Stuffed Cabbage

As the cold weather sets in I begin to crave heartier dishes. Here in New York State we've already seen our first snow. There's a chill in the air and I've begun breaking out my big sweaters and winter boots. As usual, I tend to like meals I can prepare ahead. Preferably big batch recipes that can be packed up and frozen for another day. This dish checks all those boxes.

Everyone seems to have a version of this recipe tucked in among their files and old cookbooks. After a lot of experimenting, this is by far my favorite. Feel free to make adjustments to suit your own taste. I often make it with ground beef, but ground chicken or turkey work well too. Don't be intimidated by the amount of prep. This dish is easy to assemble. A great project for a Sunday afternoon.

This is how we do October in NYS.

As my local CSA wraps up, we were lucky enough to get this fabulous cabbage.
Almost too beautiful to eat. Almost.

If you're making more than one layer of cabbage rolls,
be sure to add a layer of sauce in between.

These mini foil loaf pans are the perfect vessel for stashing single portions away
in your freezer for those nights when you are too tired to cook and too bored with take out.

Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients

Sauce:

Olive oil

2 onions-chopped

2-28 ounce cans, crushed tomatoes

1/4c red wine vinegar

1/4c brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 head of cabbage

Filling:

2 1/ 2lb ground protein of choice (beef, chicken, turkey)

3 eggs

1/2c chopped onions

1/2c breadcrumbs

1/2c uncooked rice

1 tsp minced thyme leaves (or more to taste)

1 1/2tsp salt

½ tsp pepper.

 

Directions

 

Make the sauce:

Sauté’ the onions in 3 tbsp olive oil until translucent.

Add the tomatoes, vinegar, brown sugar, salt and pepper.

Simmer for at least 30 minutes or until thickened.

 

Cook the cabbage:

Fill a stockpot with water and bring to a boil.

Remove the core from the cabbage and submerge in the boiling water.

As the leaves begin to separate from the head, using tongs, remove them and place on a clean dish towel to dry. This happens pretty quickly.

 

Make the filling:

Place the ground beef (or other protein) eggs, breadcrumbs, rice, thyme, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Mix well.

 

Assemble:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

1. Place some sauce in the bottom of a Dutch oven. 

2. Place ¼-1/3c of filling at the base of each leaf.

3. Roll and fold like a burrito. I usually fold up the bottom of the leaf, then the sides and roll.

4. Place the filled cabbage rolls on top of sauce, seam side down.

5. Repeat with remaining leaves and filling.

6. If you make two layers of cabbage rolls, add sauce to the bottom layer before stacking.

7. Cover and bake for about an hour or until the meat is cooked through.

Enjoy!