Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls

If you are Polish, you probably like cabbage rolls. Even if you are not, cabbage is a great food item. Pierogi with cabbage, sauerkraut, onion, and hamburger are great; cabbage soup is even better; but stuffed cabbage is the best. Mom used to make them with a bit of bacon on the top for flavor before putting them in the oven. I always added ketchup on mine. I found an unstuffed cabbage recipe on Facebook a long time ago and we thought it was time to make it for dinner last night. We picked up a small cabbage at the grocery store so we were set. My husband always adds things that aren’t called for in the recipe whereas I always follow the instructions. Rather than plain diced tomatoes we added Italian style with basil and oregano; he likes baked beans so those were added to his portion after the fact. We were not disappointed with the results. The best part is that it is so easy to make and there are always leftovers. The next time we will make some rice and pour the contents on that since stuffed cabbage always had rice in our house. With the weather getting colder this is the perfect dinner - even if you are not Polish. 

Stove Top Stuffed Cabbage

I haven’t had them for a very long time. Stuffed cabbage was a staple in our house when we were growing up. My husband is the cook in our house and he has made some wonderful cabbage soup. So we thought we might try making the stuffed cabbage in the frying pan on the stove top rather than the long way of boiling the cabbage to get the leaves, stuffing the leaves with the hamburger and rice, putting a bit of bacon on the top, and then put it all in the oven. I was occupied doing other things while my husband was off concocting this recipe. A bit of hamburger with onions, cut pieces of cabbage, and a lot of white rice. What I didn’t realize was he was using a lot of cabbage near the core - which may be okay in soup, but not for a “casserole” cabbage roll. Then, he added in some turkey lunch meat because there wasn’t a lot of hamburger to begin with. When he served it up it looked okay, but for the first time in forty years, dinner tasted awful. I was embarrassed to tell him, but he can handle the truth. The turkey ruined it, although the cabbage was on the “hard” side - very unlike the real cabbage rolls that are soft and transparent when they are baked. So much for the experiment. That just goes to show you that sometimes you just need to follow the recipe - and don’t add turkey. 

Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls from the Unstoppable Farm Woman - The Polish Kabob?

Growing up in a Polish household afforded us the delights of pierogi and stuffed cabbage, plus sauerkraut and Polish sausage. Not necessarily the healthiest food, but tasty and very ethnic. Milwaukee had all kinds of Polish restaurants and even a Polish Fest on the Lakefront. My first Madame Alexander doll was from Poland, and my mother tells us we all spoke Polish before we knew English. Unfortunately, there are no Polish restaurants around here that we know of. I even contacted the Polish Embassy for help but didn't receive an answer! I don't usually pay attention to recipes posted on Facebook but this one caught my eye. I showed it to my husband who likes to cook and he gave it a whirl, adding to it his brand of flavors and seasonings. We definitely added rice and mixed it all together to make it look more like the real stuffed cabbage. We liked it so much we made it again the following week and it will probably become a routine. As my husband is Iranian, we like a few Persian places around here - Moby Dick take out, Yekta in Rockville, and Kabob Bazaar in Arlington. You could say this recipe is the Polish version of Kabob... Rice, hamburger/ground meat... If you look and enough you can always find something in common.