Polish cabbage rolls (gołąbki)
Polish stuffed cabbage rolls, or gołąbki: beef and rice wrapped in cabbage leaves and baked slowly in tomato sauce, with an easy way to soften the leaves.
- 300
- kcal
- 21g
- protein
- 11g
- fat
- 30g
- carbs
- Prep
- 45 min
- Cook
- 100 min
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
- 1 large head green cabbage (about 3 lb)
- 1/2 cup long-grain white rice
- 1 tbsp butter or oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb (450 g) 90% lean ground beef, or half beef and half pork
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp dried marjoram or thyme
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup beef or chicken broth
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp sugar
- Chopped dill or parsley, and sour cream, to serve
Method
-
1
Soften the cabbage leaves
Cut the core out of the cabbage with a paring knife. Lower the whole head into a large pot of boiling salted water. As the outer leaves soften, after 2 to 3 minutes, peel them off with tongs and lay them on a towel. Keep going until you have 12 to 14 good leaves.
-
2
Trim the ribs
Shave the thick rib on the back of each leaf down with a paring knife until it is as thin as the rest of the leaf, so it rolls without cracking.
-
3
Parcook the rice
Boil the rice in salted water for 10 minutes, so it is only half cooked, and drain. It finishes cooking in the rolls; fully cooked rice turns to mush.
-
4
Make the filling
Cook the onion in the butter over medium heat for 6 minutes, until soft, adding the garlic for the last minute. Cool a little, then mix with the beef, rice, egg, marjoram, salt and pepper by hand until just combined.
-
5
Roll
Put about 1/3 cup filling near the base of each leaf. Fold the base over it, fold in the sides, and roll up firmly.
-
6
Layer the dish
Heat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking dish or a Dutch oven with any torn or leftover leaves. Pack the rolls in seam side down. Stir the tomatoes, broth, lemon juice and sugar together and pour over the rolls.
-
7
Bake
Cover tightly and bake 1 1/2 hours, until the cabbage is very tender and the filling reads 160°F. Rest 10 minutes and serve with the sauce, dill and sour cream.
Gołąbki
Gołąbki (pronounced roughly "go-WOMP-kee") means "little pigeons" in Polish, probably for the shape of the rolls. Stuffed cabbage is cooked across Central and Eastern Europe: holubtsi in Ukraine, sarma in the Balkans and Turkey, töltött káposzta in Hungary, and in Jewish cooking, sweet-and-sour stuffed cabbage. The Polish version is usually beef or pork with rice, baked or simmered in tomato sauce.
The easy way to soften the leaves
Removing whole leaves from a raw cabbage tears them. Two methods work:
- Boil the whole head, as in the recipe, peeling off the leaves as they soften. Cutting out the core first lets the water get between the leaves.
- Freeze it. Put the whole cabbage in the freezer for a day or two, then thaw it in the fridge for a day or two. Freezing breaks down the leaves, and they come off soft and pliable, with no pot of water.
Savoy cabbage is more pliable, but its crinkled leaves tear if handled roughly. The smallest inner leaves are too small to roll. Chop them and add them to the sauce.
Why the rice goes in half-cooked
The rolls bake for an hour and a half in liquid, and the rice keeps absorbing it. Raw rice can stay hard in the middle of the roll. Fully cooked rice turns mushy and makes the filling fall apart. Ten minutes of boiling is the middle ground. The rice should still be firm in the center when you drain it.
Unstuffed cabbage rolls
For the same flavors in 40 minutes, brown the beef and onion in a Dutch oven, add half a head of chopped cabbage, the rice, tomatoes and broth, and simmer covered for 25 minutes, until the rice is tender. Add another cup of broth if it gets dry. The same filling also works in stuffed peppers.
Variations
- With mushrooms: replace half the meat with 8 oz of finely chopped mushrooms, cooked with the onion until dry. A common Polish version for Christmas Eve uses only mushrooms and rice or buckwheat.
- Sweet and sour: add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 2 more of lemon juice to the sauce. That is closer to the Jewish style.
- With sauerkraut: scatter a cup of drained sauerkraut over the leaves at the bottom of the dish, as in Ukrainian holubtsi and Balkan sarma.
- With turkey: use 93% lean ground turkey. The rolls are a little drier, so add 2 more tablespoons of broth to the filling, and bake until the filling reads 165°F.
Make ahead and freezing
Cabbage rolls are better the next day. They keep 4 days in the fridge and freeze very well for 3 months, in their sauce. Reheat covered at 350°F for 30 minutes from the fridge, or about an hour from frozen.
What they are worth nutritionally
A serving of two rolls has about 300 kcal, with 21 g of protein, 11 g of fat and 30 g of carbohydrate, including about 5 g of fiber. That is a full dinner with a large amount of vegetables. Sour cream is not included: a tablespoon adds about 25 kcal. Using half beef and half pork, the classic mix, adds about 30 kcal and 4 g of fat a serving.
