There is literally nothing I love more than tasty things stuffed inside pockets of other tasty things. I don’t know what it is, but there is something unequivocally satisfying about biting into a dumpling, a filled pastry, or even a meatball and having some other lovely tasting concoction come oozing out of it.
Watch the video!
In my opinion, cabbage rolls are a super underrated stuffed food … stuff.
Maybe it’s because I didn’t see how the bland, fall-apart-y, *ground-beef-and-rice-mix, stuffed into too much cabbage, then topped with uninspiring plain tomato sauce* — that were the first cabbage rolls I ever tasted — were worth the mammoth amount of effort they seemed to take.
BUT, when I simplified the process AND packed my cabbage rolls full of not just more nutritious, but more DELICIOUS ingredients — I fell in LOVE.
Cabbage rolls are, to me, like a giant Eastern European ravioli. Cabbage gets this noodle-like consistency when it’s cooked that I adore. (Most underrated vegetable on the planet imo.) And the insides of cabbage rolls don’t need to be bland & boring! They can be as Ah-Mazing as the best stuffed foods. It just takes a little creativity and a willingness to roll with the process and make a bunch at once (so you can eat them for days or freeze it and eat them for months)! They keep (in fridge or freezer) most EXCELLENTLY.
And if you’re using my recipe, they’re not just delicious, they’re uber nutritious. And EASY to do.
These cabbage rolls are high protein, high fibre, low carb and nutrient DENSE.
Because that’s how we roll at UpRoots Wellness (having your cabbage roll cake and eating that bish too).
All you need:
- 2 whole heads of cabbage (I like a green and red/purple for nutrient variety, but green rolls better)
- 3 lbs of lean/extra lean ground beef OR my veggie burger meat replacement mix
- A bunch of vegetables of your choice (I used 3 medium zucchini, 2 large onions & 6 cloves of garlic + leftover celery in this batch) — you want about as much veg as protein (more or less based on preference)
- 1 large canned of tinned tomatoes (I like heritage & organic varieties — they seem to really lend flavour that’s worth the bit extra in cost to me)
- Greek yoghurt
- sea salt
- chilli flakes/cayenne or black pepper
- Herbs (optional)
What you do:
- De-core cabbage and boil whole heads in a pot of water until soft. (Red cabbage will dye a green cabbage, so if aesthetics is important and you’re using both I’d boil them separately OR do the green first then the red.)
- Reserve half the onion and garlic then pulse your veg in a food processor to rice grain consistency. You’ll probably want to include onion and garlic Add to protein (beef or veggie-burger mix) in a large mixing bowl and season with a generous amount of sea salt (or salt of your choice) and chilli/black pepper/any other spice you think is nice (herbs are a wonderful addition, but I’m making this recipe as simple as possible to show you how easy *excellent* can be). Mix together with your hands, grandma-making-burgers style.
- Throw your reserved onion and garlic into the blender with tomatoes. Season generously with sea salt, something spicy (black pepper will do) and blend to smooth. Add herbs if using, or wait until the end for garnish. (Sometimes it’s a nicer, definitely fresher, flavour if you don’t cook herbs like parsley. Sometimes you get a deeper, more incorporated flavour when you cook herbs into a sauce like basil or oregano.)
- Cool cabbage roll heads in a chilly water bath and start pulling the leaves off gently. (Try starting at the bottom where you de-cored and pulling the leaves off from the thickest stalk bit. When they stop budging, look at which leaf is the next to pull off by turning it over and finding the thinnest bits at the tops. Loosen the thin bits of the outermost leaf then move back down to the stalk bits to completely pull the leaf off. It’s OK if you break some, this recipe is forgiving.)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Start rolling! Lay out a cabbage leaf (or two broken ones), then make little cylinder shapes with your filling and plop them down. Roll the leaves around the filling so it’s covered and place into a lasagna pan/casserole dish. These do not need to be tight or even tidy, our recipe will do all the firming to keep the roll together on its own, so all you need to do is stuff them into the dish (using the sides and the other rolls to prop them up if you need) in an organized manner and let the filling do the job of holding the shape after they’re cooked.
- Pour tomato blend on top and bake (covered for 15-20 minutes, then uncovered for 20-40 minutes OR you can try an hour uncovered for a less liquid-y, darker sauce).
- Top with greek yoghurt as a dupe for sour cream (add a little salt to the yoghurt for anyone really bucking the idea they can be subbed one fo the other and it WILL stop the complaint) and herbs if you’ve reserved some for now!
- That’s it! If you’re concerned for fat content/calories just take a few rolls out to eat for now and refrigerate the rest of the dish. All the fat from the beef (whether there is any depends on the ingredients/beef used) will pool into the well created by the missing rolls and solidify making it a cinch to pull off later.
I normally don’t have a problem with excess fat, especially with an extra lean beef. But I have bought local organic beef that seemed to give off some fat (who knows how lean it was supposed to be) and if that happens to you, there is a really simple solution for you! (I actually found that I was able to get more fat off this way than if I cooked it first and simply drained the pan!)
Now you can portion these up and freeze them (my favourite way to freeze) so you can grab them out meal by meal, refrigerate the whole shabbang and eat them for a week OR freeze the whole pan and grab them out for another week/big dinner/potluck.
How easy?! And delish!
Bon appetite!