Stuffed cabbage rolls are considered a traditional Ukrainian dish, although their analogues can be found in almost any national cuisine. There is historical evidence proving that cabbage leaves were used as a “wrapper” for minced meat as early as Ancient Greece. Since then, the recipe has not changed much: it is still the same white cabbage, the same minced meat and the same stewing technology.
Today you can find a lot of options for preparing cabbage rolls - using Savoy and Chinese cabbage, with mushrooms and buckwheat, in the oven and with pre-frying in a frying pan. To move to the “advanced” level and allow yourself culinary experiments, it’s worth figuring out how to cook cabbage rolls in the classic version. A classic version- cabbage rolls with meat and rice in cabbage.
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To make it easier to understand, here is a step-by-step recipe for cabbage rolls with photos.
IngredientsTo prepare cabbage rolls you will need:
- 2 medium sized cabbages;
- 1 kg of meat (pork, beef, chicken or a combination of them);
- 1 cup rice;
- 2-3 medium sized carrots;
- 2 large onions;
- vegetable oil for frying vegetables;
- salt, pepper to taste;
- 3 tbsp. l. tomato paste;
- sour cream for serving
Choosing cabbage for cabbage rolls is not the easiest task. The head of cabbage should be dense, but not hard, otherwise you will not be able to separate the leaves from each other. Size – medium, a small head will make minimal amount cabbage rolls, large heads of cabbage are also not suitable, from them you can make cabbage rolls the size of a sole.
At markets in vegetable aisles they sometimes sell cabbage leaves by weight - just suitable for making cabbage rolls from them. Very comfortably. Alas, such a miracle does not happen very often, so there is only one way out: decide on suitable heads of cabbage and work with what you have.
Cabbage leaves for cabbage rollsSo, choose cabbage, wash the head of cabbage, and remove the top hard leaves.
Boil water in a large saucepan. Prick a head of cabbage with a large fork and place it in boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Choose the time yourself - the top sheets should become soft, but under no circumstances should they fall apart.
Remove the head of cabbage from the water and remove the top few leaves. As soon as you feel that the leaves are not “moving” freely, stop, otherwise you will simply tear them.
If necessary, trim off the thick areas that are located at the base of the cabbage leaf.
We repeat the procedure for the next layer of leaves and the next head of cabbage - we do this until we can remove even, medium-sized leaves.
Wash and trim the meat for cabbage rolls excess fat, films.
Grind in a meat grinder. To save time, you can buy ready-made minced meat if you practice preparing homemade dishes from store-bought semi-finished products.
Boil the rice until half cooked.
If you take fully cooked rice, after stewing it will turn into a porridge-like mass. Uncooked rice will “take away” the maximum juice from the meat, as a result of which it will become dry and tough.
Place rice in a bowl with minced meat.
It is worth understanding that the amount “1 glass” indicated in the list of ingredients for preparing cabbage rolls is quite arbitrary. You can take a little more or a little less rice depending on what filling you like in your cabbage rolls. With these proportions, there will be more cereals and carrots with onions than meat, and the dish will turn out to be more vegetable than meat. If you prefer a more substantial, “brutal” version of cabbage rolls, you can reduce the amount of rice or increase the amount of minced meat.
Peel the carrots and grate them.
Carrots add juiciness to cabbage rolls, so do not reduce their quantity. However, it will provide the filling with some sweetness - if this flavor note seems unnecessary to you, use less carrots.
Peel the onion and cut into small cubes. Half rings or even rings are also quite appropriate. The main thing that appearance
fillings did not violate your aesthetic perception of food.
Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into a heated frying pan and fry the carrots until soft.
Place it in a bowl with the minced meat and rice.
In the same frying pan, fry the onion in oil until slightly translucent and soft.
Place in a bowl, don’t forget about salt and pepper.
Modeling cabbage rolls
Place the boiled and prepared cabbage leaf with the base facing you, put a small amount of minced meat inside.
We roll it up into a tube and hide the edges inside.
Place cabbage rolls in large saucepan with a thick bottom, trying to place them as tightly as possible. Another rule is that they must be placed seam side down.
