My great-grandmother passed down this recipe to me, with a few short cuts she was okay with.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 7 hrs 14 mins |
| Additional Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 7 hrs 44 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 head cabbage
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- ¾ cup uncooked white rice, rinsed
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound ground pork sausage
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 (32 ounce) can tomato juice
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook cabbage in boiling water until outer leaves pull away easily from the head, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Separate leaves and let cool. Reserve 1 1/2 cup cooking water.
- Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
- Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion and garlic; cook and stir until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in wet rice; cook and stir until moisture evaporates, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool, about 5 minutes.
- Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
- Mix beef, sausage, and egg together in a large bowl. Stir in cooled rice mixture.
- Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
- Place a golfball-sized amount of the beef mixture on the ribbed end of a cabbage leaf; roll up, tucking in the sides. Repeat with remaining beef mixture and cabbage leaves.
- Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
- Place rolls seam-side down in a slow cooker. Cover with tomato juice. Pour reserved cooking water on top.
- Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
- Cook on High for 30 minutes. Switch to Low and cook for 6 1/2 hours.
- DOTDASH MEREDITH FOOD STUDIOS
- Substitute vegetable juice for the tomato juice if desired.
- If cooking on the stove, boil in a large pot for 30 to 45 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 403 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 31 g |
| Cholesterol | 91 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 22 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 884 mg |
| Sugars | 10 g |
| Fat | 22 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
To be honest I didn’t make this recipe. Being raised in a Hungarian home my mom made stuffed cabbage all the time. True Hungarian stuffed cabbage has sauerkraut and tomato sauce. We use low fat ground beef mixed with white rice, and onion.
I add some sour salt, shredded cabbage to create the uprrow, a medium whole onion (just for flavor), 1 stuffed green pepper, a can of sourkraut , and a piece of smoked ham. Now, that’s Hungarian- turte kopesta!!!
Need to add 1 heaping tablespoon of sweet or spicy paprika to meat mixture. Also, 1 stick of smoked sausage sliced and salt. This gives it the true hungarian flavor!!
9/14/22 May Be just our taste preference, but found these to be oh hum blah. Needed a lot of salt and Franks Hot Sauce to make these over the top. Lots of other Cabbage roll recipes I would make before trying this one again.
It was pretty good, added ground smoked ham to the mix,the rice, I cooked it in a pot until the water was gone before I mixed de it.Also added smoked sausage and sauerkraut in between each layer, didn’t add tomato juice at all…
Loved it. It reminded me of something that my grandmother used to make
You have to make sure you have a big enough pot to boil the cabbage or it gets hard to use the leaves.
Instead of tomato juice or ANY tomato anything I submitted Beef Onion soup. Dry but made the soup with water and poured over cabbage rolls-I also baked covered with foil and uncovered the last 30 min. Just a little variation from traditional tomato sauce/juice.
nice recipe! I use tomato soup diluted with some V8 instead of tomato juice. also put a little sauerkraut in there. I’ve never had a problem with the rice cooking. Thanks for sharing! also quick tip for the cabbage leaves. put the cabbage in the freezer for a few hours or overnight then microwave for several seconds. No burnt hands and the Cabbage leaves are just as pliable as boiled ones.
Similar to the cabbage rolls my mom and grandma made. We would add sauerkraut too. Cooking it in the crockpot
This dish was very disappointing. I had been looking for good cabbage rolls to remind me of my childhood and this wasn’t it. The dish was extremely bland. I didn’t have any trouble with the cooking time or steaming the cabbage, but the dish itself had no flavor. Also, I’m left with tons of extra meat mixture that I will now need to doctor up to put into another dish. I would not recommend this at all.
I found this to be bland and relied upon using a flavorful pork sausage to bring this to life. I even used v8 instead of just tomato juice. It needs a big help of salt pepper and something else. Good starting point but as written it is simply a fills your stomach kinda meal.
This is the best cabbage roll recipe I have come across. With that being said I love the ease of prepping this recipe as well as how these cabbage rolls held there shape. I did add a few herbs and spices to the meat mixture such as Italian seasoning, garlic powder, oregano and marjoram
Great recipe, just like my mom used to make.
Update:12/17/22: I have made this several times per year. This is my go to recipe. 10/18/21:We loved it. I’ve been looking this taste from my childhood for a long time – for those who complained it was bland – this is exactly the way it’s supposed to taste. I will be making this again but in a bigger batch. I used a 12oz can of tomato sauce and 12oz can of beef broth, with COOKED rice as well. Perfect
This makes A LOT of food. So it does make the effort worth it as you get two meals out of it. We put half way in the freezer for another night, which is always nice to have on hand.
Wow!!! I actually made this and it was sooooo great!!! I could sit and eat it all!! Lol!! My Husband said he can’t wait for me to make it again!!!
It needed spices…..I added some allspice (actually 7 spice Arabic), some garlic, onion, paprika, red pepper flakes and some mint. It was fantastic but I am afraid without doing that it would be so bland…..season with salt and pepper. I also used V-8 juice
I made this and it was great, just wish I had of used a larger cabbage
Hubby loved them!
My family loved this recipe… It was easier than I thought to make as well.. A keeper!