Classic cabbage rolls recipe

Stuffed cabbage rolls

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Nowadays, almost everyone has an acute lack of free time, and if previously there was a tradition of making dumplings with the whole family or rolling cabbage rolls, now, unfortunately, this does not happen so often. After all, now semi-finished products can be purchased freely in any hypermarket, but they will never compare with cabbage rolls prepared at home, from good minced meat. It’s still funny that for some people this not a bad tradition is still alive, and there are people who value the warmth of the hearth and family values, as well as delicious, well-cooked home-cooked food.

And this recipe is for you, my dears! According to my recipe, the cabbage rolls turn out to be very tasty and in the end you will get not only a tasty dish for a homemade dinner, but also time spent with pleasure in the circle of your loved ones. The only thing left to do is to convince the family to help the hostess prepare a delicious dinner and distribute the roles: who handles the cabbage, who grinds the minced meat, and who twists the cabbage rolls

Naturally, you can cook cabbage rolls without using homemade ones, freeze them and later cook them slowly if necessary. But if there is an opportunity and your loved ones can help you with this, be sure to take advantage of the opportunity given to us and turn the routine into a holiday! Also, take note of Lazy cabbage rolls - this recipe can become a lifesaver for you when you don’t have enough time, but you still want cabbage rolls.

Cook with pleasure!

Ingredients

vegetable oil for frying
cabbage (preferably young)	1 large fork
minced meat (beef and pork in equal proportions)	500 g
rice	0.5-0.75 cups
bulb onions	1 PC
carrot	1 PC
tomatoes (can be replaced with 2 tablespoons of good tomato sauce or ketchup)	2-3 pcs
garlic	2-3 cloves
parsley
salt
freshly ground pepper
For the sauce
tomato sauce or ketchup	2 tbsp.
sour cream	3-4 tbsp.
broth or water	400-500 ml (more is possible)
salt

general information

Total production time

2 hours 30 minutes

Active production time

1 hour 30 minutes

How to cook cabbage rolls

How to cook cabbage rolls correctly? Before experimenting, I suggest mastering the traditional version.

Stuffed cabbage rolls are usually considered a Ukrainian dish, although their analogues can be found in almost any state kitchen. There is historical evidence proving that cabbage leaves were used as a “wrapper” for minced meat back in Old Greece. Since that time, the recipe has not changed much: it is still the same white cabbage, the same minced meat and the same development of stewing.

Now you can find a lot of options for making cabbage rolls - using Savoy and Chinese cabbage, with mushrooms and buckwheat, in the oven and with preparatory frying in a frying pan. To move to the “advanced” level and allow yourself culinary experiences, it’s worth figuring out how to cook cabbage rolls in the traditional version. The traditional version is cabbage rolls with meat and rice in cabbage.

On this page you will read about:

To make it easier to understand, here is a step-by-step recipe for cabbage rolls with photos.

Ingredients

To make cabbage rolls you will need:

2 forks medium sized cabbage;
1 kg of meat (pork, beef, chicken or their composition);
1 cup rice;
2-3 medium sized carrots;
2 huge onions;
vegetable oil for frying vegetables;
salt, pepper to taste;
3 tbsp. l. tomato paste;
sour cream for serving

How to cook cabbage rolls with meat and rice

Choosing cabbage for cabbage rolls is not an ordinary task. The fork should be dense, but not hard, otherwise you cannot separate the leaves from each other. The size is medium, from a small head you will get a small number of cabbage rolls, large forks are also not suitable, from them you can make cabbage rolls the size of a sole.

In vegetable aisles at markets, from time to time they sell cabbage leaves by weight - just right for making cabbage rolls from them. Very comfortable. As annoying as it may sound, such magic does not happen very often, so there is only one way out: decide on suitable forks and work with what you have.

Cabbage leaves for cabbage rolls

So, we select the cabbage, wash the forks, and remove the top hard leaves.

Boil water in a large saucepan. Prick the cabbage with a large fork and place it in boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Choose the time yourself - the top sheets should become soft, but under no circumstances should they fall apart.