We dilute the tomato paste in 2-3 glasses of water, pour in the cabbage rolls. The water should not reach the top layer of cabbage rolls by about 2 fingers. In addition, you can add a little ketchup, plum jam, sour cream or unsweetened yogurt to the same sauce. Some housewives stew cabbage rolls by frying them in a pan with carrots and onions.
Place on the stove, bring to a boil and, reducing the heat to low, simmer for at least 45-60 minutes. The cabbage should eventually become completely soft and the filling should be ready.
Serve with sour cream or any sauce based on it. Bon appetit!
And more about cooking cabbage rollsStuffed cabbage rolls can very well become a work of art if you approach their preparation with soul. When mixing ingredients for minced meat, try to put maximum diligence into this simple process - and, oddly enough, then the filling will be especially tasty. When rolling cabbage, make sure that everything is smooth and neat - and then the appearance will bring special visual satisfaction, which will directly enhance the pleasure received from the cabbage rolls themselves. Serve food at beautiful dishes– and the simplest dish will become festive.
By the way, in the western regions of Ukraine, this simple dish is still used to check a girl’s readiness for family life: it is believed that if a young woman does not know how to make cabbage rolls the size of her little finger, if she cannot quickly prepare a huge tub of minced meat wrapped in cabbage leaves, if her cabbage rolls unfold during the stewing process or, even worse, fall apart, she will not see a good groom like snowdrops in January. Cook with pleasure, and may your cabbage rolls always be perfectly tasty!
Stuffed cabbage rolls are the most popular dish in our country, consisting of minced meat wrapped in softened cabbage leaves. Thanks to this composition, they are a self-sufficient second course, which in most cases does not even require an additional side dish. However, the beauty of cabbage rolls lies not only in the ease of use, but also in the amazing tastes and aromas that this simple and inexpensive dish contains. Minced meat enclosed in cabbage leaves retains its softness and juiciness during the stewing process, and in addition, it is soaked in cabbage juice, acquiring its unique taste, beloved since childhood.
Cooking classic cabbage rolls with minced meat may at first seem like a rather labor-intensive process, especially for beginners. However, if you quickly and correctly prepare the cabbage leaves, then there is nothing very complicated in this recipe. In my opinion, the best way is to cook cabbage in the microwave, since it only takes 10 minutes and allows you to quickly and easily get cabbage leaves that are soft and easy to stuff. If, moreover, you choose cabbage that is not too old for this dish, then its leaves will practically roll themselves into neat and dense cabbage rolls.
Cabbage rolls with minced meat are light and healthy dish, which is a must-have in your family’s diet. However, most children, and some adults, are also not too fond of the boiled cabbage shell and leave it on the plate, eating only the minced meat. To solve this annoying problem, I suggest stewing cabbage rolls in a rich vegetable sauce with the addition of tomato and cream. This sauce itself has excellent taste properties and is able to make any dish extraordinarily appetizing and desirable, turning even ordinary-looking boiled cabbage into a completely edible delicacy. Stuffed cabbage rolls with minced meat, stewed in a delicate thick gravy, look incredibly appetizing, beckon with their appearance and invite everyone to the table!
Useful information How to cook cabbage rolls with minced meat and rice - recipe for cabbage rolls with minced meat in a pan step by step with photosINGREDIENTS:
- 1 medium head of cabbage (1.5 kg)
- 2 tbsp. l. flour
- salt pepper
- 60 ml vegetable oil
- 800 g minced meat (pork + beef)
- 1 Wed. onion
- 80 g rice
- 20 g fresh parsley
- salt pepper
- 1 patient onion
- 1 patient carrot
- 3 – 4 teeth. garlic
- 500 g chopped tomatoes
- 250 ml cream 33%
- ½ tbsp. broth or water
- 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil
- salt pepper
COOKING METHOD:
Cabbage for cabbage rolls1. In order to prepare cabbage rolls with minced meat, you first need to prepare cabbage leaves for them. The easiest way to do this is using a microwave oven. To do this, the head of cabbage must be washed and wrapped in 2–3 layers. cling film and cook in the microwave at 80% power for 10 minutes.
