Easy Polish Stuffed Cabbage Like Grandma’s

Don’t Cook The Rice!!!!!

Thank You Grandma!!!

I love this easy Polish stuffed cabbage and I should make it more often. WHY? because I love it, it is easy to make, it is inexpensive to make, and most of all it brings back great memories of my Grandma cooking with me/ teaching me.

Stuffed Cabbage Means Celebration

Gołąbki the Polish name for stuffed cabbage are always served at Christmas and other festive occasions like weddings, family reunions, momentous anniversaries. We always serve it with kielbasa, sauerkraut, and pierogis.

Many other countries and cultures have their own version of stuffed cabbage but this is my favorite.

Let’s make this easy Polish stuffed cabbage…

Bring a large pot of water to a slow boil. Take a large head of cabbage and core it. I use green cabbage or savoy. Drop the cabbage in the water then make the filling

The Filling

First sauté one cup of finely chopped onion with 3 cloves of minced garlic.

This is a recipe for a beef filling so it will need a couple things to make sure it is soft. Usually you would add pork and/or ground veal to soften the texture just like making meatloaf but we have a few tricks to make it soft and silky.

Start out with 1.5 pounds of ground beef.

First add 3/4 of a tsp of gelatin. Second add 3/4 cups of medium grain rice or broken rice (see below). Raw rice!!!! Most recipes say cooked rice but don’t!!!!

The Rest-add the sautéed onions and garlic, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Mix it well. NO EGG!!!! Super Simple!!

Lets Roll!

Once the cabbage is starting to get soft take it out of the water and drain. The leaves should just start to become flexible and soft. You can always drop the cabbage back in the boiling water but if it is too soft it will fall apart.

Peel off the leaves and trim the large vein at the bottom. Don’t worry if the leaves break because you can use them to line the pan.

Place your leave on table with the vein side down. Put about a half of a cup or less depending on the leaf. Fold one edge over the filling then roll but not too tight. Take your thumb and push the other edge into the cabbage. Check this out!

Panning and Cooking

Roll the meat filling in all the outer leaves. Chop the inner cabbage leaves and throw half on the bottom of your pan (9by13). Lay your cabbage rolls on top and put the rest of the chopped cabbage and torn leaves on top.

Make your cooking liquid (see recipe) and pour it over everything. Cover tight with foil and bake at 325 for 2.5 hours. Check it and see if cabbage is nice and silky soft. If there is to much liquid crack open the foil cover and cook another half hour.

If it is to dry add another cup of tomato juice or stock. Cover tight and cook a half hour.

Tips and Subs

• Do not cook the rice first!!!!
• use a medium or smaller grain rice. I used broken jasmine rice and it made the rolls nice and soft.
• mix in 1/2 tsp of plain gelatin per pound of meat to make it soft. Do the same for all beef meatloaf.
• use green cabbage or savoy. I think I like savoy better.
• use 1/2 cup of rice per pound of meat, 1 tsp salt and a half tsp pepper per pound.
• stuffed cabbage is always better the second day.

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