Unstuffed cabbage rolls are one of my favorite comfort foods. I love stuffed cabbage, and so does my family. But making cabbage rolls is a lot of work! That’s where my savory unstuffed cabbage rolls come in.
Traditional cabbage rolls requires several steps. This recipe is far easier! You simply make meatballs, then cook them with sauce on a bed of shredded cabbage. Presto! You’ve got a delicious and healthy low carb comfort food. All the flavor of stuffed cabbage, without all the work. Easy enough for a weeknight, delicious enough for a holiday… and if you use matzo meal (or omit the breadcrumbs), it’s kosher for Passover.
Making stuffed cabbage rolls is a process. The leaves need to be boiled or frozen, then trimmed. You must create and mix a meat filling. After that, the filling is rolled up into cabbage leaves one-by-one. A sauce must be made. Then it all needs to slowly cook. When you’re all done, you certainly feel like you’ve earned it… and of course, it’s delicious. But there is an easier way.
Many years ago, my dear friend Beth introduced me to concept of unstuffed cabbage rolls. The basic idea is to make a bed of cabbage, make the filling into meatballs, cover it all with sauce, and cook. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Unlike my stuffed cabbage, my unstuffed cabbage rolls are a savory preparation (with no added sweetness). This is not a Polish-style sweet and sour sauce. I prefer this dish on the savory side. If you’re looking for a more sweet and sour flavor profile, try these (which can also be made kosher for Passover): Sweet and Sour Meatballs.
I typically use a combination of ground beef and ground chicken in these unstuffed cabbage rolls, but you can use either or. Dark meat ground chicken (versus white meat) will provide extra flavor. Note that if you use ground chicken only, the meatballs will be quite sticky when you’re trying to form them (especially if you leave out the breadcrumbs). They’ll firm up as they cook.
Normally stuffed cabbage has rice in the filling, but I typically leave it out here. These unstuffed cabbage rolls are very filling without the rice, and lower carb, too. It’s perfect for the colder months of the year, a warming and wonderful one pot meal. This recipe is also kosher for Passover, if you use matzo meal – and gluten free if you omit the breadcrumbs entirely. Enjoy!
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Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 head of green cabbage, cored and cut into strips
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- Pinch ground cloves
- 15 ounces tomato sauce (you may substitute 3/4 cup tomato paste mixed with 1 cup of warm water for the sauce)
- 1 pound lean ground beef (you may substitute ground beef for all the meat, if desired)
- 1 pound ground chicken (you may substitute ground chicken or turkey for all the meat, if desired)
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup unsalted bread crumbs or matzo meal (optional)
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
- 15 ounces diced tomatoes (1 can)
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sugar (optional – omit for low carb)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or more to taste
- Crushed red pepper flakes (optional, to taste)
Instructions
- Pour 1 cup of water into a large pot, bring to a boil. Place cabbage strips into the pot.
- Cover the pot. Steam cabbage over medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn’t burn.
- Meanwhile, combine paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, ground cloves, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp of black pepper, and 1/4 the can of tomato sauce at the bottom of a large bowl. Stir until well blended.
- Add the ground beef and chicken, egg, bread crumbs or matzo meal, and fresh minced parsley. Adding the bread crumbs will help bind the meatballs and will allow you to make a few more meatballs (stretching the meat), but if you're on a low carb or gluten free diet you can omit them and still get very tasty results. They'll just be a little harder to form smoothly (the meat will be sticky) – but the meatballs will firm up as they cook.
- Mix with a fork or knead with clean hands until all ingredients are thoroughly blended and meat is evenly seasoned.
- Uncover the cabbage and reduce heat to low. Form the meat mixture into 2-inch meatballs and place them in a single layer on the surface of the cabbage. Take care when adding them to the hot pot—don’t burn your arm!
- Pour remaining tomato sauce into a mixing bowl with the diced tomatoes, lemon juice, and sugar (the sugar is optional – it cuts the acid in the tomato sauce). Stir until blended, then season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour the sauce over the meatballs.Bring mixture to a simmer and reduce heat to medium low. Cover pot and cook for 75-90 minutes hours over medium low heat until the meatballs are cooked and cabbage is very tender. Stir every 20-30 minutes. If the cabbage seems dry towards the end of cooking, add a little hot water to the pan.
- Give the pot a gentle stir at the end of cooking to blend the sauce, cabbage, and meatballs.
- Serve meatballs on top of the soft cooked cabbage. Garnish with more minced fresh parsley, if desired. Crushed red pepper flakes may be added for spice, according to taste. Serve.
NOTES
Nutrition
tried this recipe?
