Kohlrouladen (Stuffed Cabbage)

Here is one variation of the dish that is closer to my recipe.

Ingredients

Meat Filling
3C uncooked long grained cooked white rice (415c, 133.53k, 12.75p, 1.8f)
1C beef stock (7c, .8k, .84p, 0f)
1# ground beef (975c, 0k, 84.32p, 0f)
½# ground pork (597c, 0k, 76.57p, 0f)
2 beaten large eggs (148c, .76k, 12.58p, 0f)
1 small diced medium 2.5″ diameter white onion (46c, 11.12k, 1.01p, 1.5f)
1t dry mustard (5c, 0k, 0p, 0f)
½t salt
½t pepper
4T chopped parsley (4c, .96k, .44p, .4f)
1t crushed carroway seeds
½t marjoram (1c, .04k, .04p, .1f)
1T brown sugar (11c, 2.92k, 0p, 0f)
½t paprika (3c, .58k, .15p, .4f)
Cabbage Leaves
Water to fill a pot (save 1C water)
1 large 7″ diameter cored green cabbage head (300c, 69.64k, 17.97p, 28.7f)
Twine (optional) to tie the individual Kohlrouladen
1T salt
2T butter (200c, 0k, 0p, 0f) to saute the filled leaves
Sauce
1 26oz Pomi finely chopped tomatoes (91c, 19.5k, 3.25p, 6.5f)
1C reserved cabbage water in case

A closeup of the meat filled cabbage leaves (using bread instead of rice) with another variation.

Nutrition

Dish total 2803c, 239.89k, 209.92p, 39.4f
8 Servings (~3 rolls per serving)
Per serving 350.37c, 29.99k, 26.24p, 4.92f

Directions

First, cook rice with the beef stock. (Homemade stock is best, but 1 bouillon cube dissolved in warm water is good enough and often used.) Then place a large pot of water with 1/2t salt on to boil, which will be used to soften or wilt the cabbage.

2) Prep Meat: In a bowl, mix the raw ground meats with eggs, onions, dry mustard, salt, pepper, parsley, caraway seeds, marjoram, sugar and paprika. Make sure everything is mixed well. (If you do not want the food sweetish, do not add the sugar.) Then, once the rice is cooked and cool enough to touch, add the cooked rice to the mixture and again mix well. Set aside.

  • In Germany we would not use rice, but soaked stale bread (a panade). However, since I want this dish gluten-free I am using the rice. If you want to use bread, any roll or baguette will do. Soak the bread a bit (1/4C for instance) in beef broth and squeeze out excess liquid before adding to the meat mixture.

3) Prep Cabbage Remove core from cabbage, and when water is boiling place the whole head into the water until leaves are wilty, and you are able to pull leaves off the cabbage head with tongs and place in nearby colander to cool. The outside leaves will wilt a bit and will be easy to pull, just do this layer by layer until the leaves are too small. Take cabbage out of the water to cool and remove the rest of the leaves by hand. Separate leaves into ones that are large enough to fold the way you want and smaller ones.

  • If Slow Cooking: Trim off any hard-to-bend spines and line the bottom of the slow cooker with those spines to prevent burning.

5) Spoon in 1-2T of meat mixture into center of a smaller cabbage leaf, then put that into a larger leaf rolling it up and tucking the ends like a burrito. Have your skillet and melted butter at hand and place the roll, seam side down, in the skillet and brown both sides flipping over with tongs.

  • Some people are practiced enough with this process that they can fold the food into the leaves and plop them in the skillet without the meat falling out. If you are not so confident, tie up the Kohlrouladen with cooking twine, one widthwise and one lengthwise.

6) Once both sides are browned, place the Kohlrouladen in the cooking pan or slow cooker cover with crushed tomatoes.

  • If stovetop cooking simmer the food in the liquid using a glass lidded pan (so you can see what is happening) for ~30 minutes. The meat must be cooked through, if running out of liquid add up to 1C of the reserved cabbage water.
  • If slow cooking put on high for 2 hours up to 3 hours. If rolls seem dry, add more beef broth or reserved water.

7) Serve up to 3 per serving and spoon additional sauce on top of the Kohlrouladen. This dish can vary wildly in terms of how much filling is in the cabbage. Some make them large and may do only 4 servings of 1 each, others make smaller ones where you can get a plateful. It is up to you.

Diet

[x] Flexitarian + Omnivore
[x] Gluten free
[x] Mediterranean
[O] Lectin Avoidance: tomatoes
[O] Oxilate Avoidance: tomatoes
[x] Purine Avoidance
[x] Allergies: EGG, TOMATO

— with changes —
[x] Vegetarian + Pescatarian: swap meat for firm tofu and minced mushrooms, follow recipe
[x] Vegan: swap eggs for vegan eggs, swap meat for firm tofu and minced mushrooms, follow recipe
[x] Weight Maintenance: Remove sugar and swap broth for bouillon = 116.25 per roll. Or make them smaller, the cabbage is not the calorie buster, it is the filling.
[x] Keto: skip the sauce and serve with the meat/cabbage juices

Comments

In Germany you would add wet bread instead of rice, a panade. Again, being a regional dish there are all sorts of variations including a veggie brown sauce topping. The recipe I am giving here is what I have eaten in Munich. Generally this dish is served with either skinless boiled potato lightly sauteed in butter so it is crispy on the outside, or I have also had potato salad.