Remove the forks from the water and remove the top few leaves. When you feel that the leaves are not “moving” freely, stop, otherwise you will simply tear them.

As necessary, trim off the thick areas that are located at the base of the cabbage leaf.

We repeat the function for the next layer of leaves and the next head of cabbage - we do this until it is possible to remove even, medium-sized leaves.

Minced meat for traditional cabbage rolls

the meat for cabbage rolls , trim off excess fat and membranes.

Grind in a meat grinder. To save time, you can purchase ready-made minced meat if you practice making homemade dishes from store-bought semi-finished products.

Boil the rice until half cooked. If you take fully cooked rice, after stewing it will turn into a porridge-like mass. Raw rice will “take away” the maximum juice from the meat, as a result of which it will become dry and hard.

Place rice in a bowl with minced meat.
It is worth realizing that the amount “1 glass” indicated in the list of ingredients for making cabbage rolls is quite arbitrary. You can take a little more or a little less rice, depending on what kind of inside you like in the cabbage rolls. With these proportions, there will be more cereals and carrots with onions than meat, and the dish will turn out to be more vegetable than meat. If you prefer the most substantial, “aggressive” version of cabbage rolls, you can reduce the amount of rice or increase the amount of minced meat.

Peel the carrots and grate them.
Carrots impart juiciness to cabbage rolls, so you should not reduce their quantity. In general, it will provide some sweetness to the insides - if this flavor note seems excessive to you, use less carrots.

Peel the onion and cut into small cubes.
Half rings or even rings are also completely appropriate. The main thing is that the external appearance of the inside does not disturb your aesthetic perception of food.

Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into a heated frying pan and fry the carrots until soft.

Place it in a bowl with the minced meat and rice.

In the same frying pan, fry the onion in oil until slightly translucent and soft.
Place in a bowl, don’t forget about salt and pepper.

Mix well the minced cabbage rolls, consisting of minced meat, rice, carrots and onions . You can also add a little fresh herbs, your favorite dry herbs, appropriate seasonings and spices to it.

Modeling cabbage rolls

We place the boiled and cooked cabbage leaf with its base facing us, put a small amount of minced meat inside.

We roll it up into a tube and hide the edges inside.

Making cabbage rolls in a saucepan

Place the cabbage rolls in a huge pan with a thick bottom, trying to place them very tightly. The next rule is to place them seam side down.

We dilute the tomato paste in 2-3 glasses of water, pour in the cabbage rolls. The water should not reach the top layer of cabbage rolls by about 2 fingers. In addition, you can add a little ketchup, plum jam, sour cream or unsweetened yogurt to the same sauce. Some housewives stew cabbage rolls by frying them in a saucepan with carrots and onions.

Place on the stove, bring to a boil and, reducing the heat to low, simmer for at least 45-60 minutes. The cabbage should eventually become quite soft, the inside should be ready.

Serve with sour cream or any sauce based on it. Bon appetit!

And more about making cabbage rolls

Stuffed cabbage rolls can completely become a work of art if you approach their production with soul. When combining ingredients for minced meat, try to put maximum diligence into this easy process - and, surprisingly, then the inside will be especially tasty. When rolling the cabbage, make sure that everything is smooth and neat - then the appearance will bring special visual pleasure, which will directly enhance the pleasure received from the cabbage rolls themselves. Serve food on beautiful dishes - and the most ordinary dish will become solemn.

By the way, in the western regions of Ukraine, with the help of this simple dish, they are still inspecting a girl’s readiness for home life: it is believed that if a young lady does not know how to create doves the size of her little finger, if she cannot quickly prepare a giant tub of cabbage leaves twisted into minced meat, if her cabbage rolls unfold during the stewing process or, what’s even worse, fall apart, she won’t see a good groom like snowdrops in January. Cook with pleasure, and let your cabbage rolls always be absolutely delicious!