Let us know in the comments!
I’ve been making unstuffed cabbage for a couple of years, but I make it in my pressure cooker which only takes 15 minutes once the pressure builds and the rocker is rocking. I make my meatballs and bake them in the oven about 15 minutes. Then I don’t have to brown them in the pressure cooker. I just put in the meatballs, cabbage and a sauce made from grape jam and tomato sauce. Then I close it up and when it’s done it’s delicious.
My grandma used to make something similar when I was a kid, but she didn’t make the meat into meatballs. She would layer the cabbage, meat, and sauce and bake it all in the oven. Your version sounds just as tasty as Grandma’s!
This looks super yummy and easy to make Tori. My two fave things.
I have a recipe for Polish stuffed cabbage very similar to this. The only difference is the substitution of rice for the bread crumbs and white vinegar for the lemon juice. I’m thinking that Quinoa might be a higher protein substitute for both the rice or bread crumbs. I usually spend a lot of time rolling and rolling, I can’t wait to try this method
Without the cabbage, it’s fricassee!
It looks great, but I have a tip that will cut prep time a lot. Instead of boiling the leaves, just stick the whole head of cabbage in the freezer for 2 days. Let it defrost overnight in the fridge the night before you are ready to cook, then cut out the core and rinse it. The leaves will be perfectly limp, and your kitchen won’t have that awful boiled-cabbage smell! I learned this from Joan Nathan’s Jewish Holiday Cookbook.
Good tip Hannah! I’ve done that with stuffed cabbage before, but never the unstuffed kind, since it doesn’t take very long to pre-boil before the sauce is put in. Joan Nathan is my hero. 🙂
That’s exactly what I do. I freeze the cabbage, and then defrost it. It’s more flavorful too!
I make this dish with minimal prep time, in a baking pot I put onion, chopped cabbage, tomato paste, meat for stew, some water and salt, seasoning ( however u like it) bay leaves, a bit of vinegar, and voila, in the oven it goes. It comes very tasty.
My Mom use to make stuffed cabbage I always love them were not Jewish were Greek & Italian but my Mother as i do loved to cook try new Dishes I am defiantly going to try this this I sounds so much easier than the traditional Stuffed cabbage,
Oy! Reading your adjusted recipe and thinking about how I now take traditional Jewish food recipes and make them healthier is so bittersweet! I wonder if my Nana looks down from heaven and asks herself “what is she doing to my recipe???”. Then I realize that isn’t what she is thinking at all. She is thinking, ” momma- la, I am so proud you keep in the tradition and make this food healthier for you and your family!”.
So easy to fix , and so good ! My family LOVES it ! Thanks for sharing this with us !
I make a dish similar to this one. Except I just chop the cabbage boil it for 5 minutes, Fry up the ground beef( I use extra lean), I cup sauted chopped oinion. then mix the cooked cabbage, the onion, the cooked meat, add the sauce, mix and then bake. No carbs and very delicious.
Another option would be to use ground Bison. It is a bit more expensive but it is not nearly as much fat as in regular ground beef. I use it now instead of beef and like it much better.
Tried this last night and got raves from the family. Such an easy recipe and so full of flavor! Please create more recipes like this one!
Great idea mixing the two meats, I will try this!
Reporting back – fixed this last night for my boyfriend and we LOVED it. We don’t keep kosher so we topped it with a little grated parmesan at the end. So tasty! It’s one of those rare recipes that is both healthy and comfort food. Thank you!
We do something very similar to this all the time. It is in one of Suzy Fishbein’s cookbooks. Essentially the same recipe but she mixes some rice into the ground meat. When we make it we also use a combination of beef and chicken, not just to lower the fat, but we like the taste.
Thanks for posting a low carb recipe, I might cut the matzo meal in half and omit the sugar in the sauce to make it even lower carb. I’m on a restricted diet over the next few months, this fits into the plan perfectly. You seem to have a really great balance of dishes on this website, lots of healthy choices and a few indulgent ones too. Thank you for the great resource.
What a great concept, stuffed cabbage alwasys scared me- too complicated! Love the addition of lemon juice to the sauce.
Sounds delicious! I too, have tried a lower fat, lower carb stuffed cabbage – I used half lean ground beef and half ground turkey. I did stuff the cabbage, and although it was yummy, it was a lot of work. I’m trying your recipe next!
Oooh girl you’re good. What a clever idea, I’m looking forward to this one. =)
Yummy! My grandma used to make stuffed cabbage but she never wrote down the recipe for us. It’s one of my favorite food memories. I’m going to try this over the weekend. Thanks Shiksa!