Cabbage rolls ‘sarmale’ stuffed with ground beef veggies and rice

A meal in itself these cabbage rolls or sarmale - filled with mince meat of your choice, vegetables and rice go so well served with a dollop of creme fraiche and polenta or cornmeal. Absolutely delicious! Enjoy!

Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Main Dish

Cuisine Eastern Europe, Mediterranean, Ramona's Cuisine

Diet Diabetic, Gluten Free

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 50

Total Time 1 30

Servings people

Calories 419kcal

Author Ramona Sebastian

Cost £10

Equipment

1 Pressure cooker or Instant Pot or a mud pot to bake in the oven
1 knife
1 chopping board
1 pan

Ingredients

1 large savoy cabbage head fresh or soured*
300 g minced lean beef (10.6 oz)
300 g minced pork (10.6 oz)
200 g smoked bacon diced ( 7oz)
5-6 small smoked pork ribs
1 small courgette
½ small leek
1 medium carrot
2 medium onions
1 teaspoon thyme
4 medium bay leaves
1 teaspoon Celtic salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
100 g rice (3.5 oz) well rinsed
2 cans chopped tomatoes *
1 small green chili
2 tablespoons olive oil optional
20 sprigs fresh herbs I use dill, parsley, and/or lovage

Metric - US Imperial

Instructions

Prepare the cabbage

I used sour cabbage, a whole cabbage that I now buy and it comes packed individually. Core it (if it still has the core) and place it in a big pot/dish in lukewarm water (3-4 l) ideally for at least 1 hour ahead since this is very salty so it needs some time to desalt. Don’t worry if you cannot leave it for so long - leave it the longest you can. Just open it nicely so that all leaves are individually loose in the water. See recipe notes about the cabbage types*
Cut each cabbage leaf into two by the thick vein found in the middle of each leaf. Cut out the middle thick vein. It makes it a lot easier to handle and roll.

Make the cabbage roll mixture

I always prepare the vegetable and rice mixture immediately after resolving the cabbage since the mixture needs some time to cool. Peel and wash the carrot, wash the courgette, and grate both on the bigger hole grater.
Finely chop the onions and the leek. Place them in a pan over medium heat, add some salt, and soften with a dash of water or oil if you prefer. I don’t use any oil since the meat has all that’s needed and plenty more to add to the dish overall but feel free to use some olive oil if you wish. Cook for 3 minutes covered until onions become translucent.
Add the rice, cook for 1 minute, and then immediately add the grated courgette and carrot, half of the thyme, and two bay leaves that you can break into two. Try not breaking them into smaller pieces as they will need to be picked/fished out at the end of the cooking, just before mixing with the meat. Cook for a further 3 mins.
Add 1 can of chopped tomato or tomato juice (even a cream of tomato soup can if you’d like) and allow this to start boiling. Turn the heat off and set aside for a little while until it cools. ⚠️Tip: My mum told me to never mix the hot mixture with the meat as the meat will get spoiled. I’m stuck with this idea in my head- if you know otherwise... just do as you know.
In a large bowl add the ground/minced meat, the smoked bacon, very little salt, pepper, chopped parsley, dill, and the rice and vegetable mixture once this has cooled. Mix well until it becomes homogeneous.

Making the sarmale

Let’s get rolling these beauties. Place about 1 ½ tablespoon of meat mixture on a tailored cabbage leaf. Fold in the sides and roll. Tuck in the side ends. Repeat until you finish the mixture.
Place all rolled-up cabbage rolls into the pot or dish you desire to cook them. Place some herbs like thyme, lovage, and a couple of broken bay leaves in between along with the smoked pork or beef ribs.

Cooking sarmale in Instant Pot

Set up the pot manually for 30-40 min and set the pressure knob on closed so that the pressure will be contained rather than released. They’re ready when the pressure cooker says it’s finished. I occasionally cook them further with taking the lid off and set to cook for a further 15 -20 min just to reduce the juice if too much or too watery. This operation has to be done super carefully and you should only attempt to open the lid once the pressure inside the cooker has gone so needs to be left for a while or the pressure released manually by opening the top knob until no more steam comes out so all that whistling ended.
Serve as desired. See serving suggestions above.

Notes

Salt amount

The amount of salt you may use depends very much on whether you use fresh cabbage or sour one. For fresh cabbage, you will use more salt but if you are using sour one you will need to be careful as this is already quite salty unless you leave it in a pool of water for 1-3 hours. I’m not in control of the salt. Also, remember that bacon also contains salt. You can certainly add more salt when serving if needed.

Cabbage type and preparation

The cabbage has to be a savoy or the Turkish (flatter looking) one and not the supermarket dense and heavy super round one - it is important to choose the right type if you want to have a nice look and to successfully manage to roll those and not having to pin them with toothpicks or wooden skewers. I’m mentioning this as I have seen this done a few times in my life. Totally unnecessary if you choose the right cabbage.

If you choose to use fresh cabbage there will be a little preparation required by having to blanch the cabbage. To do this one large cabbage should be sufficient for this recipe. The cabbage needs to be cored first and then added into a large pot with salty boiling water for about 5-6 min -remove and place into cold water.

The pickled or sour cabbage is a lot easier (tastier too if you like) and can now be widely found in any Eastern European or Turkish grocery stores here in the UK.

Nutrition