Lahanodolmades: stuffed cabbage rolls with tomato
Lahanodolmades, Greek stuffed cabbage rolls with tomato sauce
Servings: 6 servings
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large head of cabbage we used green cabbage
- 200 grams combination of ground pork and veal see Recipe Notes
- ½ medium yellow onion, chopped
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¾ cups long grain rice, rinsed or soaked
- ¼ cup chopped green onions (about 5-6)
- ½ cup crushed tomato sauce, or passata
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
- ½ cup carrot, grated
- juice from 1/2 a lemon
To assemble
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 cup crushed tomato sauce of passata
Instructions
Prepare cabbage
- Fill a large pot (one big enough to hold your head of cabbage) with water and bring to a boil.1 large head of cabbage
- Remove the hard core from your cabbage, but not to the extent that your leaves start to fall apart. You should end up with a cone shaped cut-out where the core used to be.
- When your water is boiling, add your entire head of cabbage, core side down, and allow it to boil for approximately 10 minutes. Turn it over (so the core is facing up) and boil for another 5 minutes.
- Carefully remove your cabbage from the water and let cool slightly. Begin to carefully remove the cabbage leaves. If they are not soft, return your cabbage to the pot and boil for a bit longer. If you are able to remove some leaves, but notice that the inner ones appear to be too hard, return the remaining cabbage head to the boiling water. See video here.
- Place the cabbage leaves in a colander so that they can drain a little bit, and continue to cool. Set aside 3 - 4 leaves (perhaps some that may have torn) to line the bottom of your pot during the cooking process (see below)
Prepare filling
- Heat olive oil in a large pot and sauté your yellow onion until it is soft and very slightly caramelized.¼ cup olive oil, ½ medium yellow onion, chopped
- Add your ground meat, and your rice. Stir and cook for a few minutes.200 grams combination of ground pork and veal, ¾ cups long grain rice, rinsed or soaked
- Add in your chopped green onion, followed by the tomato sauce, salt, pepper, parsley and grated carrot.¼ cup chopped green onions (about 5-6), ½ cup crushed tomato sauce, or passata, ¼ teaspoon pepper, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley, ½ cup carrot, grated
- Squeeze half a lemon in the mixture. Stir and remove off the heat.juice from 1/2 a lemon
For the assembly
- Add the vegetable oil to a large pot.¼ cup vegetable oil
- Line the bottom of the pot with the reserved cabbage leaves.
- To make your cabbage rolls, take a cabbage leaf and cut away any remaining hard part (usually found in the middle of the leaf and going up about an inch or two). You can decide at this point to cut your cabbage leaf in half (to make small cabbage rolls) or leave it whole (to make larger cabbage rolls). We think the latter is easier.
- Place some filling in the bottom-center of your leaf (where the core would have been). The amount of filling you use will depend upon whether you use an entire or half a cabbage leaf, and on the size of your leaf. Use your judgment. We used about 2 tablespoons of filling for an entire cabbage leaf.
- Use the cabbage leaf to fold over the filling. Bring in the sides, and continue to roll up. It is almost like you are making a burrito. The key is to make sure that the filling is snug within the cabbage leaf so that it does not fall out. Because the rice will increase in volume as it cooks, do not wrap your cabbage rolls too tightly. Watch video here.
- As you fold each one, place them seam side down in the sauce pot.
- Repeat until all of the filling, or all of the cabbage leaves, are used.
- When you have placed all of your cabbage rolls in the pot, you can layer the top with any remaining cabbage leaves. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Boil some water in a kettle. Pour about 2 cups of boiling water into the pot with the cabbage leaves, along with the crushed tomato sauce or passata.2 cups boiling water, 1 cup crushed tomato sauce of passata
- When the water and tomato sauce come to a boil, reduce heat to medium. Cook, covered for about 1 hour 10 minutes. You can always remove a cabbage roll at this point to taste it and make sure that the rice is cooked. Remove any top layers of cabbage that you had covering your cabbage rolls and set aside.
- Let cool a bit, serve and enjoy!
Notes
You can substitute any ground meat that you like.
Make it vegan / lenten:
Replace the meat with ground soy or cooked lentils