Stuffed cabbage rolls

Very lazy cabbage rolls in the oven

Almost everyone loves cabbage rolls. But there’s a lot of fuss with them... that’s why we plan to make cabbage rolls for special occasions and weekends to amuse the family. And we waste a lot of our own precious time. Naturally, the gratitude of your relatives will be a merit for your efforts. But I offer this option for making cabbage rolls for any day. And for those who like the specific type of cabbage rolls, blindfold them and let them eat in the dark). Because the taste, naturally, does not differ from real ones.

Lazy cabbage rolls “The most ordinary”

A recipe from my youth, when I had to work very hard and for a long time, without days off. And there was neither the energy nor the time to do much cooking. How this recipe helped me out at that time! Maybe you will need it too. Not a culinary delight, naturally, but tasty, simple and accessible.

Lazy cabbage rolls

We love darlings very much, but we don’t have time to mess around with them! I would like to share with you how to cook quickly and delicious cabbage rolls with minimal time!

Lazy cabbage rolls from Alla Kovalchuk

I spotted this recipe in the program “Everything will be delicious” on the Ukrainian TV channel STB. The secrets of perfect lazy cabbage rolls were revealed by MasterChef Ukraine project participant Alla Kovalchuk. My family appreciated this dish. My husband ate 6 of them right away. I barely had time to leave for lunch and for a photo. Come in, let's sort out the secrets.

Nostalgic cabbage rolls

Before I uploaded the recipe, I asked myself: “Do you have anything new to say?” "No!" – I immediately answered honestly. But I still upload the recipe, because widely known and beloved dishes are not only food in the physiological sense, they are a sign, a memory, and everyone has their own. Nobody cooks one or two servings of cabbage rolls; they make a lot of them, so for me cabbage rolls are associated with a large, friendly family. The children have long grown up and moved all over the world. But then a happy day comes when the whole family gathers at the parents' house. Sons, daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law are sitting at the dinner table, mother is taking out a cast iron pot of cabbage rolls stewed in sour cream from the oven, the smell of good quality homemade food is in the air. The family is having lunch.

Casserole “A la cabbage rolls”

The presented casserole is one of the variants of the beloved cabbage rolls, which turns out to be very tasty, tender, satisfying, and also beautiful.

Army-style lazy cabbage rolls

I immediately foresee that someone will not understand why I uploaded such a recipe. This was my favorite dish while serving in the army; in our soldiers’ canteen they prepared it at least once a week. I offer it specifically in the form in which it was prepared in our unit. With all this, I want to reveal some secrets of army cuisine.

Lazy cabbage rolls according to my grandmother's recipe

My grandmother turned 88 this year. She, like almost all grandmothers, prepared dishes for us in childhood that were so tasty that we remembered them for the rest of our lives. And I cook almost all dishes exactly the way she does. Namely, these lazy cabbage rolls are tasty, juicy and healthy! Help yourself!

Stuffed cabbage rolls opposite

An exciting dish of products available to everyone. Quite an economical dish, but it looks very beautiful on the table. There is no shame in treating guests, and you can pamper your own family. We will cook in the VITEK VT-4207R multicooker

Cabbage lasagna “Italian-style cabbage rolls”

The newest look at everyone's favorite recipe.

Stuffed cabbage rolls . Cabbage rolls are a dish that consists of cabbage leaves with entrails. Minced meat and rice are most often used as the inside, but apart from that, cabbage rolls can be cooked with vegetables, mushrooms, minced meat and buckwheat, etc.

It is clear from history that cabbage rolls first appeared in Mongolian and Turkish cuisine. Muslims called this dish dolma. And it was prepared from lamb meat twisted into grape leaves. Later, dolma became a model for cabbage rolls, which received their name in the 18th – early 19th centuries. Now cabbage rolls are very popular in Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian cuisines.

Stuffed cabbage rolls are a very healthy and nutritious dish. Cabbage contains fiber, vegetable protein, phosphorus, minerals and vitamins (a group of low molecular weight organic compounds of relatively simple structure and varied chemical nature) . Thanks to its own composition, it improves the functioning of the intestinal tract, lowers cholesterol levels (Insoluble in water, soluble in fats and organic solvents.) in the blood (the internal environment of the human and animal body) , and cleanses the body of toxins.

Meat is rich in proteins, which contain amino acids essential for the human body.

