This Cabbage Roll Casserole is probably the most popular recipe on this site – and for good reason, it’s ridiculously delicious! I’ve yet to try my hand at making traditional cabbage rolls, I have to admit I’m a little apprehensive. I do love to order them in restaurants however, and my inspiration for this dish was making them a bit more accessible and easy. While this casserole is certainly not directly related to a traditional cabbage roll, all that flavor is still there.
I get a lot of feedback about the cheese not being necessary as it is not present ever in a traditional roll, but I absolutely love what it adds to this casserole. All that zesty tangy deliciousness combined with that ooey gooey cheese really does make this one of my favorite things to eat. 🙂
There isn’t too much prep time involved – about 30 minutes, and it’s in the oven for about 45 minutes. It makes a large casserole dish worth – so it’s enough food for about 6 – 8 people.
casseroles are the best thing ever!
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here’s a video of me making this Cabbage Roll Casserole:
The Cabbage Roll Casserole
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Serving: 6 - 8 servings
Nutrition facts (per portion)
- Calories: 450
- Carbohydrate Content: 51.4g
- Cholesterol Content: 63mg
- Fat Content: 15.1g
- Fiber Content: 5.8g
- Protein Content: 28.9g
- Saturated Fat Content: 4.9g
- Serving Size: 8
- Sodium Content: 510mg
- Sugar Content: 9.6g
Ingredients
- olive oil - 4 tbsp, separated
- onion - 1 medium, chopped
- garlic cloves - 3, minced
- ground beef - 1 pound (500 g)
- salt and pepper - to taste
- thyme - 1 tsp, dried
- paprika - 2 tsp
- worcestershire sauce - 1 tbsp
- brown sugar - 2 tbsp
- white vinegar - 1 tbsp
- diced tomatoes - 1 14 oz (400 g) can, with juices
- tomato sauce - 1 15 oz (480 g) jar
- brown rice - 2 cups, cooked
- green cabbage - 1 large head, coarsely chopped
- parmesan - 1/2 cup, grated
- mozzarella - 1 cup, shredded
how to
- Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a deep skillet or pot over medium heat and saute the onion for about 3 - 4 minutes, until softened, then add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
- Increase the heat to high and add the ground beef and season well with salt and pepper. Cook until browned, crumbling it up as it cooks.
- Stir in the thyme, paprika, worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and vinegar and cook for a couple more minutes before adding the tomatoes and tomato sauce. Swirl about 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of the tomato sauce jar and add that as well.
- Let this simmer for about 15 minutes, then stir in the cooked rice and remove from heat.
- In another large, deep, pan heat 2 more tbsp of olive oil over medium high heat and add the chopped cabbage. Cook, stirring almost constantly until the cabbage is about half cooked - add salt and pepper generously as it cooks, then remove from heat.
- Heat your oven to 350 F (175 C) and grease a large casserole dish.
- Spread about 1/2 the cabbage onto the bottom, pressing it down a bit with the back of a spoon.
- Spoon half the beef mixture over the cabbage, then add the other half of the cabbage and finish with the rest of the meat mixture.
- Cover tightly with foil and bake for about 45 minutes, then remove the foil and sprinkle the cheeses on top.
- Bake uncovered for about 10 more minutes, until the cheese melts, then move the dish to the top of the oven - turn the broiler on for a minute or two until the cheese begins to brown.
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Can i leave the rice out and bake it, then put over mashed potatoes? Is it saucy enough?
Yeah, that would totally work, and be absolutely delicious. 😉
Delicious casserole, thank you!
This was a huge hit with my kids! Thank you for the recipe!
Yes – love this in casserole form! So good and easy
We love cabbage roll casserole.
This dish is brilliant. I love cabbage rolls…and this is so much better!
I love cabbage rolls so I can’t wait to try this casserole!
So fun and so good
The only way I’ll make cabbage rolls now!!
I love this casserole! Thanks for sharing.
It will be nice as a sidedish for a dinner. I will try asap.
This recipe is great. I like to make big batches of just the meat sauce and freeze it and use it on spaghetti squash or pasta. It’s a really great sauce!
Can you use mash on top like you would in a shepherd’s pie
Yeah, sure absolutely – that sounds YUMMY!
Hi If you have an allergy to tomatoes what other sauces would you recommend
Hmmmm. I’m not really sure actually, maybe like a vegetable puree of some sort that doesn’t have tomatoes in it?
can red cabbage leaves be used
Sure.
Hi sounds amazing but I want to replace the rice with cauliflower rice. How much should I use? 3 cups maybe?
