Tender cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, seasoned ground meats, and a rich tomato sauce make this the perfect comfort food. Plus, these freeze beautifully for meal prep and freezer meals!
Cabbage Rolls Childhood Memories
This dish, God, brings back so many childhood memories that I sat here for 30 minutes in a daze just remembering some of them. There was a time when we were harvesting cabbages from our garden, and we each got to pick a single plant we were responsible for.
Whoever grew the biggest cabbage won. The prize was Mom cooking our favorite dessert with her famous stuffed cabbage rolls. That summer, I ended up winning.
This cabbage was so huge that I couldn’t lift it. I have a picture of me trying to hold it on my lap. Once my arm is better, I’ll dig it out and share the pic.
TKW Family Love
I’m Polish and these are by far the best….just like how my mom used to make them….full of flavour and delicious!! My go to recipe. I’ll be making a double batch as part of Christmas Eve dinner this year 😊
I have countless memories of our kitchen being so hot (we didn’t have AC growing up, and we only had window fans), and Mom having 3 large canning pots on the stove with boiling water.
She’d make hundreds of stuffed cabbages. I still remember that hot cabbage smell and hot/wet air in the kitchen. Dad would use the tongs to pull out the leaves and 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 are golumpki. What do you call them?
WATCH: How to Make Easy Cabbage Rolls
Growing up in Pittsburgh, most of the weddings I attended as a kid were those 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 cabbage rolls. Mom was always asked to make her easy cabbage rolls (along with cookies for the cookie tables).
Pittsburgh weddings “require” a cookie table at every reception. Sure, there’s a cake, but there must also be one or two cookie tables with copious amounts of cookies.
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls Ingredients
Growing up as poor as we were, Mom went with what we had.
- Meat: ground beef and ground pork
- Cabbage
- Eggs
- Tomato Soup: Yes, like the canned condensed soup, not sauce. Using tomato sauce made the dish too “tangy,” whereas tomato soup is more mellow on the palate. You want the cabbage to be the star, not the “sauce.”
- And no, you do not add water to the condensed soup
- 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
Making these isn’t hard, but they do take a little bit of time. Cabbage leaves, unlike lettuce leaves, cannot be peeled off the head.
They are complex; if you try to peel them off, they’ll crack 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
Then, once it’s partially frozen, you remove it, and as it softens, the leaves pull off. I 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.
- Fill a large stockpot with water and bring it to a boil.
- Then, take a paring knife and remove the core.
- Carefully add the cabbage into the pot (USE TONGS and go slow!) and boil it for a few minutes, checking the leaves.
- 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 Roll Mom’s Classic Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
- Make sure the leaves are cool enough to touch but not cold. Cold leaves are hard to roll, and they may tear.
- Use a paring knife to shave away the thick center stem from each leaf. Essentially, you’re flattening out the leaf so that the big rind is gone, BUT do not cut all the way through.
- Lay a single large leaf down with the cut side facing you.
- Add some of the meat and rice mixture to the lower third of the leaf—think like you’re making a burrito.
- Fold the sides in, grab the bottom of the leaf, and roll up snugly like a burrito.
- Repeat until they are all rolled.
Chef’s Tip about using the smaller cabbage leaves
As you pluck more leaves off the cabbage head, they will get smaller and smaller. You have two choices here:
- When the leaves are small, place two leaves side by side but overlapping to create one larger leaf. Stuff and roll up like a larger stuffed cabbage. OR,
- Place them in the pans with the stuffed cabbage rolls as extra cabbage.
Using Tomato Soup in Cabbage Rolls
This is how the Slovak side of my family has been making it for generations. If you want something else, go for it. That’s not this recipe, and I have yet to find another recipe as amazing as this one.
But with the tomato soup, it’s the traditional can of condensed tomato soup. No, you do NOT dilute it or mix it with water when you add it.
Cabbage has a high water content, so as it cooks down, it will combine with the thickened condensed and help thin it out. The tomato paste will prevent the ‘sauce’ from getting too thin. You should have a gravy that coats the stuffed cabbage rolls.
Fork-Tender Cabbage Rolls
One thing to remember when making these is that they must cook for a few hours for the cabbage to get super tender. You don’t want the cabbage to be firm or bite. You want to be able to cut it with a fork.
Cabbage Rolls Recipe Variations
In this section, you can learn how to make these keto-friendly or gluten-free.
- 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 like the addition of the ground pork as it gives the dish a bit more richness; however, you can go with all ground beef if you wish.
You can substitute ground turkey with ground chicken if you want a lighter variation.
One thing to keep in mind about meat substitution
Ground turkey or chicken is very lean, so it has very little fat. You must add some fat (ground dark meat) to the mix to prevent it from drying out.
How to Make Cabbage Rolls in a Crock Pot
If you do not want to heat your house by turning on the oven, you can make cabbage rolls in the slow cooker.
- Cover with the lid and cook on LOW for 8 hours or HIGH for 4 hours.