To ensure that the cabbage rolls come out tasty, you need to pay special attention to the cabbage. It should be immediately noted that small-sized forks are not suitable for stuffed cabbage rolls. It will be very difficult to form cabbage rolls from their leaves; the minced meat will fall out. To prevent this from happening, the forks must be medium or large in size. It is better that the leaves are not damaged or spoiled. Young cabbage is ideal for making cabbage rolls: the leaves are not hard and are simply separated from the stalk. Simply cut them off and pour boiling water over them for 3-5 minutes. After this you can wrap them in minced meat.

If the cabbage is not young, then preparing the leaves will take slightly longer. Rinse the forks and place them in boiling water. To prevent the leaves from tearing, you need to add a little vinegar or citric acid to the water. Boil fork until the top leaves just begin to separate. So evenly remove all the leaves from the fork, cut off, if necessary, the thickening at the base of the cabbage leaf.

The most popular interior for cabbage rolls is minced meat mixed with rice. The rice can be boiled in advance until cooked, or you can just pour boiling water over it for a couple of minutes. The minced meat should be fatty. This will give extra juiciness to the finished dish.

When all the ingredients are prepared, you need to wrap the minced meat in cabbage leaves and fold them into an envelope. Place raw cabbage rolls in a saucepan, add sauce or salted water and simmer until done. Production time is approximately 40 minutes.

Stuffed cabbage rolls - a traditional recipe with minced meat and rice

Minced meat wrapped in cabbage leaves is a fairly common hot dish in almost all Eastern European countries. And the very name “stuffed cabbage rolls” in Russia arose under the influence of French cuisine in the 19th century, when the Russian nobility were served fully fried pigeons. Around this time, they began to serve unfaithful pigeons, in other words, minced meat, but in order to disguise them, they began to wrap them in cabbage leaves. This is approximately how everyone’s favorite dish arose.

In Russian cookbooks of the 19th century, cabbage rolls also appeared under the name “dolma”. And although the essence is the same, this food is called differently everywhere. So, in Great Britain - these are cabbage rolls, in France - cabbage cigars, in Spain - stuffed cabbage, in Germany - sausage in cabbage.

For wrapping, they use not only the freshest leaves, but also pickled ones, as in Ukraine. And in the spring, young beet leaves are used for these purposes. In Belarus, young horseradish or grape leaves are used to wrap minced meat. And the inside of cabbage rolls is also different everywhere. Rice is usually consumed, but different peoples may add pearl barley, corn grits, buckwheat with cracklings to the meat.

I invite you, dear readers, to cook this tasty and satisfying dish with me. And even though their production will take some time, your household will be very happy with a delicious lunch or dinner.

Stuffed cabbage rolls - a traditional recipe made in a saucepan (frying pan)

The entire process of making a dish includes several steps:

Making minced meat;
Preparation of cabbage leaves;
Wrapping minced meat in leaves;
Making the sauce;
Stewing cabbage rolls in sauce.

Making minced meat

First, let's prepare the minced meat. It is better to eat lean pork, it is the juiciest. It is completely acceptable to prepare mixed minced meat by mixing together pork, beef and chicken minced through a meat grinder.

I took the following for minced meat:

Pork – 500 g,
Beef – 500 g,
Onions - 2-3 onions,
Salt and pepper - to taste.

We pass all the ingredients (meat and onion) through a meat grinder, add salt and pepper to the minced meat, and mix it thoroughly.

Then add the washed rice to the minced meat and mix the minced meat well. For now, let’s put it aside and get on with the cabbage.

Preparing cabbage leaves

For wrapping, we need whole leaves from 1 fork. To do this, cabbage is protected from the upper withered and stained leaves. The freshest leaves are very difficult to separate from the fork, especially the leaves that are closer to the middle. To make this task easier, the leaves need to be made as soft as possible, in other words, boiled in boiling water, then they will simply come off the fork.

Wrapping minced meat in leaves

From cooled leaves, use a knife to cut off the thick, rough vein at the base of the leaf.

Place 1 tablespoon of minced meat in the middle of the sheet and wrap the sheet like an envelope.

