I think I may have been German in a past life!

The amount of cabbage I consume on a regular basis is not normal. Any kinds, red cabbage, savoy, bok, chinese, white, you name it, I love it! Steamed, sauteed, baked, raw, I almost think I am nuts-I actually crave this stuff! Well, tonight I was starving while deciding what to feed the family. I couldn't decide between stuffed cabbage rolls, and shepherd's pie. Well, after going back and forth-I thought, "shoot, I am going to make both!" I am focusing this entry on the cabbage rolls, they are what we ate tonight, the pie is in the fridge all ready for another meal. I have to say, I am so full, but my tummy is oh-so-happy! I ended up omitting rice and serving these over mashed potatoes instead. They turned out so delicious! Exactly the taste I was craving. The cabbage leaves were just the right tenderness, with the center of the rolls being melt in your mouth juicy, moist, and extremely flavorful. I will have to make them again soon!

Preheat over to 375 degrees. This recipe takes a couple hours from start to finish so make sure you have plenty of time.
Start with prepping your cabbage leaves. Make sure the head of the cabbage is nice and large, you want large enough leaves that they will wrap up the whole way. Get some water to a boil on the stove. Core the cabbage, and carefully pull away the leaves-coring it first will help with this process. I learned the hard way. If you try just pulling away the leaves, the closer you get to the core, the harder it is and the leaves tend to tear. If the veins of the cabbage are thick, fillet them thin as you can. Dunk the leaves into the boiling water and boil until they are pliable enough to work with.
In a separate bowl, mix a pound of ground sirloin, a chopped onion, some minced garlic (couple cloves), Worcestershire (about a TBSP or so) salt and pepper, and I threw in a mix of spices I have all pre-mixed in a bottle (it consists of onion and garlic powder, thyme, oregano, paprika, chili powder, basil) and some pre-mixed au jus I keep on hand to use instead of beef broth (makes for a stronger flavor for things, and I prefer this). Mix it all up really well and get ready to roll!
Take a cabbage leaf and a heaping spoonful of the meat mix. Wrap it up like you would an eggroll, sealing the edges and ending with a mini burrito looking thing. If a few of the leaves are too small, leaving them open isn't a big deal. Set aside in whatever casserole dish you are baking them in. Now, you have another option here as well, which I didn't do tonight because I didn't have enough time. Instead of just placing in the casserole dish, you can melt some butter in a dutch oven or oven proof sauce pan and brown each sides of each roll. It tastes wonderful either way. I go ahead and do this when I have time, but tonight it was already getting late and these take another hour and a half to bake.
On the stove, start making your tomato topping. Saute a chopped onion, some minced garlic, and cook until soft. Add a can of diced tomatoes, some oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. Take a half cup more of the au jus and mix in a TBSP of corn starch. Stir into the tomato mix and let thicken. Pour this mix over the cabbage rolls and pop into the oven. Bake an hour, to hour and a half. Ground meat needs to come to a 160 temp before it's done. I served these over mashed potatoes and it was delicious! If you want this to be a one dish meal, add some cooked rice into the meat mixture before rolling and they can be a meal all in itself. This is what my finished product looked like, so delicious!


Enjoy-I know we did! Tyler is in a food coma already :)