Marianne's Cabbage Rolls--Galompki

With the garden overflowing with veggies just needing to be picked, in addition to beans beans beans and squash squash squash, I have abundant cabbages that were planted so I could make my winter cabbage soup. But as all the rains we have been having these past weeks have slowed down tomato production I needed to use these huge heads up. I have a good gardening friend who’s always raving about his wife’s stuffed cabbage dish. So one day I asked him if she would share it with me and she graciously did! Thanks so much Marianne for the recipe.. they turned out super and were just delicious!

Marianne’s Cabbage Rolls -- Galombki

Stuffing:
1.5 pounds ground meats – beef-pork-veal if you like
1 cup cooked long grain white rice—I didn’t cook my rice
1 large onion, chopped fine
3 TBLS parsley, chopped
¾ cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
sea salt and pepper to taste

Cabbage and sauce:
1 large head of cabbage
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
3 cans tomato soup

For the cabbage:

”Cook cabbage until it’s semi-soft. When cooked-peel the leaves.” Instead of boiling the cabbage, I rinsed the cabbage off in cold water, put in a dish with just a bit of water, covered with plastic wrap and popped it into the microwave for about 10 minutes. The leaves peeled off perfectly.



For the stuffing:

Brown meat with onions , drain off oils and allow to cool. Add rice, parsley, breadcrumbs, salt & pepper. Mix together and then add 2 eggs and mix very well. You will be making small oval meatballs to wrap in the cooked cabbage leaves.


For the sauce:
Combine the crushed tomatoes and soup together and ladle out enough to cover the bottom of casserole dish



Assembly:

Separate the cabbage leaves and set aside. Take any leftover leaves, and coarsely chop and place at the bottom of the pan. Take a leaf and lay on a surface with the rib end facing you. Place about 2 TBLS rolled into oval meatballs of filling within the little cup that the leaf forms (amount will differ based on size of leaf). Fold the left and right sides over the filling and roll the remainder up over itself, placing in the pot seam-side down. Repeat until all filling and or cabbage is used up. Put all the cabbage rolls in baking dish and cover with remaining sauce mix. Cover with foil and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees. I was so busy sampling and readying dinner I forgot to take a photo of the finished dish! But trust me, they were just yummy!



I hadn’t made stuffed cabbage in many years and recall cooking mine on stove top for hours on end. I much preferred baking these in the oven. Next time I make them I will add a bit of water to the sauce, as I think mine was a bit thick. These cabbage rolls were fantastic and so flavorful! I froze half of them, but know they won’t last long around here :-) Enjoy!