Categories: Main DishesPork

Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce

Cabbage rolls (stuffed cabbage) dish is very popular food in Eastern Europe. No wander you can easily find cabbage rolls among traditional recipes in cuisines of Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania and many others countries.

Making of cabbage rolls from the scratch (including grinding meat, boiling and separating cabbage and then preparing them one by one) would take some time, so it is better if you start cooking in advance. However you can leave prepared cabbage rolls in the oven with heat turned off for up to 1 hour, so they stay warm if you want to postpone serving.

This recipe describes step-by-step process of preparing cabbage rolls in tomato-dill sauce. Enjoy the taste of traditional dish of Eastern European.

Ingredients:


  • For rolls:
    2lb of ground pork
  • Big cabbage (5-6lbs) with big leaves (you will not use all of it, but the bigger leaves are the easier it is to roll the rolls)
  • 2 big onions
  • ½ cup of rice
  • Ground black pepper
  • Salt to taste

  • For sauce: 2 big onions
  • Fresh dill
  • 2 tomatoes
  • Sunflower or olive oil
  • Salt

How to make, step-by-step:

  1. Prepare ingredients: if you can’t get ground pork, get a pork and grind it in meat grinder or food processor; you may also replace pork with beef or a 50/50 mix of beef and pork (however original cabbage rolls are supposed to be made of pork):
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 1
  2. Peel and dice onions, fry them over moderate heat till they are soft, cool them down till room temperature:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 2
  3. Salt meat, add ground black pepper and pour fried onions:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 3
  4. Boil rice till it is half ready (still hard) in a pot of salted water, drain the water, let rice to cool down till room temperature and add it to the meat:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 4
  5. Mix meat with rice and fried onions (make sure neither rice nor onions are not hot if you do that with your hands!):
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 5
  6. Take a pot big enough to fit the cabbage in a whole, add water (the easiest way to measure needed amount of water is to put cabbage to the pot add water in so the 2/3 of the cabbage is under the water and then take the cabbage out, it is actually the easiest way to find out whatever the cooking pot you chose is big enough – remember you should be able to get cabbage out of the water easily). Put the pot with water on the burner and wait till it becomes boiling. Put whole cabbage to the boiling water with the stem to the bottom and boil it for about 15 minutes. Then carefully turn cabbage so the stem part is on top, stick fork into stem and take the whole cabbage out (leave the water on the burner slowly boiling, you will need it later on):
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 6
  7. Carefully cut the top cabbage leaf off the stem (remember, cabbage is still hot!), if leaf doesn’t go easily or if leaf isn’t soft enough to be folded, put it back to the boiling water till it gets soft enough:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 7
  8. Cut the hard center part of the leaf off:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 8
  9. Ladle a tablespoon of the meat mix and put in to the stem side of the leaf:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 9
  10. Fold cabbage leaf forward:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 10
  11. Roll cabbage leaf till it touches the other side:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 11
  12. Fold right side of the leaf:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 12
  13. Fold the left side of the leaf:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 13
  14. Roll forward:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 14
  15. Roll once more:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 15
  16. Till you get a cabbage roll like this:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 16
  17. Now you just need to repeat the same procedure for the rest of the meat, if on any step cabbage gets too hard to fold, just put it back to the boiling water till it gets soft again. Put all cabbage rolls to the cast-iron pot (you may also use a baking pot with lid if you don’t have a cast-iron one):
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 17
  18. Now it is time to prepare a tomato-dill sauce. Boil water in the cooking pot. Cut each tomato’s skin x-like, put them to the boiling water and boil for about 15-20 seconds. After that get cooking pot with tomatoes from the burner, put under cold water to cool tomatoes down and remove skin:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 18
  19. Peel other 2 onions, slice them into half-circles and fry them over with oil till the are soft:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 19
  20. Cut each tomato into 2 parts and remove stem parts. Put tomatoes to the blender and chop them till they get a paste like (if you don’t have blender you can mince it with knife but it gets a bit messy):
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 20
  21. Add tomato paste and chopped fresh dill to the frying pan with onions, season with salt and stew for about 5-7 mins (don’t forget to stir):
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 21
  22. Warm the oven up till 350F. Pour tomato-dill sauce over the cabbage rolls. There should be about 1 inch of the liquid in the pot, add some water if sauce wasn’t enough:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce Recipe: Step 22
  23. Cover pot with a lid and put it to the oven. Amount of time required for the preparation depends of how fast cabbage is prepared and how soft you would like it to be. I usually keep them for about 2 hours. After cabbage rolls are ready, serve them warm without a side dish:
    Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Dill Sauce
    Sour cream and pressed garlic are good supplements for cabbage rolls.
Bon Appetit!

View Comments

  • These rolls are super yummy and very easy to make. My dinner guests loved them. I made the borscht, cabbage rolls, potato pancakes and tomato and cucumber salad. They were all a hit! Thank you for such authentic recipes!

    • Wow, you made a lot! I am very glad you and your guests liked results, that for sure was a lot of work!