Cabbage Rolls

You’ll want to top these Cabbage Rolls with Tomato Sauce #1  – 

see our recipe for Tomato Sauce #1 on this blog!

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

1 large head of cabbage

1 tsp. salt

1 tbl. butter          

½ medium onion, finely chopped

5 large mushrooms, finely chopped

1 ½ lb. ground beef (you can substitute ground chicken or turkey if you like)

¼ lb. ground sausage

pince of allspice

1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1 tbl. fresh parsley, finely chopped

1/3 cup crushed pineapple

1/3 cup golden raisins

1 cup cooked rice

pinch of salt

4 cups tomato sauce (see recipe, this blog)

2 tbl. Parmesan cheese

Directions

·         Fill a large Dutch oven about 2/3 full with water (enough so cabbage heads float)

·         add 1 tsp. salt to the water and bring to a boil

·         Peel off the outer green leaves of the cabbage head and discard

·         Remove the core of the cabbage head about 1” around and deep, leaving the leaves in tact

·         Put the whole head of cabbage in the pot of boiling water, core side up, and keep dunking it down into the boiling water, about three minutes or so.

·         Using tongs, carefully peel off the first layer of cabbage leaves and set aside on a plate

·         Continue boiling and peeling off leaves until you have about 12 good size leaves to work with (you can save the rest of the cabbage for another recipe!)

·         Cut the stiff spine out of the cabbage leaves in a “V” shape (see photo below)

The boiled cabbage leaves, ready for stuffing.

·         Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat

·         Add onions and mushrooms and cook until tender, and mushrooms give off their liquid

·         In a large bowl, mix ground beef, sausage, allspice, black pepper, garlic powder, parsley, pineapple and raisins, sautéed mushrooms and onions, and mix together well.

·         Add the cooked rice and mix again

·         Put about 2 cups of tomato sauce (see recipe this blog) in the bottom of a 10”x14” baking dish

·         Place a heaping ¼ cup of the beef mixture on lower-third of each cabbage leaf, and roll up eggroll style, tucking in the corners as you go.

·         Place stuffed cabbage rolls in the baking dish (on top of the tomato sauce), seam-side down.

Lay the stuffed cabbage rolls, seam-side-down, on top of tomato sauce in baking dish.

·         Spoon most of the remaining tomato sauce over the top of the cabbage rolls, and top with Parmesan

·         Cover the Parmesan with the remaining tomato sauce

·         Heat oven to 350°

·         Bake cabbage rolls for about 45 minutes

SEE TOMATO SAUCE #1 RECIPE