Mom always used ground pork or regular ground beef. Using lean ground beef will give you a drier cabbage roll; there won't be as much liquid in the pan as there will be less fat so in this case you'll want to use the third can of condensed tomato soup and water. This recipe makes over 24 cabbage rolls. If not serving anything else, count on needing 2-4 cabbage rolls per person (depending on size).
You need a large oven roasting pan with a lid and a large pot to simmer the cabbage.
Buy a medium to large cabbage with leafy green outer leaves.
The big outer leaves are best for rolling. You will have leftover cabbage and can use the hardest inner leaves near the core, for boiled cabbage or soup.
Method:
1. Make the rice.
- Add 1 cup dry white rice to 2 cups boiling water, 1 Tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tsp salt. Cover. Let water return to a boil. Immediately turn heat to low and let sit 15 minutes. Remove cooked rice from pot and let cool in a large bowl.
- Rinse.
- Cut the woody stem from the cabbage. Use a knife to cut down into the cabbage, all around the core. You may later have to cut more to separate the inner leaves from the core.
- Fill a large pot with water, bring to a boil, then turn the water to simmer.
- Carefully put the cabbage in the pot and blanche the cabbage (let it sit in the hot water) to loosen and soften the leaves.
- Remove leaves as they loosen (use forks or tongs) and place in a strainer over a large bowl.
- Keep cabbage in the water to loosen inner leaves as outer leaves are removed.
- The hard, white part of the cabbage is difficult to roll, so save that to use for cabbage soup or to eat on its own, salted with butter.
- Let leaves drain and cool a little in the strainer until you can handle them.
- Use a knife to slice a layer off the thick woody spine running down the outer centre of each leaf to make the leaf easier to roll. (Don't cut the spine out entirely or there will be a hole in the cabbage roll and the filling will fall out.)
3. Prepare the Filling
Ingredients:
- 2-3 cans Campbells condensed tomato soup
- 1/4 tsp salt (can omit)
- 2 cups cooked plain white rice
- 21/2 to 3 lbs. uncooked ground pork or regular ground beef
- 1 tsp ground black pepper (or omit)
- To the bowl of cooked rice, add 6 Tbsp tomato soup concentrate (3 Tbsp each from 2 cans) salt (I omit the salt here because I salt the rice ), raw ground meat, a sprinkling of fresh grated black pepper.
- Mix well. It's easiest to do this by hand wearing food prep gloves.
- Put a mound of meat mixture in the centre of a prepared cabbage leaf. Amount will vary depending on the size of the leaf. With a small leaf, you might use a heaping tablespoon of meat mixture, with a large leaf you can add more.
- Turn up stem end of leaf over meat, tuck in sides, roll up.
- Place cabbage rolls in a roasting pan as you roll them, covering the bottom of the pan with rolls then making a second layer.
- Continue till you're out of cabbage leaves or meat mixture. You will likely have left-over cabbage.
- Top up the 2 open cans of tomato soup concentrate with water. Stir over the roasting pan and pour over the cabbage rolls, using a spatula to scrape out the cans.
- There should be enough liquid to wet all the cabbage rolls. I usually open a third can of tomato soup concentrate and spoon undiluted over the cabbage rolls to keep them moist while cooking because I like more tomato flavour. (I have substituted salted diced tomatoes or watered-down tomato sauce when I haven't had enough tomato soup concentrate.)
- Bake covered in preheated 325 degree F. oven (convection heat) or 350 degree F (regular oven) for 1-2 hours until all cabbage leaves are fork-tender, then lower heat to warm. If there is a lot of liquid in the pan remove the lid for the last half hour before serving, if not, keep covered in warm oven. If you make half the recipe and have only 1 layer of cabbage rolls in the roasting pan, cooking time will be about 1 hour, then reduce heat to keep warm.
Cabbage rolls can sit in the oven, covered, a long time on low heat so it's fine to cook them in advance and keep warm until you're ready to serve dinner. A friend of my mom's always cooked hers around noon and then kept them in the oven, covered, on warm for 6-7 hours and said they tasted best this way.
Cooked cabbage rolls can be stored in the fridge on a plate in one layer, covered, for 3 days. If the meat used in the filling was fresh and not previously frozen, cooked cabbage rolls can be frozen.