Advice! If you don’t have a microwave on your household, then you will have to boil the cabbage in a large saucepan in boiling water. To do this, you must first cut the stalk out of it and if you manage to carefully separate the cabbage leaves from each other, then they can be boiled in boiling water for 5 - 7 minutes. If this turns out to be difficult, you can put a whole head of cabbage in boiling water, and then remove the leaves from it gradually as they are ready.
2. Cool the cabbage and carefully separate it into individual leaves, being careful not to damage them. In old cabbage, it is necessary to cut out the hard thickenings located at the base of the leaf, and if it does not curl well, then lightly beat it with a meat mallet.
Advice! To prepare cabbage rolls, you need to choose a medium head of cabbage (about 1.5 kg) and do not take the top and bottom leaves from it. Then the cabbage rolls will be easier to stuff and they will turn out to be approximately the same shape and size.
3. To prepare the filling for stuffed cabbage rolls with minced meat, peel and chop the onion. 
4. Boil the rice in boiling water for 10 minutes until half cooked and drain it in a colander. To prepare cabbage rolls, you can use any type of rice - round or long grain. 
5. In a deep bowl, mix minced meat, rice, onions and chopped parsley.
Advice! To prepare cabbage rolls, you can use any minced meat - beef, chicken, pork, lamb or minced turkey. I prefer to use classic mixed ground beef and pork, as it has a universal taste and moderate fat content.
6. Salt and pepper everything and mix thoroughly with your hands. The stuffing for cabbage rolls made from minced meat and rice is ready! 
7. For each cabbage leaf, place a generous portion of minced meat according to its size and roll into a neat, tight roll. If the cabbage is young, then this is a very simple and quick procedure that should not cause any problems. 
8. Lightly roll the cabbage rolls in flour mixed with salt and pepper and shake off the excess. 
9. Heat vegetable oil in a large frying pan and fry the cabbage rolls with minced meat over medium heat on both sides until a light golden crust appears.
From this amount of ingredients I got 14 fairly large cabbage rolls, so I had to fry them in two batches, periodically adding vegetable oil to the frying pan.
10. Place the fried cabbage rolls in a cauldron or thick-walled pan, cover with a lid and keep warm. 
11. To prepare the vegetable sauce for cabbage rolls, chop the remaining onions. Peel the carrots and grate on a coarse grater. 
12. Fry the prepared vegetables over medium heat in a separate frying pan with 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil for 8 - 10 minutes, then add garlic passed through a press and after 1 minute remove from heat. 
13. Place the fried vegetables on top of the cabbage rolls. 
14. Pour ½ tbsp into the pan left after frying the cabbage rolls. any broth or plain water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook for 2 minutes. Then add heavy cream and chopped tomatoes and cook the sauce at a low simmer for 5 minutes.
Advice! For this dish, it is most convenient to use ready-made pureed Passata tomatoes, which are sold in cardboard boxes. But if you don’t have such canned food, then you can grate regular tomatoes without peeling or take a can of canned tomatoes and grind them in a blender into a homogeneous mass.
15. Pour the prepared tomato cream sauce into the pan with cabbage rolls. 
16. Simmer the cabbage rolls in the sauce over low heat, covered, for 40 minutes, avoiding a strong boil. 
Extraordinarily tasty, tender and juicy cabbage rolls with minced meat are ready! It is not at all necessary to prepare any side dish for them, but fresh vegetables will always be the theme. Bon appetit! 
1. Peel the onions and carrots. Chop the onion into small cubes and grate the carrots, I used fine ones, but this is at your discretion. Heat a frying pan with two tablespoons of vegetable or butter, place the prepared onion in it.
2. When the onion is slightly fried, after about two to three minutes, add carrots to the pan. Cook everything together for another 5 – 7 minutes.
3. Boil half a glass of rice until half cooked. This is how I do it. First, I rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Then I fill it with half a glass of hot boiled water, add 0.3 tsp. salt and cook under a closed lid over low heat for 11 minutes.