Made this today and my family LOVED it. I have always loved cabbage rolls but they are a lot of work to make. I had leftover country-fried cabbage (onions, garlic, cabbage and bacon), hamburger and leftover cooked rice. It was a
natural. I highly recommend it.
I’m so glad it was a hit!
this sounds like a real good dish. can’t wait to try it. my husband and I both like cabbage dishes.
It’s SO good, you’re gonna love it. 🙂
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I absolutely love this recipe. The next day I made the sauce and poured it over plain white rice and it was delicious too.
Yum! I love it too, every time I make it I am a bit surprised by how delicious it truly is! Thanks for the comment!
Does this recipe freeze well?- Gosh it sounds delicious! I am making this real soon!
It’s sooooo good. 🙂 And yes, it freezes just great.
Is that 2 cups rice measurement a precooked measurement? That’s how I’m interpreting it. Thanks!
Yes, it’s pre-cooked. 🙂
I use instant rice and boil my cut up cabbage just a little and use tomato soup and add a little caynee pepper to your liking and the onion and garlic layer in casserole dish 350 for 1 1/2 hours till tender.you can also make little meatballs and put in layers really goof.
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I made this casserole today. I didn’t have plain diced tomatoes in the house so I used my can of Italian style diced tomatoes and I do not care for brown rice so I made white rice…other than that, I followed the recipe. It’s a different taste with the different combinations but we liked it and would make it again for sure. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Sounds delicious, Thank you so much for sharing
Do you think this would freeze well? Would I need to make any variations if I plan to freeze and eat later? Thanks!
Hi Tracy,
I have made this before, and put it in the freezer for about a week and it was still delicious. This is one of my favorite casseroles.
Definitely making this tommrow night
Made this tonight for dinner and it was fabulous! Thank you~
This looks so good and easy! I would use a smaller amount of ground turkey (no beef) and light on the salt. Love the variations in the comments.
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For those who have trouble printing from FB……send it to your email and print it from there
My Mother is Romanian and her recipe was the sour cabbage rolls with layers of sauerkraut in between. Her filling was the sauteed onions and bacon added to the cooked rice and ground pork and beef with seasoning to your taste. Making rolls was a full time job for a large dinner group, wedding etc. but I remember it as being a great time for the women to get together to make these meals.and gossip etc with the children getting in the way. I really miss that type of life and never had it once I moved away. My English husband and 3 daughters and I used to have sessions of making homemade perohe(perogy), and letting the girls join in was more the family fun. The closest I have come to that in recent years was to let the grandchildren help make meatballs.
Okay, now we’re talkin’, Euncie! BTW, what an interesting and wonderful name! Isn’t food great, especially when we connect it to happy times and memories of loved ones together in the kitchen cooking. I would love to learn more about your mother’s Romanian recipe for Sour Cabbage Rolls,as I am trying to diversify my cooking to include more ethnic foods from all around the world. I certainly don’t have any Romanian recipes, and, hey, if I get to fulfill my dream of someday of compiling and publishing a wonderful cookbook of recipes from around the world, I will include you and your mother’s name and recipe in it.
Now, as far as this cabbage roll goes, I will change it up in my own way and see what comes out! I do like the suggestions of adding dill weed, as spices add the flavor absolutely necessary in any and all cooking, especially cabbage, which, in and of itself is fairly bland. Unless, of course, you like bland…
Sincerely,
Esther Hall Gordon
Esther – somehow my name got misspelled. It is EUNICE. I just made approx 80 cabbage rolls this past week which are in the freezer. Will be having some for supper this evening. I put thyme, salt and pepper, dill and rosemary in with the cooked rice, ground beef and ground pork. Of course I did sample and they are tasty. Some people would add more salt but I dont overuse it. Good luck with your recipes.
I love to read the different variations that everyone makes with the recipes. Not everyone will like the same one. I used to shudder when a friend’s children used to put ketchup on perohe. But they did love it.Wonderful to have variety in food.
Made this tonight for dinner…. OMG!!!!! Everyone loved it… Nice French crusty bread with it… Definitely a keeper!!!
I made this 2 weeks ago and we loved it! Made it this weekend and added a dash (or 2) of cayenne pepper to meat mixture and then put catsup on to before baking. It was delicious!
Hmmmmm. Sounds good. 😉 Glad you enjoyed it!
SO Delicious! I used 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 ground turkey.
As someone who’s made Stuffed Cabbage often, I’ve never in my life heard of adding parmesan, mozzarella or brown sugar in it. Just no. Not even close to being similar in taste in any way. I’m sure this recipe is probably good, but it shouldn’t be compared to Stuffed Cabbage.
