Cabbage Rolls

This year, I planted cabbage for the first time. Now, I have four cabbage heads ready to harvest so I looked through Mom's recipe box for a new cabbage recipe. When I told MDS that we were having cabbage rolls, he gave me a skeptical look. Then I told him to think of the rolls as meatballs wrapped in cabbage. It worked. He really liked the cabbage rolls. This recipe will have to make it into our rotation.

When I made these rolls, I just used ground pork and no ground beef just because I had ground pork on hand and pork pairs well with cabbage. This recipe is a bit time consuming to make. I found peeling the cabbage leaves from the head of cabbage difficult to keep the leaves intact. For this reason, I made eight rolls rather than twelve. But despite the challenge of getting complete leaves, this recipe is worth the effort.

Cabbage Rolls 

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/4 pound ground pork
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 3/4 cup cooked rice
• 1 small onion, minced
• 2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce
• 12 large cabbage leaves
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Combine meat, salt, pepper, rice, onion, and 1 can tomato sauce. Cover cabbage leaves with boiling water for four minutes to soften; drain. Place portions of meat mixture in center of each cabbage leaf. Roll up by folding ends over. Place seam side down in skillet. Mix remaining tomato sauce with brown sugar, and lemon juice. Pour sauce over rolls. Simmer covered for one and a half hours. Baste often. Enjoy!