I remove from the heat and, without opening the lid, let it brew for another 10 minutes. Once the rice has cooled, you can prepare the stuffing for the cabbage rolls. To do this, take minced meat (any kind to your taste), I had beef that was quite lean, so I added lard for juiciness.
Add half of the minced meat fried onions with carrots, boiled rice, salt, garlic, pepper and seasonings to taste. Mix everything thoroughly - the filling is ready.
4. Now let's prepare the cabbage. Take a head of cabbage and free it from the top leaves. After this, use a knife to remove the stalk. Place the prepared cabbage in a saucepan, add water so that it covers the head of cabbage and add a little salt.
Cook it at a moderate boil until the leaves are soft. The top leaves will cook faster, so when done, remove them with a fork and place them on a plate.
5. You can now roll cabbage rolls from the prepared sheets. Cut or beat off the thick part of the cabbage leaf, now stuff the leaves like pancakes. Take a tablespoon of filling, place it on the thicker edge of the sheet, tuck the edges inward, and roll it into a tube. Using this principle, wrap all suitable leaves.
6. Prepare the filling; to do this, add tomato paste and sour cream to the remaining half of the carrots and onions. Fry, stirring, 2 - 3 minutes, pour boiled water, add salt and spices and simmer for 5 - 10 minutes.
7. Place the remaining leaves on the bottom of the pan, put cabbage rolls on top, pour in the filling, add peppercorns and after boiling, cook over low heat for 50 - 60 minutes. 15 minutes before ready, put Bay leaf.
8. Everything is ready! They can be served as a separate dish or with any side dish of your choice. Bon appetit!
Cooking cabbage rolls is a completely simple task and accessible to any housewife. But there are certain tricks and secrets that will help you make the most correct and delicious cabbage rolls with meat and rice and mine step by step recipe in the pan will help you.
My family simply loves the dishes of Soviet cuisine: a wide variety of cutlets, meatballs, krucheniki, aspic, jellied meat - this is a must and absolutely must be present on the table. And cabbage rolls are the crown of creation! My family believes that a housewife cannot be called a good housewife if she does not know how to cook this wonderful dish.
Cabbage rolls: a recipe with historyDo you know why our favorite dish is called “stuffed cabbage rolls”? The fact is that back in the 18th century, pigeons roasted on coals were very popular. Later, when pigeons and quails became a delicacy, they were replaced by “pigeons” - meat wrapped in cabbage leaves, shaped very much like roasted pigeons. Since then everyone has appeared famous name"stuffed cabbage rolls" So, let's prepare everything you need.
Recipe ingredients- Cabbage fork – 1 large
- Round rice – 250 g
- Pork – 250 g
- Beef (or veal) – 250g
- Onion – 2 pcs.
- Carrots – 2 pcs.
- Sweet red pepper – 2 pcs.
- Tomatoes – 6 pcs.
- Salt – 0.5 tbsp.
- Black pepper – 2 large pinches
- Paprika, nutmeg - 0.5 tsp each.
- Sour cream – 2 tbsp.
- Butter – 10 g
Nutritional value per 100 g:
Cabbage . Here lies one of the the most important secrets proper cabbage rolls: the head of cabbage should be flat and white, without flaws on the stalk. A flat head will provide maximum amount the sheets are of the required size, and the absence of cracks on the base means the evenness of each sheet.
Rice. We will need short grain rice. It has all the qualities necessary for cabbage rolls: it is quite sticky, holds its shape well and, importantly, has a low price.
Meat. Stuffed cabbage rolls can be made with any type of meat, but they will be the most juicy and tasty with assorted minced meat: pork and veal. If you have chicken or turkey on hand, the taste will be more delicate.
There is a little chef's trick: if you don't have time to defrost the meat, you just need to grate it on a grater with large holes. As a result, you will get wonderful minced meat.
Tomatoes. We will need juicy tomatoes, which we need to turn into juice using a blender.
