Stuffed Cabbage

Stuffed cabbage is one of those dishes not very many Americans are familiar with, unless you had an immigrant mother. Since mine came from Europe, specifically Germany, where it’s called Krautwickel (or cabbage wrap), it was often on the menu at my house.  Stuffed cabbage is fairly common to the cuisines of the Balkans, Central, Northern Eastern Europe, Azerbaijan and Iran as well as West Asia and Northern China. I think it’s a shame that many people are unfamiliar with it because it’s good!

As with most dishes, the sauces, fillings and ingredients vary by region. Meat fillings are traditional in Europe. Often beef, lamb or pork are seasoned with garlic, onion and spices. Grains such as rice or barley, eggs, mushrooms and vegetables are also commonly included as filling. Vegetarian versions are most often found in Egypt.

The way they are typically made, and as the name implies, cabbage leaves are stuffed with a filling and then baked or simmered in a covered pot and eaten warm, often accompanied by a sauce. The sauce varies widely by culture. In Sweden and sometimes in Finland, stuffed cabbage is served with
lingonberry jam. In Eastern Europe, tomato sauces or plain sour cream are typical.

I will have to ask my mother for her recipe. I’m fairly certain she used ground beef and I know there was rice in there and we definitely had a tomato sauce with it. But other than that, I am not exactly sure how she made the sauce and what seasonings she incorporated. So, I was interested in making it recently and decided to see what recipes I could find that intrigued me.

Stuffed cabbage is described to have entered Jewish cooking some 2,000 years ago. Recipes there also vary depending on region: Romanians and Northern Poles prefer a savory sauce while Galicia (Northern Spain, I looked it up) and the Ukraine favor sweet and sour sauces.

I figured I couldn’t go wrong with Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, so I pulled up her recipe. She uses a sweet and sour sauce that involves brown sugar and raisins that she says is typically Jewish.
Although I couldn’t imagine liking a sweet and sour sauce over cabbage and meat, I decided to make it anyway, and sure enough I was not a huge fan of it. But what I did like was the meat part. So the next time I made it, I modified it to not be sweet because here is where I think the savory version is better. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. good quality olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion
2 (28-oz) cans crushed tomatoes and their juice
4 cloves minced fresh garlic
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 large head Savoy or green cabbage

For the filling:
2-1/2 lbs ground meat (I used a combination of ground turkey and pork but you could use all ground beef if you like)
3 extra large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup plain dried breadcrumbs (see note below*)
1 tsp. minced fresh thyme leaves
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Meanwhile, make the sauce: heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onions and cook over medium-low heat for 8-10 minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove the core of the cabbage and immerse it into the water (that should be boiling by now) for a few minutes, peeling off each leaf with tongs as soon as it's flexible. Set the leaves aside. Depending on the size of each leaf, you will need at least 14 leaves.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For the filling, combine the ground meat with the rest of the filling ingredients. Add 1 cup of your homemade tomato sauce to the mixture and combine it all with a fork.

To assemble, place 1 cup of the sauce in the bottom of a large Dutch oven. Remove the hard triangular rib from the base of each cabbage leaf with a small paring knife. Place 1/3 cup of filling in an oval shape near the rib edge of each leaf and roll up toward the outer edge, tucking the sides in as you roll. Place half the cabbage rolls, seam sides down, over the sauce.

Alternately add more sauce and more cabbage rolls until you’ve placed all the cabbage rolls in the pot. Pour the remaining sauce over the rolls. Cover dish tightly with the lid and bake for 45 minutes, maybe an hour, until meat is cooked. Serve hot.

This dish is good with a salad to start it off with, and a glass of red wine.

Bon Appetit!