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Do you love the taste of classic cabbage rolls (oh, yes, me! me! me!), but don’t have time to roll them one by one, by one? This lazy cabbage rolls recipe gives you the same great flavors of stuffed cabbage with very little effort.
These are so so juicy and comforting. Did I mention my kids liked them? Actually, they loved them – it was a very enthusiastic “this is delicious!” from 7-year-old and my toddler quickly cleaned her plate. This recipe was shared with us by my Mom-in-law and it was an instant hit.
These come together in no time and completely satisfy the stuffed cabbage craving. It’s also a really great way to use up leftover rice and cabbage. It’s brilliant!
Ingredients for Lazy Cabbage Rolls:
4 cups cooked white rice (from 1 1/2 cups uncooked rice), cooled to room temp*
1/2 medium cabbage, sliced into 1/4″ wide strips (7 cups sliced)
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground turkey
1 large onion, divided (1/2 grated and 1/2 finely diced)
2 large eggs
Original Mrs. Dash, or any salt-free all-purpose seasoning
Salt and black pepper
2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley or dill
For the Sauce:
1 Tbsp Olive oil
3 Tbsp butter
1 large carrot, julienned or grated
2 cups store-bought marinara or homemade Marinara Sauce
3 cups hot water
*We used Jasmine rice
How To Make Lazy Cabbage Rolls:
Prep: Oil a 9×13 casserole dish, preheat oven to 425˚F.
1. Slice cabbage into 1/4″ thin slices. Place in a heat proof bowl or pot, cover with boiling water and let sit 10 minutes to soften. Drain and squeeze out excess water with your hands.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 lb ground turkey, 1 lb ground pork, drained cabbage and 4 cups cooked rice. Grate 1/2 large onion into meat mixture. Add 2 eggs, 1 tsp Mrs Dash, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp salt, and 2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley. Mix well. Form into potato-shaped patties with your hands, each with about 1/2 cup of the meat mixture. Arrange in prepared casserole.
P.s. my larger casserole dish was a smaller 9×12 so they didn’t all fit in 1 pan. This is why I baked it in 2 separate dishes. If you use a 9×13, they should all fit :).
3. For the sauce, finely dice remaining 1/2 large onion. Heat a large pot over medium/high heat and add 1 Tbsp oil and 3 Tbsp butter. Add diced onion and sauté 5 minutes, stirring occassionally or until softened. Add julienned carrot and cook another 3 minutes or until softened. Add 2 cups marinara and 3 cups hot water and bring to a boil. Add 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp Mrs Dash, or season to taste.
4. Pour sauce over patties until they are nearly covered. Cover with foil and bake on medium rack at 425˚F for 40 min.
To serve, plate the lazy stuffed cabbage and spoon the extra juice over the top. Serve with sour cream (my favorite) or plain Greek yogurt.
Lazy Cabbage Rolls
Ingredients
For the Lazy Cabbage Rolls:
- 4 cups cooked white rice, from 1 1/2 cups uncooked rice, cooled to room temp
- 1/2 medium cabbage, sliced into 1/4" wide strips (7 cups sliced)
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 large onion, divided (1/2 grated and 1/2 finely diced)
- 2 large eggs
- Original Mrs. Dash, or any salt-free all-purpose seasoning
- Salt and black pepper
- 2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley or dill
For the Sauce:
- 1 Tbsp Olive oil
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 large carrot, julienned or grated
- 2 cups store-bought marinara or homemade
- 3 cups hot water
Instructions
Prep:
- Oil a 9x13 casserole dish, preheat oven to 425˚F.
How To Make Lazy Cabbage Rolls:
- Slice cabbage into 1/4" thin slices. Place in a heat proof bowl, cover with boiling water and let sit 10 min to soften. Drain and squeeze out excess water with your hands.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine ground turkey, ground pork, drained cabbage and 4 cups cooked rice. Grate 1/2 large onion into meat mixture. Add 2 eggs, 1 tsp Mrs Dash, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp salt, and 2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley. Mix well. Form into potato-shaped patties with your hands (each should be about 1/2 cup of the meat mixture). Arrange in oiled casserole.
- For the sauce, finely dice remaining 1/2 large onion. Heat a large pot over medium/high heat and add 1 Tbsp oil and 3 Tbsp butter. Add diced onion and sauté 5 minutes, stirring occassionally or until softened. Add julienned carrot and cook another 3 minutes or until softened. Add 2 cups marinara and 3 cups hot water and bring to a boil. Add 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp Mrs Dash, or season to taste.
- Pour sauce over patties until they are nearly covered. Cover with foil and bake on medium rack at 425˚F for 40 min. To serve, plate the lazy stuffed cabbage and spoon the extra juice over the top. Serve with sour cream (my favorite) or plain Greek yogurt.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Check out our original Cabbage Rolls Video Recipe here if you roll old school and really want to impress your peeps :).
Need more leftover cabbage ideas? Check out all of our cabbage recipes here.
Great idea, I do the same with a stuffed Capsicum recipe. Same mixture as ‘sarma’ – Serbian for cabbage rolls. I blend onions and capsicum to make the sauce then roll the mixture into balls and boil them in the sauce , finally adding thickener, (browned flour), serve with crusty bread. Kids love it because it’s easy to eat. Yum,Yum!
