The recipe for this stew of unstuffed cabbage rolls and meatballs is a treasured family meal that has been passed down through the ages. It was a skill that my mother taught me, and I gave it the final touches. I’ve had many different types of stuffed cabbage, but this warm, sweet-and-sour version is the best.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs |
| Servings: | 10 |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3 onions, sliced
- 1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
- 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 pounds green cabbage, cored, and cut into 3 inch chunks
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 eggs
- 3 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons instant white rice
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- ⅓ cup golden raisins
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ½ cup packed brown sugar, or to taste
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir onions in hot oil until transparent, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce, using a spoon to slightly break up whole tomatoes. Season with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in cabbage. Cover and simmer until cabbage is tender and mixes easily with tomatoes, about 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, place ground beef, onion, eggs, water, rice, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a mixing bowl. Mix together with hands until thoroughly blended. Add additional rice if mixture is too moist. Form into golf ball-sized meatballs and place on a plate; refrigerate for 20 minutes to firm.
- Place meatballs on the surface of tomato mixture. Cover and simmer over medium heat until meatballs are firm and cooked through, about 15 minutes. Gently stir meatballs into tomato mixture. Cover the pot and continue to simmer for 45 minutes more.
- Stir in lemon juice and taste for seasoning, adding additional lemon juice if needed. Stir in raisins and honey. Add brown sugar a little at a time, tasting after each addition. Cook stew over medium heat for 15 minutes more.
- This unstuffed cabbage dish freezes well. The flavors are even better on the second day.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 358 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 30 g |
| Cholesterol | 118 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 30 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 961 mg |
| Sugars | 22 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Utterly delicious! Followed the recipe and used purple cabbage as it’s all I had, cut ingredients in half and still it made loads! Definitely will freeze most of it! After making it exactly as the recipe called for… it was delicious. I then doctored it up a bit to my tastes adding siracha and oyster sauce. Can’t recommend this recipe enough
First let me say this is a keeper. It’s delicious. I cant say it’s sour though. I was expecting more extreme. Will tweek to taste next time. I made German bierok type rolls to accompany. Yum! Thanks!
I will be making this but will substitute either meatless crumbles or meatless meatballs. My question is the picture shows this on a bed of rice but no mention of it in the recipe or did I not see it.
First let me say my while family including my picky daughter, love it! Why 3 stars? I had to doctor it up a lot. I think it would have been dry and bland if I had not. So I added extra tomato sauce, used seasoning salt, garlic powder, cumin and thyme. However this recipe was a great base to start with and I can’t wait to make it again.
No sugar or. Honey used. The raisins made this plenty sweet enough! Served over rice, or riced cauliflower for those of us doing low-carb versions of everything. Great stuff, but more like 8 servings (or even 7) than 10. Got 24 meatballs out of 2lbs gr. beef.
We used packaged meatballs and no raisins. We’re going to try it again and use pineapple. It seems a good fit.
I used a plant based ground and did not make meatballs, a can of crushed tomatoes on top of what was asked for in recipe, no lemon juice or brown sugar. My mom and son are fussy and both seemed to like it.
Really good! I hate making meatballs, it grosses me out to squash the meat with my hands but was going to do it anyway because this sounded so good. However, when I read another reviewer’s comment that they just browned the ground beef with the onions, I decided that I was going to try it that way. So, browned the beef and onions, added the can of tomatoes and a can of el pato (spicy) tomato sauce. Let it simmer for 20 minutes, then added a 1/4 cup of instant brown rice and the cabbage and let that simmer for an hour. After that, I added the lemon juice, honey, raisins and brown sugar. If I were making for company, I might do it as directed but for just a regular family meal, this way was fine. Will definitely make again.
This is absolutely delicious. I did exactly as it said and it came out perfect. Feeds an army. Will make again and again.
I thought this tasted just like the stuffed cabbage rolls I usually make and easier!
This is a very yummy recipe and “sticks to the ribs.” I did tweak the recipe by adding more honey and left out the brown sugar, for health purposes. My family does not like raisin so I substituted with dried cranberries.
Made this again in 2023. Halved the recipe. Used Hot Tomato Sauce. Added as much white vinegar with the called for lemon juice. Did not use all the brown sugar. Served over Basmati rice. We loved it even more than the first time — when I followed the recipe exactly. Have fun with it!
I made half a recipe and had enough for 3 meals with some leftover. The only instant rice I had was brown so I soaked it in the required water and that worked out fine. I found the meatballs to be too bland for my taste. Will increase the seasoning next time.
Gave 4 stars just because it takes a good amount of time to make. But it tastes just like the stuffed cabbage rolls my grandmother used to make, which I never thought to get the recipe for. Also like that it tastes just as good if not better the next day.
SO good! Got rave reviews from everyone at our football party. Will DEFINITELY make again!!!
My husband and I both enjoyed this dish. It was easy to make. Be sure to read through the steps as the meatballs should be made first. He doesn’t like cooked raisins so I put them in a tea leaf strainer so I could get the flavor and remove them. This is a keeper!
My family loved this recipe. The ingredients are common to have on-hand in my kitchen so I’ll make this often over the winter. I took the easy way as others described… I skipped the meat ball method and added cooked ground beef (drained) to the onion/tomato/cabbage batch. I think this way was a lot easier and didn’t sacrifice anything. Served it over rice and will try egg noodles next time.
The sauce came out delicious however the meatballs were hard as rocks! I have no idea why. I followed the recipe exactly and cooking time exactly. Double checked and all ingredients were measured and mixed correctly. We ate it but prefer softer meatballs. Wish I knew why this happened
Delicious! I used all the brown sugar, and accidentally purchased regular raisins. Next time, I’ll cut the sugar in half. There will definitely be a next time.
Pretty darn close to Nana’s stuffed cabbage, without the hassle! I just sauteed the onions and ground beef together (didn’t bother with the meatballs), and then followed the recipe to a “T.” I let it simmer quite a while, though, to help flavors blend. As others stated, even better the next day! Delicious, feel-good food. I think Nana would be proud!
Good flavor but a lot of work and time spent making this recipe. Very flavorful the next day. I will try this again but will rework the recipe and try to simplify the steps plus I want to use more rice and substitute some sausage for the hamburger meat.