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.
THANK YOU, FOR THE DELICIOUS RECIPES
Yum!!! So much flavour
I had to use up the left overs from making stuffed peppers and it worked out perfectly. They were fun to make too
Going on a fishing trip with the lads in late September wondering if you could make this dish ahead of time and freeze?
Absolutely, this dish freezes beautifully!
Love to cook but would like to learn different recipes I’m a rednick Country boy so nothing hard or difficult to cook.
I’m sure that you’ll find plenty of easy recipes here Robert!
Tried the cabbage rolls today. Loved the recipe. We like spicey foods, changed the tomatoes for the rotel. Loved it
I love your site! Of all the sites for easy cooking yours by far the best. I tweaked this just a bit because I had Italian style tomatos not tomato soup.
Thank you so much William! I’m so glad you’ve found some recipes to enjoy!
I’m ready to try this Recipe
This recipe hit the spot! My husband and kids loved it just as much as I did! I added just a tad more sausage than it called for but still turned out fantastic.
Love. Your recipes
Thank you for sharing
I was born and raised in South Africa and ate cabbage rolls many times. We usually make this with raw meat but I decided to try this recipe. It was DELICIOUS, I followed the recipe exactly as it was presented. I was a little confused as to what kind of soup I should use (condensed or not). After reading the reviews I read that someone asked the question as well. I will make this again as we all enjoyed it very much. Thank you.
This is the first rating I’ve written. Because this recipe is incredibly tasty, adaptive, and easy to make, I give it 5 stars! Thanks for sharing!
Can minute rice be used for this
I wouldn’t recommend it, Susan. The minute rice will become overcooked as the cabbage rolls bake.
I was wondering what you would do to sub and make it vegetarian?
Hi Candice, we have not tried making this recipe vegetarian before but you could try replacing the meat with a vegetarian alternative! Let us know how it turns out.
I am not a vegetarian but I have tried every diet in the world. So when substituting meat you can use
Tofu
Eggplant
zucchini
I don’t know how strict you regiment is but if you use boullions instead of salt. I did not miss the lack of beef. Until an hour later when I was hungry again. But that’s just me. Enjoy!
PS It’s a lot more economical and organic to use regular rice. Pour 1 cup of rice to 2 Cups of boiling water. For this recipe simmer on low for 15 minutes any other recipe 20 minutes.
Very good easy to understand
A lovely recipe and it tastes amazing. I added additional spices, plus salt to taste. I really like the addition of the tomato soup. Easy and delicious. Your recipes have been helping me through this time at home. All I could buy was a cabbage and a few soft tomatoes, so cobbled this together with some leftover meat and a shredded carrot. I had a can of soup and it never occurred to me to add it to make a sauce! I can see why you love grandma’s recipe – you gotta to feed people, made with love, using what you have available.
Holly, thank you for being so generous with your recipes.
So happy you loved this recipe Deb! It definitely reminds me of my grandma too :)
Holly trust me when I say I can read a recipe Word for Word and follow it and still manage to mess it up. However that being said this recipe turned out lovely. Big thumbs up! For the people who criticized it and said it was bland I wonder if they have salt and pepper on hand or if they ever taste their food while cooking it. Just a thought. Again thank you.
So glad you enjoyed it Wanda!
Wonderful Recipe! My aunt used to make Cabbage rolls and she called it Rock n Roll. Last I had it was 40 something Years ago… first time for me to make One and its a success.
Wow, just fixed this for my family…grandkids, daughter, wife… Used to have these growing up (I’m 73). My mother made these and I loved them. I don’t remember these tasting this good ! Absolutely delicious! Thank you so much for a delightful dinner! Will do this again soon
Wow! Some of these comments from others are just so rude.
I really liked this recipe! I’ve made it for my parents ( Dad loves cabbage rolls), my boyfriend & his parents. They all loved it. Even my kids. I can’t say I followed exactly. I usually add extra seasoning to everything. I also used crushed tomatoes instead of diced because I just do not like little pieces of tomatoes (I’m weird). But this recipe was fabulous. And after reading some of these comments & never commenting for the past 3 years.. I figured I finally would. Thanks lady for this great recipe. Keep it up!
Thanks Ashley! So happy everyone is enjoying it :)
Not a fan of this recipe..tastes nothing like I remember my aunts ….won’t make it again…it was very bland and tasteless! Sorry!