So, I’m totally NOT into labour-intensive food these days. Summertime is for playing, spending time outdoors, hanging out with friends, and traveling. Speaking of traveling, I didn’t fall off the edge of the world, but just returned from an incredible trip to Ukraine and Sweden. Hmmm —— both of those countries celebrate their identity with blue and yellow flags. Just a coincidence? I don’t think so!
I was in Ukraine with my son Forrest, and 12 others from our small town. We spent 2 weeks teaching English and making friends with adorable children and sweet teenagers.
The days of language camp were filled with crazy games and fun crafts . . . .
. . . . vocabulary words and silly songs.
We also had an amazing group of adults who were our co-leaders, interpreters, and FRIENDS. This is the incredible Darina:
Without her, I would have fallen apart!
One of the most interesting foods we ate was salo (pig fat) served on black bread with a spicy pickle. The “chaser” was a bite of hot pepper dipped in rock salt, followed by a shot of horseradish vodka. Not kidding here! It was actually quite tasty.
As the rest of our group returned to the States, Forrest and I went to Sweden to spend some quality time with Kristina. It was wonderful having BOTH kids together. We shopped, ate, watched movies, and exchanged back rubs while eating and watching movies. 🥰 It was a perfect mini-vacation.
Dozens of countries all over the world claim cabbage rolls of some sort as a national dish. It is one meal both Ukraine (halupki) and Sweden (kåldolmar) call their own. There are as many recipes for cabbage rolls as there are families who consume them.
One problem with cabbage rolls is that they can be quite labour-intensive to make. This version eliminates two tedious parts of the process: boiling the cabbage head and browning each little roll. Poof! An hour of hands-on work is gone!
Cabbage leaves soften beautifully when the entire head – in a plastic bag – is frozen overnight. Let it thaw for several hours, and peel the softened leaves off. Super-easy with no mess and hassle. If the cabbage leaves still have really tough veins, carefully trim them.
Browning each individual cabbage roll gives it beautiful colour, but it takes time, and at least for me, the little packets fall apart during the browning process. Then they don’t look so great. Baking them in the oven gets the job done, and it’s super-simple. I can sacrifice a little colour for convenience.
Another time-saving method is to use rice that you’ve cooked and stored in the freezer. Read this post about making perfect brown rice, or use leftovers.
Are you catching my theme here???
To make life even simpler, cabbage rolls are basically an entire meal. All you need is some fresh fruit to serve on the side, and you’re good to go!
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Lazy Day Cabbage Rolls – Kåldolmar
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
The cheater’s way to make a traditionally labour-intensive dish
Ingredients
- 1 head cabbage
- 1 pound ground grass fed beef
- 1 egg
- 1 cup cooked rice
- 2 Tbsp minced onion
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- Freshly grated nutmeg
- 14.5 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes with garlic (or other diced tomatoes)
- 1 Tbsp real maple syrup
Instructions
- Place cabbage head into a plastic bag and freeze (overnight). Remove from the freezer so it has several hours to thaw. Once thawed, cut out core with a sharp knife, then gently peel leaves away. You should be able to get about 12 leaves. Carefully slice away the thickest part of the “rib”, if desired. Finely chop enough of the remaining cabbage head to measure 1 cup.
- In a medium sized bowl whisk the egg, then add salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce, nutmeg, grated garlic and minced onion. Then add the rice and hamburger, and shredded cabbage, stirring well to combine.
- Using a spoon, divide the meat mixture between the 12 cabbage leaves. (Remember that, due to the structure of cabbage, each leaf will be a little different size. Celebrate diversity.) Fold cabbage leaves into little packets around each clump of meat mixture.
- Place all the cabbage rolls into a greased 9×13″ pan. Stir together tomatoes and maple syrup. Pour over the rolls. Cover the pan with foil, and bake at 325 degrees.
- After 1 hour 15 minutes, uncover pan. Baste the rolls with juices in the pan and return to the oven, uncovered, for another 20-30 minutes.
- Let stand a few minutes before serving.
- Cook Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cabbage rolls each
