually contain meat and rice while the Ukrainian version my friend Penny makes generally contain only rice.
While some add raw meat and rice and cook them with the cabbage, our family has always pre-cooked the rice and meat.
Ingredients in Cabbage Rolls
Cabbage
We use a head of regular green cabbage and boil it in a large pot of water to make it tender. Many people freeze the whole head of cabbage and thaw it to eliminate the boiling step but I find the cabbage isn’t as tender this way.
Meat Mixture
My grandmother always used pork in her cabbage rolls so I use a mixture of beef and pork. You can use just one or the other (or any ground meat). Cooked long-grain white rice is added to the meat along with an egg to help it hold together.
Sauce
Most Polish cabbage roll recipes are covered in tomato sauce or tomato juice. We love the addition of a can of tomato soup to tomato sauce. It may not be typical but it softens & sweetens the sauce slightly and tastes delicious!
How to Make Cabbage Rolls
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil cabbage until tender.
- Cook rice slightly undercooked per the recipe below. Brown the ground beef and pork while the rice is cooking. Combine remaining filling ingredients
- Add the filling to cabbage leaves and roll. Place seam side down in a casserole dish.
- Top with the sauce and bake.
Tips for Great Cabbage Rolls
- For the most tender cabbage leaves, boil them in salted water.
- Cut 1/2 inch off the head of cabbage, the leaves will fall off as they cook.
- Once boiled, use a small knife to cut the thick stem of the leaf (image above).
- Overlap smaller leaves and fill, even if they’re not pretty, they’ll cook perfectly.
- You may have leftover filling depending on the size of your cabbage. Extra filling can be added to tomato soup, or stuffed in zucchini or bell peppers.
- Cabbage rolls can be frozen before or after baking.
More From Grandma’s Kitchen
- Homemade Pierogi
- Cabbage and Noodles
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
- American Goulash Recipe
- Beef Rouladen
- Homemade Borscht
Did you make these cabbage rolls? Leave a comment and rating below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 head green cabbage
- 1 cup long grain white rice uncooked
- 1 pound lean ground pork or ground turkey
- ½ pound lean ground beef
- 2 small yellow onions diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon dried dill
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or, 1 tablespoons dried parsley
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 (14.5 ounce each) can diced tomatoes with juices
- 1 egg
- 1 ¾ cups tomato sauce divided
- 1 (10.75 ounce each) can condensed tomato soup
Instructions
- Boil cabbage leaves for about 2 minutes or until soft. (See note below for removing leaves). Set aside to cool.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cook rice according to package directions but reduce cooking time by 5 minutes so the rice is slightly underdone. Set aside.
- Cook pork (or turkey), beef, onions, garlic, & seasonings in a pan until no pink remains. Drain any fat. Add in rice, diced tomatoes, and ⅓ cup of tomato sauce. Stir in egg.
- Mix the remaining tomato sauce and tomato soup in a bowl. Spread a very thin layer of the tomato sauce mixture in a 9x13 pan.
- Remove or thin any thick stem on cabbage leaves. Lay the cabbage leaf flat and add ¼ to ⅓ cup filling to the center of the leaf. Fold in the sides and roll the cabbage up. Place seam side down in the pan. (See note for small leaves). Repeat with remaining cabbage.
- Pour sauce over the cabbage and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 75-90 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Once boiled, use a small knife to cut the thick stem off the leaf (image above).
- Overlap smaller leaves and fill, even if they're not pretty, they'll cook perfectly.
- You may have leftover filling depending on the size of your cabbage. Extra filling can be added to tomato soup, or stuffed in zucchini or bell peppers.
- Cabbage rolls can be frozen before or after baking.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Beef, Casserole, Dinner
Cuisine Polish© 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.
My Grandparents come from Warsaw, Poland, oh that Polish food!!!! I love Cabbage Rolls/Stuffed Cabbage.., and my Sheltie,SERVICE DOGGIE does too.
Agreed…mmmmm polish food!! We like it too much to share though! Our poor puppies!
I made this recipe this evening and it was wonderful! The only thing I did different was I did not cook the meat ahead of time. It cooked beautifully. Thanks so much for a wonderful recipe!!
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe Carol!
If you freeze the cabbage ahead and defrost. Overnight they are soft and ready to roll. No boiling necessary
Great tip, thanks Judy!
MY MA MADE A COOKBOOK FOR ME BUT LEFT OUT THE CABBAGE ROLLS(SHE WAS POLISH)MY AUNT, HER SISTER HAD NO IDEA HOW TO MAKE SO THANK YOU.
I hope you love this recipe Jennifer!
Could i make these the night before and bake them the next day? I dont work alot with rice so i didnt know if it would get gummy or not. Thank you!
For this recipe you want to make sure your rice is slightly undercooked. So as long as you slightly undercook your rice you should be good to go Jessica!
Love new recipes
Thank you!
They look great, should the canned tomatoes be drained first?
Hi Cathy, no they do not need to be drained first. If you make the recipe I hope your family enjoys it!
Hi Holly, Made this last night added more herbs to it and topped it with Parmesan and mozerella, absolutely delicious will be a fav now.
Thanks for great recipes
So glad you loved it Kristine, those sound like great additions!
Cabbage rolls looked delicious….
Any idea how these will freeze? I love cabbage rolls but my husband is just mild for them.
They freeze beautifully.
