Gołąbki (Stuffed Cabbage)

If you are searching for a meal that can feed an army with minimal stress and maximum taste, look no further!  Seriously this dish is delicious and extremely filling.  Some other benefits is that it is gluten free and can be scaled to whatever quantity you desire with little effort.

My mom used to make this when we had several other families join us for dinner.  As a kid, I never liked the cabbage or bell peppers much, but now the cabbage is my FAVORITE part of the dish.

About a year ago I tried my hand at making this meal but didn’t have my mom’s recipe.  Instead I experimented with ones I found online that sounded like it matched what would be in my mom’s.  WRONG!!!  I should have known better than to try to re-create a family recipe handed down from my full-blooded Polish great-grandmother.  Some things “old school” you just can’t improve upon.

Hope you enjoy this treasure of a recipe from my family to yours. :-)

Gołąbki – by Toni Fuhrman

INGREDIENTS:

• 5 lbs. hamburger, thawed
• 2 C. uncooked rice (you want to have approx. 1 C. cooked rice per lb. of hamburger)
• 5 eggs (1 per lb. of hamburger)
• 1 box (2 pkgs.) onion soup mix
• 2 sm. or 1 lg. head cabbage
• 1-2 Green bell peppers
• 4 cans condensed tomato soup
• salt and pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350° F.   Cook rice and let cool. Boil large pot of water. Hold cabbage head under the boiling water with a large fork/knife pressed into the stem just until leaves loosen and are easy to peel. Do NOT overcook the cabbage. Peal leaves and let cool on a towel.

Mix hamburger, rice, eggs and onion mix a little at a time in a large bowl by hand. Taste a small portion and add salt and pepper to taste if needed. Scoop hamburger into center of cabbage leaf and roll like a taco (bottom-side-side –finish rolling) Place a toothpick in the vein. Layer tomato concentrate on bottom of a roasting pan. Make a layer of stuffed green bell pepper halves and cabbage rolls. Place a dollop of concentrate on each roll and bell pepper and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Start next layer like a lasagna. If you have picky eaters, roll filling into meatballs without the cabbage wrap and prepare as directed above. Use small leftover cabbage leaves to cover the pan. Spread tomato soup and salt and pepper on top.

Cover with foil or lid and bake for 3 hours (2-layer dish), 4 hours (3+ layers) or until cabbage is tender. Best if made the day before so it has time to soak up all the flavors. Yield: Feeds approx. 16 people