🙂
It’s a recipe Chris not rocket science. Why don’t you try it and judge later.
No need to be snarky. I actually did try it. I never said it wasn’t good, it was actually pretty tasty. I only said that I felt it was not comparable to true stuffed cabbage add the description implied. That’s all. Moving on.
*as
I have a hard time with tomato acid. The added sugar cuts the acid down. Don’t know how that works, but it does. Try it. It just makes the tomato part taste fresher and a tad sweeter.
No…. if you want vegetarian, you add a good redi burger…veggie burger or some soy or wheat protein…leaving protein out is not an option
This recipe is delicious! Great tip pointing out the need to cook the cabbage well in the pan. I kept my pan hot & it still took a while to be a little over half cooked.Only thing I did the author didn’t mention, I spooned off the fat from beef frying. I had 80% beef, so I thought that was sensible. My husband raved about this surprisingly delicious recipe.
I tried various ways to print this but none would work.
Hi. May I ask what happens when you click on “view printer friendly version” and then click on the blue “print” button?
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I usually substitute quinoa for the rice. A little more healthier.
What a great idea – I love quinoa! 🙂
Please do – I am a salter, so I am generous with it all the time. I’m gonna change it to ‘to taste’ since all are not like me. 🙂 Thanks for the feedback.
The use of ‘very generously’ salt would be so bad for us. Will try without adding that as the other seasonings should allow for a still tasty casserole.
I cooked it last night, loved it!
Yay!! 🙂
I love cabbage
I also make a recipe very much the same as this for my annual OCTOBERFEST PARTY. Make everything the same except leave out all the tomato. Fry up !# bacon to add to the ground beef 2# and onions, garlic etc.. Add 1 jar of drained rinsed sauerkraut (not the sweet kind) with the chopped raw cabbage (I do not fry the cabbage)…..layer it as you would the orginal recipe. I add quite a bit of dill to this also..season with a lot of Mrs. Dash. I would not use the vinegar and brown sugar tho. I do not add rice to my Octoberfest Casserole as I serve it with mashed potatoes, beet pickles, rye bread and beer! When baking the casserole..I watch so it does not dry out..adding some beef broth if needed.Bake in a large blue oval roaster as it makes a lot. This is a killer meal for a sunday afternoon football game.
Sounds GREAT! 🙂
Wow, this sounds like a meal and a half! Love the ethnic twist
I meant to ask what size jar of sauerkraut you use in your version of Oktoberfest Cabbage Casserole. Might as well spell the word in the German language, as they celebrate Oktober in high fashion! Thanks again for all the great suggestions, and especially for mentioning the large amount which this particular recipes yields. As I am not prone to eat the same thing for a full week, I could probably cut my recipe in half, and freeze any leftovers for another time, minus the mashed potatoes, of course.
Happy cooking, and here’s to good food!
Gonna try this one…but change it up a bit!!! thanks for the idea!!
Absolutely – it’s delicious! 🙂
I AM UKRAINIAN. GREW UP WITH FOOD LIKE THIS. I add sauted bacon and dill to mine.
Yum – sounds GREAT! 🙂
Would take out the brown sugar nest time,, didn’t like the sweetness on this dish,, will go more southwestern with the spices next time
Where does the rice come in????
I believe it’s in the fourth instruction. 🙂
This is so easy you don’t need instructions. I’ve been doing it for years. Mix the rice/grain with the ground meat. I use a 50/50 beef/pork mixture…tastier and moist. I also pan-fry onions and chopped up bacon…add it to the rice/meat mixture. Don’t be afraid to season it to your liking. I know someone who adds loads of garlic to hers. Another friend uses fermented cabbage, and has even added saurkraut with fresh cabbage. Play around and enjoy your creation!
I do the same but I also add dill. Makes it very Ukraininan.
Sounds good Camie Fulton. I used to make a similar recipe but you add cream to it. At pot luck suppers everyone asked me to bring my cabbage casserole. I wish I could find that recipe. If anyone seeing this has it please reply.
i’ve made cabbage roll casserole for along time now, it’s alot faster then doing the rolls.. but it is very good!!
I want to print this but there is no icon for it…help!!!!
I am sorry, there’s no option to print with my theme. 🙁 You can copy paste the text into a word document or email, and print from there. So sorry for the inconvenience.
Click on the bottom where it says printer friendly version. this is a great recipe and I go a little further by adding some dill to it. Yum.
Press CONTROL & P together and it will bring up the
page to print it.