This surely seems like a winter dish, but we've had such cool and rainy weather, and I've been processing cabbage anyway, so this was a natural for late August too. I found many versions of recipes for stuffed cabbage, so like most of my other recipes, I encourage you to suit your own taste and use what you have on hand in your refrigerator to make these your own creation.Ingredients
* 1 large head cabbage
Filling:
* 1 lb. ground beef, or a combination of beef and pork
* 1 cup cooked brown rice
* 1 small onion, finely chopped
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 carrots, finely chopped or grated
* 1 small green pepper, finely chopped
* 1/2 C celery, finely chopped
* 1 egg, lightly beaten
* 2 Tbs. steak sauce, catsup, or Worcestershire
* 1 T paprika
* 2 tsp. ground pepper
* 2 tsp. salt
* 1 Tbs. fresh parsley, chopped
* 1 tsp. dried thyme
Sauce
* 2 cups tomato sauce ( I used a combination of leftover tomato gravy from Swiss steak and a chopped fresh tomato)
* 2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
* 1 Tbs. sugar
* salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1. Carefully remove the larger outer leaves from a large head of cabbage, save the rest of the head for coleslaw or another recipe. I used 8 leaves for this recipe.
2. Drop leaves into boiling water to soften them enough to be rolled around the filling. It should take about 1-2 minutes of cooking, being careful not to overcook. See picture of softened leaf here.
3. Drain and cool cabbage leaves.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray.
5. Combine all sauce ingredients, and ladle about half of the sauce into the bottom of the dish.
6. Combine meat with all other filling ingredients.
7. Spoon stuffing into cabbage leaves and roll to enclose filling.
8. Arrange seam side down in a baking dish.
9. Cover cabbage rolls with remaining tomato sauce.10. Drizzle a little olive oil over the top of the cabbage rolls, to keep them moist, and you may want to baste them once or twice during the cooking time.
11. Bake uncovered, for about 1 hour, or until the cabbage has softened and the filling is completely cooked - I always use a meat thermometer to be sure.
Note: I've seen recipes that are a layered casserole version of stuffed cabbage, in which you shred the cabbage and then layer first the rice, a pre-cooked meat mixture, cabbage, and top with tomato sauce (or a large can of diced tomatoes with juice). It's baked at 350 for 30-40 minutes. This sounds good to me, and I'll bet there's a crock-pot version as well. So many recipes to try!