How to properly cook cabbage rolls on a bed of vegetables step by stepStep 1. Use 250 grams of rice. We wash it in cool water. Let the water drain and place the rice in a small saucepan. Fill with water to the top, add a little more, about the thickness of a finger. Cook it lightly until half cooked. Place the finished rice on a sieve and let the water drain.
Step 2. Turn the cabbage head upside down and use a long sharp knife to trim the stalk so that it forms five pointed star. We cut the head of cabbage deep and take out the cone-shaped stalk. Remove the sheets from the fork. We cut very large leaves lengthwise along the veiny, hard part of the leaf. We do the same with all the cabbage. Bring water to a boil in a saucepan and immerse the prepared sheets there. Cook the cabbage under a closed lid for 10 minutes.
And now a secret: to make the leaves soft, you can put them in a plastic bag and place them in the freezer overnight. When we take them out, they will be soft and absolutely ready to cook.
Step 3. To check the readiness of the cabbage leaves, carefully lift one of them with a fork and if it becomes translucent, the cabbage is ready. Drain the water and cool the leaves in a bowl with the lid closed until they reach the desired condition.
Step 4. Chop the onion. The correct way to chop an onion is to cut the onion in half, leaving the tail. Then we make deep cuts on each half. Turn the onion and chop finely.
Step 5. Peel the carrots and wash them. You need to grate it on a grater with large holes.
Step 6. Now it's the turn of the sweet pepper. We cut the stalk in a circle. Cut into 4 parts and easily remove the seeds and membranes from the pepper. Cut it into strips and then into cubes.
Step 7. Pour 2 tablespoons of oil into the frying pan (this amount is enough to stew the vegetables without being too greasy) and heat them up. Add onions, carrots and peppers, cover with a lid and simmer over low heat.
Step 8. Pass pork and beef (veal) through a meat grinder in equal proportions. A very important detail: the ratio of rice and meat in the stuffing for cabbage rolls should be 1:2 (you need 2 times less rice than meat). This is the key to delicious cabbage rolls. If you want a more meaty or ricey taste, then change the ratio of these ingredients to your liking. Finely chop 1 onion, because it is the onion that will give the filling the juiciness. Salt, pepper and add paprika and nutmeg for flavor. Mix the minced meat thoroughly.
Step 9. We cut the cabbage leaf along the vein and cut off all the thickenings. If the sheet is hard, you need to go over it with a rolling pin, like dough, and roll it out. Then use a napkin to remove excess moisture from the surface of the sheet.
Step 10. Place approximately 1 tablespoon of minced meat on each cabbage leaf, give it the shape of a cutlet and gently roll it into a “sausage”, compacting the minced meat. Having rolled a kind of tube, we wrap the ends of the sheet inward. We get a dense, elastic cabbage roll. We do the same with the remaining sheets.
Step 11. Prepare the sauce. To do this, add sour cream to the crushed tomatoes, add some salt and pepper, add bay leaf and mix thoroughly. Chopped tomatoes can be easily replaced tomato juice or tomato paste, diluted in water. Pour sauce over cabbage rolls. Place a piece of butter.
Step 12. To prepare perfect cabbage rolls, we will need a heavy, cast-iron pan or cauldron, which will create an “oven” effect. Place a third of the vegetable pillow on the bottom of the pan. Place cabbage rolls on top, as close to each other as possible. Cover each layer of cabbage rolls with fried vegetables so that the vegetables are saturated with juice.
Step 13. Place the pan with cabbage rolls on low heat to simmer for 1 hour from the moment it boils. If desired, use an oven or slow cooker for this process. I often use the classic version - in a saucepan.
Serve the finished cabbage rolls with meat and rice to the table, generously sprinkled with sour cream and sprinkled with herbs. Preparing cabbage rolls according to this photo recipe is an absolutely simple task, but the result will definitely please your loved ones.
After some time, when all stages of preparation have been worked out, you will be able to proudly declare: “Stuffed cabbage rolls are mine.” signature dish! If time is short, then cooking is very suitable for you. lazy cabbage rolls, the recipe with photos of which I will definitely share in the near future.
Video from YouTube: how Zhenya Litvinkovich prepares cabbage rolls with meat and rice