You may make “cabbage” rolls with beet greens. These were a dish that my mother used to cook and would always serve with cream sauce rather than tomato sauce. Since beet greens don’t require pre-cooking like cabbage leaves, they may be prepared quickly and easily. Serve with noodles or rice.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 5 mins |
| Additional Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 30 rolls |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 large onion, chopped
- ½ cup fresh bread crumbs
- ¼ cup milk
- 6 ounces ground beef
- 6 ounces ground pork
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 34 large whole beet green leaves, stems removed
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.
- Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- While the onion is cooling, place bread crumbs into a large bowl. Pour milk over bread crumbs and let stand until all liquid has been absorbed, about 5 minutes. Stir in cooked onion, ground beef, ground pork, egg, salt, and pepper until well combined.
- Cover the bottom of the prepared baking dish with two large beet leaves; set aside two more leaves for the top. Place the remaining beet leaves onto a flat work surface; add a heaping teaspoon of the meat mixture to the wide end (bottom) of each leaf. Working one at a time, roll the leaf up around the filling and place into the baking dish. Pour chicken broth over the rolls, then place the last two reserved leaves over the top.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the beet leaves are tender and the filling is cooked through, about 1 hour. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (72 degrees C).
- Remove the dish from the oven. Drain liquid from the bottom of the baking dish into a small saucepan. Whisk flour and cream together in a bowl until smooth; stir mixture gradually into the pan juices. Bring to a bare simmer over medium-low heat and cook gently until thickened, about 5 minutes; do not boil.
- Place the filled rolls into a serving dish and pour the sauce over top. Sprinkle with chopped dill.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 356 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 17 g |
| Cholesterol | 127 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 9 g |
| Protein | 18 g |
| Saturated Fat | 14 g |
| Sodium | 1390 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 26 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I wanted to try this recipe to use up the leaves left over from the beets I used in a cake recipe. I had trouble wrapping the leaves around the meat mixture so I just placed half the leaves on the bottom, put meat mixture over and then topped with the rest of the leaves. I also poured sour cream with a little milk over the top with the dill.
Great recipe! Reminds me of the stuffed cabbage my grandmother used to make. Followed the directions exactly and served with rice and beets.
This is wonderful!!! I love the taste combination and it plates very well. I do HATE the beets but love the greens. So I purchased six beets with the greens at the grocery store and planted them in a large flower pot. I now harvest the greens, LOTS of greens and they’re always coming up!!
This was fabulously tasty. I made the recipe as written, however I only had enough beet leaves for 12 little rolls. I think there would be enough leaves for all the filling if I had 2 bunches of beets (8 beets). This recipe was labor intensive but the end result was great. I served it with white rice and baked beet quarters in the sauce
This rating is based on changes I made, so take it with a grain of salt. The changes I made were to use all bison instead of beef/pork, bouillon cube instead of chicken broth, and whole milk instead of cream. Bouillon cubes are generally saltier than broth. I should have reduced the salt in the meat mix, but I didn’t, so mine came out too salty. Otherwise, it was pretty darn good and I’ll make it again. Some things about the recipe that confused me: the leaves on bottom and top? The leaves are pretty small relative to the pan size and didn’t seem to do anything? Was I missing something? It didn’t say to cover the dish, so I didn’t. However, the broth only covered the rolls half way, and the top half of the rolls were crispy and dry, with the bottom half boiled. Made the texture really odd. Next time, I’ll cover it. I used the leaves off three beet roots. I am not sure how many leaves I had, but I doubt it was 36. Even with less leaves, I still ran out of filling and had to make more filling. Update: Made again, using low sodium broth and covering the pan with aluminum foil during baking. Texture was good. In the future, I’ll reduce salt in meat and use regular sodium broth. Update 2: We regularly get beets with greens in our CSA box, and I make this every time. Once I was short on time. Instead of rolling the filling into the leaves, I tore up the leaves into small pieces, threw them in the bottom of the pan, put the meat mix on top, added the broth, covered and threw it i
followed recipe and it was delicious! I will be making this again