Cabbage rolls are a traditional Russian food – in Russian, they’re called “golubtsy.” These are super common at every Russian gathering, and can be made pretty easily. I was inspired to make cabbage rolls because I found out that Good Culture makes sour cream (their cottage cheese is the best!!), so I wanted to make a dish that I could eat with lots of sour cream. I made some chili one week, and the next I made this recipe!
Thoughts on Ingredients
Traditionally, most Russian recipes that use ground meat call for a 50/50 mix of ground beef and ground pork. This is true of Russian dumplings (pelmeni) and meatballs (kotleti). This applies to cabbage rolls as well, but if you can’t find any ground pork that you like, just ground beef is fine too.
When packing the cabbage leaves, some people leave the ground meat raw. I like to slightly brown the meat in a cast iron pan before using it in the filling. This gives the meat a bit more flavor, and you can use the rendered fat for future cooking.
While removing leaves from the cabbage, you’ll get to a point where the cabbage is so small that it doesn’t make sense to use the leaves. Hold on to those mini cabbages – you can chop these up and fry in some meat fat (left in your pan from browning the filling!) for a delicious side dish.
If you have an option at the grocery store, savoy cabbage will be better for cabbage rolls. Savoy leaves are softer and looser than green cabbage leaves, so they are easier to work with for cabbage rolls.
For the tomato sauce, you can experiment – some people use diced tomatoes, some people use tomato sauce, some people even use tomato soup. I personally like using diced tomatoes and tomato sauce – but everyone has their variation.
What You Need
- A large pot or casserole dish (I use my 7 quart dutch oven)
- 2 large cabbages (around 5lb of cabbage)
- 4 lb ground meat
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 head garlic
- 1 tbsp dill
- 1 tbsp parsley
- 1 tbsp salt
- 3 eggs
- 28 oz diced tomatoes
- 3 oz tomato sauce
- Pot for boiling water
The Recipe
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- Bring water to a boil, and add the cabbages. Every 3 minutes, remove the leaves that are translucent and soft, then put the cabbage back in the boiling water. Repeat this process until you have removed all the usable cabbage leaves
- Brown the ground meat in a pan until the fat has rendered
- Add the meat, chopped onion, chopped garlic, dill, parsley, salt, and eggs to a large mixing bowl and mix well
- (optional, but this will be make assembling the rolls easier) – using a sharp knife, cut the stem on each cabbage leaf so that the leaf flat
- Prepare your tomato sauce by adding your diced tomatoes and tomato sauce to a bowl and mixing well – salt to taste
- Assemble your cabbage rolls by adding meat to the center of the leaf, and rolling it like a burrito! (fold one side over the filling, then the two adjacent sides, and roll it into the remaining side of the leaf)
- Place your cabbage rolls in your baking dish, and layer with the tomato sauce
- Cover tightly with tin foil and bake for 75-90 minutes
- Enjoy!