Golabki - Polish Cabbage Rolls

Submitted by LMCski

"Polish cabbage rolls (filled with a mixture of rice, pork, and beef) stewed in tomatoes. This is a dish I remember my Gram making. I've taken the recipe and tweaked it as I've cooked. The dish is hearty and delicious--and known by other names throughout Eastern Europe. I've made it for friends who have never had Polish food before, and they loved it with a fervor that surprised me. It may look very time intensive, but it's a meal unto itself and can be frozen or reheated easily. It also helps to split it into two main phases: 1) making the meat filling and freezing the cabbage the night before; 2) assembling the golabki. For Polish food, it's surprisingly easy (this is coming from someone who makes her own pierogi from scratch). Enjoy!"

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 50mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Serves: 8-10

ingredients

• 1 head cabbage
• 2 lbs ground beef (don't use overly lean meat)
• 1 lb ground pork (or veal if you do not eat pork, don't use overly lean meat)
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 2 eggs
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 large onion
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons marjoram
• 1 teaspoon marjoram
• 1 tablespoon thyme (or sage)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 2 (14 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 (12 ounce) can tomato sauce

directions

1. Chop onion.
2. Mince garlic.
3. Saute garlic and onion in 2 T butter over medium heat until onions are caramelized. Remove from heat and let cool to near room temperature.
4. Beat 2 eggs thoroughly with 2 T marjoram, 1 T thyme/sage, salt, and pepper.
5. In bowl, add ground beef, pork (or veal), rice, onion, garlic, and eggs.
6. Mix thoroughly with your hands.
7. Cover and let rest in the fridge. (You can let it sit overnight, it will just let the flavors permeate more.).
8. Core cabbage.
9. Blanche cabbage leaves in boiling water, peeling them off as they become limp. (Alternatively, after coring the cabbage, you can put it in the freezer and after it's frozen, let it thaw and the leaves will be limp--you can just pull them off. **If you choose to freeze, freeze the cabbage the night before and keep in mind it will take a few hours for it to thaw**).
10. Once you've separated all the leaves, take a paring knife and cut off any thick stems preventing the limp leaf from bending/rolling.
11. Put about 2 T of meat filling in the center of each leaf. Fold the sides of the leaf in and roll it up into a little package. Put each golabki seam-down into a casserole dish. (At this point, if you like, you can freeze them and thaw them later. Once thawed, continue with the recipe steps below.).
12. Once you've used up all the cabbage leaves or meat filling, take your cans of tomatoes and pour them over the golabki.
13. Sprinkle the remaining teaspoons of marjoram into the tomato sauce before pouring it over the golabki and tomatoes.
14. Bake covered at 350 for 2 hours.

Reviews

[Kylie O.]

Got them cooking in the oven now! I use sauerkraut cabbage leave for the extra zing and instead of sage I use fresh dill. I also sauté some smoky bacon and add that to the bottom of the pot with left over cabbage leaves. I use passata and a little beef stock and some parsley. Serve with steaming hot mash potato! I always make s huge batch and it gets eater for breakfast lunch and dinner for a few days, whole family loves them!

 

[Susan N.]

This is a good recipe, however, to make it authentic, you must add some lt. or dark brown sugar to the tomato sauce/crushed tomato mixture. Maybe 2 T would do it. My Polish mother would also buy some fat back/salt pork and score it, then slowly render it down and pour it over the golabki. I make these and I leave it out...however that is the real Polish way to do it. I find the stuffed cabbage does absorb a lot of the juice from the tomatoes so I also add tomato juice to the tomato mixture.

 

[Amanda W.]

These are delicious! Very similar to the ones my Polish Granny made when I was growing up. I didn't have pork, but they were wonderful with just ground beef too.

 

[candacepaine]

My Grandmother was from Poland and made hers very similar to this recipe. I used 2/3 ground beef, 1/3 ground pork and only 2 large cloves of garlic. I followed the recipe almost exactly as written here but simmered mine on the stove (very large heavy- bottomed pot) covered for about 2 to 21/2 hours as this is the way we have always cooked ours. Any left over meat filling I used to make little meatballs and added into the pot. This was a fantastic recipe. Thank you for posting!

 

[Jonathan Melendez]

I grew up eating stuffed cabbage a lot and this one was just like the one I remember. It was amazing. The meat filling was so good! Don't be put off by the steps. It's the perfect dinner recipe!