Classic Cabbage Rolls

Name: Classic Cabbage Rolls
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: Home cooking
Ingredients: Ground pork and beef — 130 g; White cabbage — 250 g; Long-grain rice — 35 g; Onions — 50 g; Carrots — 40 g; Tomato paste — 20 g; Sour cream 15% — 40 g; Sunflower oil — 8 ml; Bay leaves — 0.3 g; Salt — 2 g; Ground black pepper — 0.5 g

Cabbage rolls stuffed with ground meat and rice, simmered in a creamy tomato sauce. Serve with extra sour cream.

Time: 1 h 30 min
Serving: 746 kcal
Ingredients: ≈ $2.90
Protein: 31 g

Hearty Kid-friendly

Ingredients

1 Ground pork and beefpack 500 g ≈ $7.01 130 g
2 White cabbagepack 1.2 kg ≈ $2.40 250 g
3 Long-grain ricepack 800 g ≈ $1.94 35 g
4 Onions≈ $1.60 per kg 50 g
5 Carrots≈ $1.50 per kg 40 g
6 Tomato pastepack 140 g ≈ $1.00 20 g
7 Sour cream 15%pack 300 g ≈ $1.60 40 g
8 Sunflower oil 8 ml
9 Bay leaves to taste
10 Salt 2 g
11 Ground black pepper to taste

Grey rows are pantry staples: salt, oil, spices. They are not counted in the serving price.

Method

Parboil the cabbage head for 5 minutes, then peel off the softened leaves and trim out the thick stems.
Cook the rice for 8 minutes until half-done. Finely chop half the onion⁴ and mix it with the rice, ground¹ meat, salt, and pepper.
Place the filling onto each leaf and roll it into a neat package.
Chop the remaining onion⁴, grate the carrot⁵, and sauté them in oil over medium heat for 5 minutes until golden. Stir in tomato⁶ paste, sour⁷ cream, and 300 ml of water.
Arrange the cabbage rolls seam-side down in a pot, add a bay leaf, and pour the sauce over them.
Cover and simmer on low heat for 50 minutes until the cabbage is tender and the filling is fully cooked.
Serve hot with a dollop of sour⁷ cream.

Tips

Why it works: Blanch the cabbage leaves for 5 minutes to soften them. Overcooking turns them limp and hard to wrap. Stop when they’re pliable but still hold shape.
Substitutions: Use 50g ground turkey instead of pork-beef mix; omit sour cream in the sauce and add 10g butter for richness.
Common mistakes: Rice stays undercooked if you don’t simmer the rolls long enough. Pierce one; if it’s hard, cook 10 more minutes.
Storing and reheating: Keeps 3 days in the fridge; reheat covered on low heat with 20ml water until hot. Freezes well for 3 months.
Serve with: Pair with 150g mashed potatoes and a slice of rye bread for a hearty weeknight dinner.

In short

In the planner this dish is cooked for two days: reheat on day two.

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Nutrition

Per serving and share of 2000 kcal

Calories	746 kcal	37%
Protein	31 g	41%
Fat	46 g	66%
Carbs	52 g	20%
Per 100 g	130 kcal

Cost

≈ $2.90per serving

Average supermarket prices, BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), October 2026. Your store will differ: products come in packs and each chain sets its own prices. The priciest item here is ground pork and beef.