Hi Holly! Love, love, love Spendwithpennies! In reading this Cabbage Roll post I noticed that you said your Grandma was from Poland. Any chance AT ALL you have a dill pickle soup recipe. We get it at a restaurant around here and I am having a heck of a time finding a decent recipe. Your recipes are all so great, maybe your Grandma has that one up her sleeve! Thanks for your posts! Debbie
Aww thank you so much Debbie!! I’m sorry, I do not have a dill pickle soup recipe posted at this time (but yum, now I’m craving some)! My friend Cathy has a one that has great reviews: Dill Pickle Soup. Hope that helps!
Made these to take to my aunt’s house – my uncle is in hospice so we’re feeding visitors and family. She always makes cabbage rolls for family gathering so I wanted to make them and found your recipe. My 5 year old helped me so our rolls were wonky but everyone raved.
We even had extra so we cooked them in a little bowl and my little chef loved them too! Thank you!
So sweet of your little chef to be helping you make cabbage rolls for visitors and family, I’m glad everyone loved them! I will keep your family in my thoughts and prayers.
Absolutely delicious! I like the fact that you cook the meats first to get rid of that nasty fat. I partially cooked the rice in reduce sodium beef broth and used pasta sauce instead of tomato sauce, other than that, followed your Grandma’s recipe to tee. Thank your for sharing, love this and will make again.
Glad to hear that you loved the cabbage rolls Andi!
Amazing !! I followed all the steps and hints Holly and they were gobbled up by my family as the best ones yet. I made a mild one , zesty chili tomatoes and jimmy deans regular sausage and a turkey and mild sausage batch. My friends and family enjoyed them and out of all three pans I only had about two from each pan left over. Happy New Year
So glad your friends and family loved them as much as mine does!! Happy New Year to you too!
We never cook the meat ahead in these. My mother’s recipe is loosely as follows doubling the same amounts as you listed.: She only used hamburger which was placed in a bowl (like mixing meatloaf) precook long grain rice either partially of until done. Do not use rice uncooked, it will be like eating stones. Sprinkle a teaspoon of cinnamon over the meat and add raw onion and rice to the beef . Mix it up and follow the cabbage directions. When you pull a cabbage leaf, place it on the counter and after it is cool enough to handle, take a knife and filet the back of the rib off the leaf. That way it will bend when rolled up without splitting. Place raw meat mixture in each leaf, and layer into a roasting pan (think turkey) approx. 2 layers. After a whole layer is in, sprinkle a layer of sauerkraut over them then some caraway seed and a can of diced tomatoes. The sauerkraut amount and diced tomatoes is up to you depending on how much you like them.
Thank you for sharing your Mother’s recipe with us Loren, it sounds amazing! I love learning the different ways people make cabbage rolls!
We never par cook the rice. We just put sauce in the meat mixture and the rice stems fine in the rolls.
Can I make them the evening before and bake them the next afternoon ?
Absolutely!
Great holubka recipe! My baba was born in Carpatho-Rusyn Ukraine (at the time, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire). She made these both with a beef/rice mix and with only rice. Your ingredients and technique are similar, but the Rusyn differences for holubka are:
1) you leave the meat and veggies raw; let them cook in the oven and flavor/soften the cabbage and rice; 2) do NOT use eggs (not needed as a binder since the meat is raw); 3) add 1-2 tbls. of brown sugar to the sauce; 4) initially core the cabbage and parboil the entire head on *low* simmer for 15-20 minutes to break down the initial hard cellulose; 4) layer the bottom of the pan with cabbage leaves and sauce before you place the rolls; 5) bake at 325° for at least 2 1/2 – 3 hrs, until the cabbage becomes translucent and fork tender; 6) baste, baste, baste the first 2 hours. Keep it covered the first 2 hours as well; then remove the foil and baste if it looks dried out.
Thanks, Baba!
Thank you for sharing your Rusyn differences, it sounds wonderful! I will have to give it a try!
Very similar to my baba’s recipe too!
Hola hermosa! Estos rollitos de col polacos se llaman “Golabki “,no entiendo porqué no le llamas por su nombre. Te felicito por querer reproducir la comida de tu abuela, no se deben perder las tradiciones pero los nombres también son importantes ya que cada país, especialmente Europa del este, tiene su propia receta y nombre para estos por ej; En Rumanía a los rollitos de col les llaman “Sarmales “y la base es la misma pero los condimentos diferentes. Saludos
Thank you Wendy. I’m happy to be able to share my grandmother’s recipe with you :)
Delicious!!! I used venison burger and ground beef!!!
Great idea Bobbi!
When making cabbage rolls…put your head of cabbage in a plastic bag or wrap with plastic wrap and put in your freezer 1 or 2 days ahead. Take cabbage out and put in colander with bowl underneath to save a mess, and defrost. Do this about an hour before you want to start preparing your cabbage rolls. Your cabbage will peel off like a dream and be wilted and soft so you can roll with great ease!! Works like magic. I’ve been doing this for years. Love it.
That’s a great tip Sandra, thank you for sharing!
Make cabbage rolls withe lean ground beef, uncooked rice ,chopped onions and minced garlic ( how much depends on you ? I like lots. Steam the cabbage in large stock peeling off leaves sa they softened . Used Taiwnese cabbage but find it is quite thin. I do them in a turkey roaster, get about 40 to 50 at a time . I use tomato juice, takes about three cans to cover them. About 3 hours at 350. Uses about 9 lbs of meat. I freeze them in batches for meals later on . Just keep juice in bags for reheating when you want
Sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing Roger
You did not say to put your cabbage roll recipe if it should be in a casserole or baking sheet!!!
Rodger mentioned he puts them in a roasting pan.