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Hi Natasha
What can I use in place of Mrs Dash as we do not have this in Australia.
Hi Olga, you can use any salt-free all-purpose seasoning. Even if you omit it, it will still work out 🙂
I love this idea, I’m going to try it this week. I was wandering if I could use quinoa instead of rice. What do you think, Natasha?
Hmmm… I haven’t tried it that way but I do think it’s worth a test! Just make sure to rinse the quinoa before cooking (as usual) so there is no hint of bitterness 🙂
Yummy!!! My kids didn’t even know that they are eating cabbage. The usual cabbage rolls kids would always take off the cabbage and eat the stuffing. With these there is nothing to take off. Kids are thinking they are eating meatballs.
Ha!! That is the best thing ever! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your amazing review. I’m all smiles reading it 🙂
Oh yes, cabbage rolls are my favorite too! It is funny because when I used to be a kid I never liked them until I start cooking them for my family 🙂 Your recipe looks so delicious and I just love how easy/lazy they are 😛 Yummm! Pinning it! 🙂
Ha ha that’s exactly how I was!! 🙂 Thank you so much for pinning 🙂
Mmm…..that looks so yammi… I think this will be my choice for the weekend meal!…
Since I have never managed to learn how to roll this cabbage into a nice shape – I am going to try this method!!!
The update on the result will follow as soon as I make it.
Thank you!
Ha ha, that’s awesome!! I hope you love these! 🙂
Great/easy recipe as always.You’re amazing!Where do you usually buy ground beef /pork/chicken ? Or you made your own? What machine you will recommend to ground the meat? Thank you!
Hi Tanya, I usually purchase it pre-ground at Fred Meyer unless I have some extra time to grind it myself and for that I use my kitchenaid meat grinder attachment (amazon affiliate link).
OMG, these look awesome Natasha slurp slurpp.. We enjoyed your Golubsti recipe. This looks so much easier, have to try them out soon. Thanks a lot!
Riya, you are very welcome 😬. You’ll love these too!
Would it still work if I opt out the cabbage?
Hi Ellie, yes it would 🙂
Hello Natasha,
Instead of marinara sauce can I use tomato sauce ? I Don’t really like marinara sauce.
I think plain tomato sauce would be lacking in flavor – it doesn’t really taste like marinara once it comes out of the oven – the flavors just meld really well. You’ll have to add other ingredients to create your own “marinara” if using tomato sauce.
Oh wow! These look delish =)
Thank you Sara, they taste just as good 😬.
Hi Natasha, can I freeze those cabbage rolls to use them later?
Hi Katya, I haven’t tried freezing them but they should freeze fine. I would place them in tupperware or ziploc bags, adding as much liquid as possible which will keep them fresher while frozen. 🙂
Hi Natasha
There are just two of us. Do these freeze well? I love to have frozen dinners when I’m busy.
Thanks
Diane
Hi Diane, I haven’t tried freezing them but they should freeze fine. I would place them in tupperware or ziploc bags, adding as much liquid as possible which will keep them fresher while frozen 🙂
Wow omg yummmm totally drooling right now have such a craving for stuffed cabbage been wanting to make forever thanx so much sweetheart for posting looks so way made easy always such a pleasure to come here keep up the great spectacular work cheers
Thank you Tzivia! I hope these satisfy your craving! 🙂
Omg they sure do Natasha luv will try these sometime thanx again cheers
Hi Natasha,
Can I just use 2lbs of chicken instead? Dont like pork or trukey.
Hi Lilian, that should work fine 🙂
Oh wow it seems so easy. I have to give it a try. My kids love meat. Anything with meat they will eat it. Thanks.
I hope you and your kids love it!!
Yumm, is all I can say!!!
I can’t wait to make it and eat it.
Girl what kind of rice did you use?
Thanks again for another great recipe!
Hi Lucy, I used Jasmine rice 🙂 I hope you LOVE it!
Hi Natasha I wanted to ask what type of marinara sauce you used? is it homemade or in a jar? thank you
Hi Mary, I’ve used both, so it’s up to you. Recently I made it with a store-bought Classico brand Tomato and basil with great results 🙂
I am a fan of stuffed peppers – easy. Husband on the other hand loves the cabbage rolls. I hate dealing with stuffed cabbage rolls though. This is great! With 3 little kiddos I will cook anything “lazy”. Thanks for posting the classic Russian/Ukrainian dishes and making them lazy…ahem..easy 🤗
I think this suits the best of both worlds because it does taste like the filling for stuffed peppers! 🙂 I hope your family loves the recipe! 🙂
This is overdue but i wanted to make sure to 5star this ( was delicious!) You make my life easier 😆 thanks! And thanks for responding so quick and being so positive and helpful! God bless you and your sweet little family ☺
Thank you Ksusha for the nice compliment 😌. I’m happy to hear that this site is the blessing to your family.
Hi, Natasha! You just reminded me of my childhood with this recipe, thank you it’s on the menu this week for sure!!!
Oh awesome!! I just love how food brings back happy memories. I hope you love the recipe 🙂
When do you add the set aside cabbage?
Absolutely love your site!!!!
Hi Mary, thank you so much for asking! I’m so happy you caught that. It’s fixed now! You add it with all of meat mixture ingredients 🙂