Cabbage Rolls (λαχανοντολμαδάκια)
Dec 3rd, 2007 | By Peter Minakis | Category: Beef, Greek, Herbs, Main, Recipes, Sauce, Vegetables
Most people associate cabbage rolls with slavic cuisines but the Greeks have had cabbage in their cooking as well. It’s a winter staple and our family’s had cabbage rolls as part of our winter roster of meals.
For as long as I can remember, our family has enjoyed cabbage rolls with an Avgolemeno Sauce. The more familiar cabbage roll comes accompanied with a tomato sauce but I think you find cabbage rolls with Avgolemeno Sauce to be a refreshing new take on this comforting dish.
First, I’m going to show you how to get your cabbage leaves and then I’ll make a filling and then close off with a Avgolemono Sauce.
Cabbage Rolls (λαχανοντολμαδάκια)
(makes 30)
1 large cabbage
1 1/2 cups of Arborio Rice (this rice adheres best)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 medium onions, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup tomato puree
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
1 tsp. black pepper
3 tsp. of salt
1 cup chopped fresh dill
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil with a little salt. Meanwhile, remove the outer leaves of the cabbage and the hard stalk (root) of the cabbage. Wash it and put into the boiling water for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the cabbage from the water by using a large fork.
- Using some tongs, carefully peel away each leaf and unwrap the head of boiled cabbage. Remove the the bottom part of the main rib from each leaf. Repeat this process with all your leaves and reserve.
- Bring a large saucepan to medium-high heat, add the olive oil, onions and garlic. Simmer to soften the onions for about 10 minutes.
- Take the saucepan off the heat and add your tomato puree, ground beef, ground pork, rice, parsley, dill, salt and pepper and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Take a cabbage leaf and place a heaping Tablespoon of the meat mixture near the bottom of the leaf. Fold the two ends of the leaf inwards and roll it up into a long narrow shape. (do not roll too tightly as the rice will expand and may break your leaves)
- Place some spare cabbage leaves on the bottom of your roasting pan and start placing the stuffed cabbage leaves in concentric circles.
- Place some more loose cabbage leaves over the stuffed cabbage and you may even place a heavy plate on top to prevent them from breaking open.
- Add 3 cups of low sodium chicken (or vegetable) hot stock into the roasting pan, cover with the lid and place into a pre-heated 350F oven (lower rack) for 90 minutes. Reserve and prepare the sauce.
Avgolemono Sauce
4 Tbsp. of flour + couple of Tbsp. of water
Juice of 2 lemons
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
- Mix your flour and water until dissolved. Now add your lemon juice and whisk in. Now add your eggs into the lemon mixture ans whisk until frothy.
- Take a ladle of your cabbage roll stock (hot) and slowly (SLOWLY) pour into the bowl with your egg/lemon mixture. Add 2 more ladles of stock (slowly) while whisking. Adjsut seasoning and add salt to taste.
- Pour the Avgolemono Sauce over all the cabbage rolls and holding on to the handles of the roasting pan, gently shake it back & forth to throoughly blend the Avgolemono Sauce with the remaining stock in the cabbage rolls. Serve warm.
If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.
© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis
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© 2007 – 2010, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.
Peter, Your family used to make this beautiful dish? My Mom made cabbage rolls for the family as I was growing up but nothing that looked as light and flavorful as these rolls with this sauce! Your Avgolemeno Sauce looks very light and the lemon with the egg must make this dish outstanding. Thank you for sharing =D
Shandy
I love cabbage rolls with avgolemono and much prefer the lemon sauce over the tomato. This looks like a good version, plenty of dill and parsley. Great job!
Hola Peter,
These look great! I’ve never made cabbage rolls before… I’ve noted your recipe to perform it after all Xmas “jaleo”.
Peter, it’s always around noon when I’m reading your recipes and most times I’m hungry!! Wow, they look nice. However, I did know that we can bake them in the oven. Shall try them soon.
We eat this a lot here in Brazil, Peter (our country is such a melting pot). :)
But that sauce is new to me and looks delicious!
My mom loved this dish and she used to make it a lot at home.
Peter, lahanodolmades are my absolute favorite dish on the planet–Greek or otherwise. Yours look really delicious! My husband is not crazy about cooked cabbage, so I don’t make these often, but I see him eating some cooked cabbage in his near future :)
Elly, make a smaller batch of cabbage rolls and nothing else…he starves or he eats an, if he doesn’t eat them…you have leftovers.
This cabbage roll dish appealed to me when I was in Santorini. Mamma’s was owned by a lady who had lived in the States for 18 years. She had 100′s of dishes on her menu and everything was made fresh. If her dish is any indication your cabbage rolls must be excellent!!!
Peter,
This is my first visit to your blog and I love it! I live in the heart of Greektown in Chicago and love eating out, but never really tried to make that much greek at home. Your blog will be a wonderful source for me!!
Thanks!
Hi Erin and welcome! I’ve visited Chicago and it’s Greektown and it’s alive & well.
Enjoy the dishes, feel free to comment or email me for any questions.
Peter, I love cabbage rolls. Haven’t had them in ages, and I’ve never had them in an avgolemeno sauce. I’ve bookmarked this to try.
For some obscure reason this dish reminded me of the first time I ate at a Greek restaurant, in London, in the Camden Town neighborhood, to be precise. Those cabbage rolls look great.
I really like the sound of cabbage rolls with avgolemeno sauce!
I’ve really got to try making this.
We know cabbage rolls here in Germany, but usually they go with a thick sauce, so I´m very thankful for your recipe and I´ll mark it and post about my experiences in a week or two. :)
Absolument superbe, Peter! I love the taste of lemon and dill and the efforts put into preparing the dish must be well worth it. Thanks for this recipe!
Gawd, these have me starving at 8am…Soooo delicious! Your sauce came out beautifully, too. I always seem to mess avgolemeno sauce up. :P Great job! :)
These look wonderful, Peter–truly comforting!
[...] Vine-leaf Chicken Stuffed with Feta Apr 29th, 2010 | By Peter Minakis | Category: Baking, Cheese, Featured, Greek, Greek Wine, Herbs, How To, Main, Rice, Stuffing [Translate] Most of you are familiar with dolmades, where small packets of rice and aromatics are bundled using grape-vine leaves or “ampelofyla” in Greek. These small morsels may also contain meat or be wrapped with Swiss chard cabbage. The cabbage rolls are also often called “lahano-dolmades”. [...]
I had this dish when I was on Santorini and fell in love with cabbage rolls all over again.
I look forward to trying this refreshing alternative to the Eastern European version I grew up eating!
[...] Onions in Greek are called “Kremmidia”, hence the word appearing in the Greek name of this dish. The reference to Dolmades relates these stuffed onions to the more well-known stuffed grape leaves and stuffed cabbage rolls. The filling I’ve used for the Onion Dolmades is based on my family’s master recipe for Stuffed Peppers (with varied recipes being used in Vine Leaves Stuffed with Meat & Rice) and another family fave, Cabbage Rolls with Avgolemono Sauce. [...]