Do this until you have used up all the leaves.

Making the sauce

To make the sauce we will need:

Carrots – 1 pc.,
Onions – 1 pc.,
Wheat flour 1-2 tbsp. l.,
Sour cream – 1-2 tbsp. l.,
Tomato paste or tomato sauce - 1 tbsp. l.,
Salt, pepper and seasonings - to taste,
Vegetable oil – 1-2 tbsp. l.

Cut the onion into half rings and fry it in a frying pan with a small amount of oil. As soon as the onion becomes transparent, add the carrots grated on a large grater and continue frying until the carrots are half cooked.

Add tomato sauce and fry everything together for about a minute.

Sprinkle the frying with flour and stir immediately so that the oil is absorbed into the flour.

And immediately add 1 glass of boiled water, stir so that no lumps form. And add 0.5-1 glass of water, mix thoroughly. And then add sour cream.

Add salt, pepper, seasonings to the sauce (I added 0.5 tsp. Vegetables and paprika in pieces, but spices can be added according to your taste and preferences). Stir everything thoroughly, and that’s it – the sauce is ready.

Stewing cabbage rolls in sauce

We leave the sauce in the frying pan given to us (it’s the deepest one), and put the prepared semi-finished products there. Or we put them in a pan and pour the sauce on top. The sauce should completely cover the cabbage rolls.

Simmer the cabbage rolls over low heat under a closed lid for 1-1.5 hours. During the stewing process, turn the cabbage rolls over to the other side as needed so that they cook moderately.

And this is a ready-made dish. Place the cabbage rolls on plates and serve.

Recipe for making cabbage rolls with meat and rice in the oven

If you want to stew the cabbage rolls in the oven, there’s nothing complicated either. All stages of production: making minced meat, boiling cabbage leaves, wrapping minced meat are carried out in the same way as in the traditional version. Maybe you will make a different sauce, which will need to be completely poured over the prepared semi-finished products. Cover the form with foil and place in the oven for 1 hour at a temperature of 180-200ºC. 10-15 minutes before readiness, remove the foil and keep it in the oven so that the cabbage rolls are browned. How to cook in the oven, watch this video.

How to cook savory cabbage rolls

To ensure that your cabbage rolls come out juicy, tender and tasty, listen to these tips.

Choose pork or beef to make minced meat. The minced chicken will be a bit dry. In the latter case, you can create mixed minced meat.
The minced meat will be even tastier and juicier if you don’t skimp on the onions. Be sure to salt and pepper the minced meat. If desired, you can add chopped herbs, but adding an egg is absolutely not necessary.
It is necessary to salt not only the minced meat, but also the water in which you boil the fork in order to remove the leaves from it.
Before plunging the fork into boiling water, cut off the stalk. Then the top leaves will be removed without effort on their own. All you have to do is grab them and take them out of the hot water.
Before cooking, rice must be thoroughly washed in several waters and boiled in a ratio of 1:2, after cooking it can be washed under running water. I have already told you how to cook rice correctly, read it.
Don’t forget to cut off the thick part before putting the minced meat on the cabbage leaf.
For the best taste, it is best to lightly fry ready-made semi-finished products in vegetable oil before stewing. During the frying process, the meat sets, the cabbage tightly braids the meat and the cabbage roll takes on a clear shape and does not fall apart after stewing. Well, the taste of the finished dish will be the most intense.

The taste of the finished dish depends almost entirely on the prepared sauce. Before adding the sauce, taste it for salt. The cabbage rolls should be completely covered with sauce, only then will they be tender and tasty. It is best to simmer them in a saucepan or deep frying pan over low heat for 1.5-2 hours, and in the oven you will get an equally tasty dish.
If you have leftover minced meat, cook soup with meatballs with it, make hedgehogs or meatballs.
When you have made a lot of cabbage rolls and you decide not to cook them all at once, put the remaining ones in the freezer. Semi-finished products will even cook faster later, because frozen cabbage quickly becomes soft after thawing.

And most importantly, make any dish with love, then everything will turn out very tasty. Bon appetit!