Mom’s Classic Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

No summer cookout is complete without a tray of stuffed cabbages! Tender cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, seasoned ground meats and a rich tomato sauce make this the perfect summer comfort food. Plus this freezes beautifully!

This dish, God this dish brings back so many childhood memories that I literally sat here for 30 minutes in a daze just remembering some of them. Like there was the time we were harvesting cabbages from our garden and we each got to pick a single plant that we were in charge of to take care of.

Whoever grew the biggest cabbage won. The prize was Mom would cook our favorite dessert to go with her famous stuffed cabbages. That summer I ended up winning.

This cabbage was so huge that I couldn’t lift it. I know I have a picture of me trying to hold it on my lap. I’ll dig it out to share the pic once my arm is better.

I have so many countless memories where our kitchen was soooooooooooooo hot (we didn’t have AC growing up and we only had window fans) and Mom had 3 large canning pots on the stove with boiling water.

She’d make hundreds of stuffed cabbages. I can still remember that hot cabbage smell and hot/wet air in the kitchen. Dad would use the tongs to pull out the leaves, put them in the colander and my Mom, sister and I would each trim the stems.

How do you refer to these? Some know them as cabbage rolls. Others know them as halupki and others a golumpki. What do you call them?

Ingredients needed to make Mom’s Stuffed Cabbage rolls

Growing up as poor as we were, Mom went with what we had on hand.

• ground beef and ground pork
• cabbages from our gardens
• tomato soup (yes like the canned condensed stuff) – yes soup, not sauce. Using tomato sauce made the dish a bit too “tangy” whereas tomato soup is more mellow on the palate. You want the cabbage to be the star, not the “sauce”.
• Tomato paste (as that will help thicken the juices and keep it more gravy-like)
• onions/garlic/seasonings
• cooked rice

How to soften cabbage leaves

To make these, well they aren’t hard but they do take a little bit of time to make. Cabbage leaves, unlike lettuce leaves, you just can’t peel off of the head.

They are hard and if you try to peel them off they’ll crack and or tear. You don’t want that. For these, you want luxurious full leaves. Now everyone has their favorite method to remove the leaves.

Freezer method

Some folks use the freezer method where you put the cabbage head in a brown paper bag and put it in the freezer.

Then once it’s partially frozen you remove it and as it softens the leaves pull off. I personally don’t like that as I find freezing the leaves messes with the composition of the cabbage leaf. It makes it almost mushy and its integrity is compromised.

Boiling the head of cabbage

For mine, I go with the way Mama taught me.

1. Fill a large stockpot with water and bring it to a boil.
2. Then take a paring knife and remove the core.
3. Carefully add the cabbage into the pot (USE TONGS and go slow!) and boil it for a few minutes checking the leaves.
4. In stages, I will slowly pull off the leaves and place them in a colander to drain. Be gentle as you do not want to rip the leaves. This can take 3-10 minutes to do a whole head depending on the size of your cabbage.

How to shape Mom’s Classic Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Growing up in Pittsburgh most of the weddings I went to as a kid were ones where the families made the food. We were poor people and hiring a caterer was unheard of plus honestly, no one could match my Mama’s cooking.

At these receptions, you had your mandatory staples – fried chicken, rigatoni, ham, potato or macaroni salad and stuffed cabbages. Mom always was asked to make her cabbages (along with cookies for the cookie tables).

Pittsburgh weddings “require” a cookie table at receptions. Oh sure there’s a cake, but there must also be 1-2 cookie tables with copious amounts of cookies.

Anyway, let’s talk about making/shaping these cabbage rolls.

1. Make sure the leaves are cool enough to touch but not cold. Cold leaves are hard to roll and they will/may tear.
2. Use a paring knife to shave away the thick center stem from each leaf. Essentially you’re flattening out the leaf so that big rind is gone BUT do not cut all the way through.
3. Lay a single large leaf down with the cut side facing you.
4. Add some of the meat and rice mixture to the lower third part of the leaf – think like when you make a burrito
5. Fold the sides in and grab the bottom of the leaf and roll up snug like a burrito.
6. Repeat until they are all rolled.

