Cabbage Rolls (Holupchi)
- Ready In:
- 3hrs
- Ingredients:
- 16
- Yields:
-
30-35 rolls
ingredients
-
Sauce
- 1 (1 3/8 liter) can reduced-sodium tomato juice
- 1⁄2 bunch fresh dill
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 large onion
- 5 -7 cloves
- 1 tablespoon ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1⁄4 cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
-
Rolls
- 1 cabbage
- 1 1⁄2 cups rice (uncooked)
- 1 lb ground veal (you can use ground anything)
- 1⁄2 bunch dill
- 1 -2 tablespoon ground pepper
- 1 -2 teaspoon salt
directions
-
For the sauce:
- Take your onion and with a knife make 5-7 slits (depending on how many cloves you are using). Insert your cloves into the slits.
- Finely chop your garlic and dill.
- Sweat off your garlic and your whole onion for about a minute, flipping the onion once.
- Add the remaining ingredients for the sauce, bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for about 30 minutes.
- Taste your sauce, if it needs more of anything, add it. I find sometimes I need more sugar, sometimes more vinegar.
-
For the rolls:
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Cook your rice as you normally would (for 1 1/2 cups of rice, I would normally use about 3 cups water). Once cooked, put it in a large bowl to cool.
- Core your cabbage. Reserve two outer leaves and shred. Finely chop your dill.
- Bring a large pot of water and the cabbage to a boil. As the cabbage cooks, remove the leaves that separate (with tongs) and set aside. Depending on the size of your cabbage, you'll want 20-30 leaves. (the leftover cabbage will freeze well too).
- Meanwhile, add the ground veal, dill, shredded reserved cabbage, salt and pepper to the rice and mix well with your hands.
- Take a 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce and add it to the rice mixture. Mix again and check the consistency. You can choose to add up to another 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce, this is a personal choice.
- Line the bottom of a roast pan with 2-3 leaves, so that the bottom is covered. Ladle a small amount of the sauce on the bottom of the pan.
- Take the cabbage leaves you've removed and remove the cores. If your leaves are big you may also want to cut them in half.
- Grab some of the rice mixture, about I'm guessing a 1/4 cup or about the size of a golf ball (this again depends of the size of your leaves), and shape it into a finger. Put it in the cabbage and roll the cabbage, folding the ends in, and lay in the roast pan seam side down.
- Repeat until you have filled the bottom of the pan and ladle about 1/2 cup of the sauce over the rolls. Repeat until you run out of the stuffing.
- Take the remaining sauce and pour it all over the rolls. Cover and bake for about 30-45 minutes, until your meat is cooked.
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Reviews
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This is one of my favorite comfort foods. I remember the first time I had cabbage rolls as a little girl. Calgary Alberta, my Great Aunt Anuk made them in the biggest pot I'd ever seen on the top of the stove. I still remember the heavenly smell. I make these rolls often and I tried this recipe because I thought I made the best in the world. The only difference is, I use more spice and less dill. My recipe, I think is a mix of my heritage Italian/Ukrainian/Romanian influence. Yours are right up there. I took me back! About 40 years! Thanks for the post. My friends beg me to make Cabbage Rolls, they are a labor of love. Dian