Feeds 4 - 6
Ingredients
500 - 600g Beef Mince (Ground Beef)
1/3 - 1/2 Cup Medium Grain Rice*
1 Head of Green Cabbage
1 - 2 400g Tins of Tomatoes (Or Passata)
1 Onion
1 Carrot
1 Zucchini
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Egg
Water
EVOO
S + P
*You can leave out the rice or add less to make it more keto.
Let me start by saying, don't freak out with how long this recipe is, it's actually quite easy and only a few steps, but I have gone into deep explanation and given you a few different options of how to the cabbage, different ways to roll etc. Have a read over to understand all this before you begin!
Method
Preheat your oven to 200°c.
Remove any dirty outer leaves of your cabbage, then carefully use a sharp knife to cut out the core. I found it easiest to cut around the stem and then I angle my knife to make a cone once I cut in deeper.
Once it's loose enough, remove it.
Removing the core will allow the cabbage to cook more evenly and will make it easier to remove the leaves when it’s time to roll.
When I rolled mine, I made smaller rolls by cutting each cabbage leaf in half through the thick vein so I only needed about 10 leaves (20 rolls).
As you get closer to the centre the leaves become much smaller and harder to use so if you're making this for more than about 6 people it’s actually better to buy 2 cabbages, use the outer leaves and then use the insides for somethings else.
Here are two options for how to cook the cabbage.
Steam
Place the whole cabbage in the steamer, cut side down. Cover with a lid and let it steam for about 40ish minutes. Obviously, this depends on the size of your cabbage too. To make things faster you can always start peeling away layers as they become soft and pliable.
Boil
Remove the leaves as gently as you can from the head and place them in a big pot of boiling water till they soften, about 3 - 4 minutes. Let them drain.
Grate, use a food processor or finely chop the onion, carrot and zucchini and them to a pan with a generous drizzle of oil and a sprinkle of salt.
Cook them for about 5 minutes till they've softened and coloured a little, let them cool.
To a bowl add the meat, a good sprinkle of salt - about half a tablespoon, some black pepper, the rice (if you prefer less rice use 1/3 cup, if you want more use 1/2), egg and the cooled vegetables.
Mix everything together till smooth and combined.
To an oven tray add a drizzle of oil, the tin of crushed tomatoes (which you can blend if you want super smooth), refill the tin 3 times (1200ml) with water and add that too. Sprinkle in some salt and add a clove of garlic that you've lightly smashed, give it all a mix.
If you prefer your sauce to be thick and rich rather than thin and runny add in 2 tins of tomatoes and 2 refills of water (800ml). If your tray can be cooked on the stove you can always start to heat the sauce at this point, it'll just quicken things in the oven.
To roll
You can either cut each cabbage leaf in half through the middle vein and make smaller rolls (they're actually not that small, remember the rice is going to expand!).
The smaller ones are a little more difficult to roll, put a bit of the meat mixture on the cabbage, fold in one side and once you've rolled it up you use your finger to push in the unfolded side.
Or
You can get each leaf, cut about 3cms off across the bottom, you'll find this part is chunkier and stops you from being able to roll them up as easy and tight.
Once you cut that part off put some of the meat mixture close to that edge, fold in the sides and roll it up.
Place the rolls in the tray, seam side down, if you find that you need more water to help the sauce cover the rolls you can add another tins worth of water. They don’t need to be fully submerged, about ¾. If you have left over meat mixture you can make them into balls and place them around the rolls.
Cover them with foil and place them in the oven.
Mine cooked for about 1 hour, you won’t need to do much to them while they're in the oven except to check to see that the sauce is bubbling, if it's not after about 30 minutes you might need to turn up the oven a bit. Also check that the liquid hasn't dried up and they're burning!
I uncover them for about 15 minutes if I need to dry up the sauce a bit and give them a bit of colour, but this is optional.
Serve them as they are with some crunchy bread and sour cream (which I water down a bit so it's more saucy) or a bowl of potato mash - here’s my recipe.
Ps: Remember to remove the garlic clove.
Enjoy! x
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