Chef’s Tip about using the smaller cabbage leaves

Obviously, as you pluck more leaves off of the cabbage head they will get smaller and smaller. You have 2 choices here:

1. When the leaves are small, place 2 leaves side by side but overlapping to create one larger leaf. Stuff and roll up like a larger stuffed cabbage. Or,
2. Place them in the pans with the stuffed cabbage rolls as extra cabbage.

Cooking Mom’s Classic Stuffed Cabbages

One thing to keep in mind when making these is that they will need to cook for a few hours for the cabbage to get super tender. You don’t want the cabbage to have firmness or bite. You want to be able to pretty much cut it with a fork.

But back to these cabbages…

These to me mean summer. Gardens are growing, families are having cookouts and kitchens are full of people making these.

As I was saying earlier, there were at least 4 of us making these as it was a job. Often my Mom’s best friend (and neighbor) would come over and help us. Often they’d split the bounty and ingredients.

Mom would make the rice, cabbage, and other stuff while Mrs. H. would bring the ground meat(s).

Making Mom’s Classic Stuffed Cabbages Keto-Friendly or Gluten-Free

Oh, rice – I love you but I hate you at times. This is where you do have some liberties.

Some easy substitutes could be:

• Cooked Quinoa
• Cauliflower Rice (raw)

What other meats can you use in these stuffed cabbage rolls?

Mom used a meat mixture that was all ground beef or a mixture of ground beef and pork. I tend to personally like the addition of the ground pork as it gives the dish a bit more richness to it however you can totally go with all ground beef if you wish.

If you wanted a lighter variation of this you can substitute ground turkey or ground chicken.

One thing to keep in mind about meat substitutions

Ground turkey or chicken is very lean thus little fat. You will need to up the fat in it (add some ground dark meat) to the mix to avoid them from drying out.

How to Freeze Mom’s Classic Stuffed Shells

I make mine the way Mom did – a big batch at once so I have enough for a meal and plenty for the freezer. When cabbage is in season, it’s the perfect time to fill up that freezer for winter meals.

Roll, Bake, and Freeze

1. This is the method I, and Mom do. Once the stuffed cabbages are done baking, allow them to cool completely.
2. In a freezer-safe container, add in a layer of tomato soup on the bottom. Place a layer of cabbage rolls, another layer of tomato soup and then place the lid on.
3. Double wrap the container in plastic wrap then foil. Again, this is what Mom did.
4. Place in the freezer for up to 6 months.

When it comes to the containers I use I use one of two items:

• Stackable, BPA-free freezer containers like these
• Freezer to Oven glass containers like these

How to reheat Mom’s Classic Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

As I mentioned, when fresh cabbage is in season, I make a big tray like this just for the two of us but half of them I freeze.

To reheat, I’ll take one of the containers out of the freezer and allow to thaw in the fridge overnight.

When I’m ready to reheat I’ll do the following:

Stored in a Freezer-to-Oven container

1. Remove the foil and the plastic wrap.
2. Bring the container to room temperature (typically while the oven is heating up). Just make sure the dish is not cold when you put it in the oven else it could crack.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F, rack in the middle.
4. Cover the dish tightly with foil.
5. Place the room-temp container on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any overflow.
6. Bake for  350F or until the centers are hot.

Stored in a non-ovenproof container

1. Remove the foil and the plastic wrap.
2. Transfer the stuffed cabbages to a lightly sprayed baking dish.
3. Add in some tomato soup on the bottom, place in the cabbage rolls, top with a little more tomato soup.
4. Preheat the oven to 350F, rack in the middle.
5. Cover the dish tightly with foil.
6. Place the room-temp container on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any overflow.
7. Bake for  350F or until the centers are hot.

What to serve with Mom’s Classic Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

In my world only 2 things go absolutely PERFECT with these:

• The BEST Mashed Potatoes (creamy or chunky)
• Homemade bread

What else goes well with this?

• Green Beans with Homemade Mushroom Sauce
• Creamy Corn Casserole

What do you serve with it?

Print