- Spray your slow cooker with cooking spray. Follow the instructions below to explain how to add them to the pan in layers.
- Add soup, a row of stuffed cabbage rolls, some smaller leaves, and repeat – soup, cabbage, leaves, ending with the last tomato soup.
How to Freeze Mom’s Famous Cabbage Rolls
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 that freezer with winter meals.
Roll, Bake, and Freeze
- This is the method all previous generations on my Mom’s side used, and this is how I do it. Once the stuffed cabbages are done baking, allow them to cool completely.
- Add a layer of tomato soup on the bottom in a freezer-safe container. Place a layer of cabbage rolls and another layer of tomato soup, and then place the lid on.
- Double-wrap the container in plastic wrap, then foil. Again, this is what Mom did.
- 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 I freeze half of it.
To reheat, I’ll take one of the containers out of the freezer and allow it to thaw in the fridge overnight.
When I’m ready to reheat, I’ll do the following:
Stored in a Freezer-to-Oven container
- Remove the foil and the plastic wrap.
- Bring the container to room temperature (typically while the oven is heating up). Ensure the dish is not cold when put in the oven, or it could crack.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and place the rack in the middle.
- Cover the dish tightly with foil.
- Place the room-temp container on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any overflow.
- Bake for 350°F or until the centers are hot.
Stored in a non-ovenproof container
- Remove the foil and the plastic wrap.
- Transfer the stuffed cabbages to a lightly sprayed baking dish.
- Add some tomato soup to the bottom, place it in the cabbage rolls, and top it with a little more tomato soup.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and place the rack in the middle.
- Cover the dish tightly with foil.
- Place the room-temp container on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any overflow.
- Bake for 350°F or until the centers are hot.
What to serve with Cabbage Rolls
In my world, only two things go PERFECT with these:
- The BEST Mashed Potatoes (creamy or chunky)
What else goes well with this?
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TKW Family Love
My dad said, these were better than my moms! That’s a huge compliment!!!
Now we do a ” girls nite” & make an assembly line, drink wine, & have a blast making cabbage rolls- making memories. Thank you
Mom’s Stuffed Cabbage Roll Recipe
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 these freeze beautifully!
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Total Time: 4 1/2 hours
- Yield: ~12-15 rolls
- Category: Stuffed
- Method: oven
- Cuisine: comfort food
Ingredients
- 1 large size head cabbage (about 3–5 pounds)
- 1 lb ground beef (or 1 1/2 lbs if not using pork)
- 1/2 pound ground pork (omit if using all beef)
- 1 medium onion, chopped small
- 3 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon parsley flakes
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 1/2 cups cooked, cooled white rice
- 3 10.75 ounce cans tomato soup (if using a deep dish pan with a 3” side use 4 cans)
Instructions
Prepare the cabbage
- Remove core from cabbage. Place whole head in a large pot filled with boiling, salted water. Cover and cook 3 minutes, or until softened enough to pull off individual leaves. If the leaves do not pull off easily, return the cabbage to the pot to boil a minute or two more. When the leaves are cool enough, use a paring knife to shave away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through.
Make the meat mixture
- In a large bowl, add the ground beef, pork, rice, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, eggs, ketchup, tomato paste, and parsley. Mix gently to combine. Add in 2/3rd of a can of tomato soup (almost 3/4 of a cup) and mix.
Assemble the cabbage rolls
- To stuff the leaves lay down a single large leaf with the cut edge facing you (where the stem was) and place about a 1/2 cup of the meat mixture in the lower third of the leave. If the leaf is huge add more, if smaller add less meat. Fold the sides of the leaf over the meat and roll the cabbage up (like rolling a burrito). Repeat until all of the leaves are stuffed. If you have extra meat just roll it up as meatballs and place it in the baking pan with the stuffed cabbage.
Prepare to bake
- Preheat oven to 350F, rack in the center.
- In a large deep dish (4” at least) baking pan (or two 9×13” glass pans), spread out the remaining soup from the open can on the bottom of the pan. Open up a 2nd can pour out 1/2 of it and spread it out until the bottom of the pan is covered in a light coating.
- Place a single layer of stuffed cabbages on the bottom of your pan. Add the remaining half of the 2nd can of tomato soup. If you have leaves that are too small to stuff or are badly torn, add them on top of the soup.
- Add the 2nd layer of stuffed cabbage (you must make sure you have a 1/2” gap at the top of your pan and stuffed cabbage. It cannot go over the top of the pan. Top with the remaining can of tomato soup and spread out evenly.
- Spray the underneath of a large piece of foil. Place foil side down on the pan (0vertop of the cabbages) and close tightly around the dish. Place the pan on a larger cookie sheet to catch any spillovers.
- Bake for 3 – 4 hours or until the cabbage is tender when pierced with a knife. (I start to check mine after 2 hours 45 minutes).
- Remove from the oven, uncover, and allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
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