Polish Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Why I Love This Recipe
The credit for this recipe goes to a former neighbor. She made no bones about the fact that she was cooking-challenged, and could only make one thing well. This is it, and it has become of my favorite go-to recipes!
Ingredients You'll Need
1 medium-size head cabbage
1 lb. (more or less) ground beef
1/4 Cup bread crumbs
1/4 Cup dry oatmeal (I use quick cooking Quaker oats...Not the instant)
1 egg
2 Tbl. onion, finely chopped
salt & pepper to taste
1 teasp. poultry seasoning
1 can beef consomme
butter or margarine
Directions
- Butter or spray a 13"X9"X2" casserole and set aside.
- Prepare cabbage next. Remove a couple of the outermost leaves from cabbage and discard. Locate the next outermost leaf and with a paring knife, carefully cut the leaf away at the stem and gently work the leaf to separate it from the head without tearing. Continue until you have removed about 10-12 leaves. Trim away some of the thick rib at the stem end, rinse leaves and stack in a large kettle that has a couple inches of salted boiling water in it. Cover pot and reduce to a simmer for about 5 minutes, till leaves are pliable, but not overly soft. Drain and allow to cool before filling.
- Prepare filling. In a large mixing bowl, slightly beat egg. Add about 1/4 cup of the canned consomme, onion, salt and pepper, and poultry seasoning, oatmeal and bread crumbs. Stir to combine, then add ground beef and mix all.
- Pre-heat oven to 400F.
- Make the rolls. Lay out a single cabbage leaf, with the inside facing up and the stem end toward you. Spoon a 2-3 Tbl. portion of the filling on the leaf, centered over the rib, about 2" from the end closest to you. Fold over the right side, then the left, then the stem end, to totally enclose meat fiiling, then roll to form a neat package. Continue to make rolls, placing them side-by-side in the buttered dish. Dot the top of each roll with a little softened butter, then pour the remaining consomme over the rolls. Cover with foil.
- Bake Cabbage rolls covered for 45 minutes, them remove foil and bake another 15 minutes to allow rolls to brown.
- SERVING SUGGESTION: I serve these with hot buttered wide noodles that I have sprinkled with fresh or dried dill. Afterwards, I just dump the remaining noodles in the baking dish with the leftover cabbage rolls and microwave the next day for a tasty lunch.