Polish Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls is a Polish dish; Galumpkis, where cabbage is stuffed with a mixture of meat, rice and seasonings and baked in a tomato sauce. 

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls are simple comfort food dish that comes with a variety of different names and spellings. Golabki is what I grew up calling them, but there are similar versions, Galumpki and Golumpki.

Then there is Halupki/Halupky, which is exactly the same thing.  Regardless of what you call them, they're delicious and not very difficult to make.

Despite the fact that my mom's side of the family is Polish and we now have a tradition of getting together and making Polish sausage (Kielbasa), I rarely ate Polish food when I was a kid, even though it's foods my mother ate. She's never been a big fan of cabbage so this is never something she wanted to make.

What is a stuffed cabbage roll?

The ingredients (and the name) vary by the country where they are served. There is no exact recipe origin for cabbage rolls as they appear to have popped up throughout Europe, Western Asian and Northern China all around the same time. The differences come in the stuffing and in the sauce.

The Polish version is stuffed with pork or beef, rice or barley and the rolls are baked or simmered in a tomato sauce. Golabki translates to "little pigeon" and the dish is called this because the cabbage rolls kind of look like pigeon breasts.

Ingredients for this recipe

• Lean Ground Beef - 90% lean is my preference for this recipe as fattier ground beef will make the tomato sauce greasy
• Cooked Rice - any short grain white or brown rice will do
• Onion - white or red is fine
• Egg - large, this will serve as a binder for the meat mixture
• Parsley - fresh or dried
• Garlic - jarred minced or fresh minced
• Butter - unsalted is what I keep around but salted is fine too
• Red Wine Vinegar - can be replaced with white white vinegar, distilled vinegar or apple cider vinegar - whatever you have on hand
• Crushed Tomatoes - is used in the sauce creation
• Brown Sugar - helps to cut the tartness of the crushed tomatoes
• Cabbage - green cabbage is the cabbage of choice for this recipe
• Salt and Pepper - the most basic seasoning for every dish

How to make this recipe

This recipe has a lot of steps, but everything comes together pretty easily if you work in steps.

1. Start with sauce: Combine crushed tomatoes with brown sugar and red wine vinegar in a medium saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until it begins to simmer. Simmer 10-15 minutes, then remove from the heat and set aside.
2. Then create the filling: Add butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion until just translucent, about 5 minutes and then add in the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a large bowl, and add in ground beef, cooked rice, egg, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix until combined and then form into logs, similar to a meatloaf, about 4 inches long and 2 inches wide.
3. Prepare the cabbage: Slice off the end of the cabbage and place into a large pot of boiling water for 3-5 minutes, or until the leaves soften and you'll easily be able to remove them. Remove from the water and let cool until you can touch it. Peel back the leaves and then slice a "V" shape out of each leaf where the hard stem is.
4. Assemble the cabbage rolls: Place a log of meat into each of the cabbage rolls and wrap it over, tucking in the ends.
5. Bake the cabbage rolls: Pour half of the tomato mixture into a 9x13 baking dish. Layer the cabbage rolls on top and cover them with the remaining tomato mixture. Bake for 1 hour.

Can cabbage rolls be frozen?

Yes! Cooked and fully cooled rolls can be stores in a ziplock bag or freezer-safe container with some sauce. To reheat, place the frozen rolls and sauce in a deep saucepan over medium-low heat until they've heated back through.

You can also make this recipe in advance. The cabbage rolls, meat mixture and sauce can all be made 1-2 days in advance and refrigerated until ready to use. Let the cooked cabbage rolls come to room temperature before rolling the meat mixture into them.

What to serve with cabbage rolls?

• Mashed Potatoes
• Rice
• Green Beans or Broccoli
• Sauerkraut

Substitutions for this recipe

Feel free to make this recipe your own. Punch up the tomato sauce by adding in fresh or dried herbs and/or garlic. Replace the parsley in the rolls with Italian seasoning or marjoram, whatever you have on hand. Tomato sauce/canned tomato soup can replace the crushed tomatoes for a smoother sauce. Add in Worcestershire sauce or A1 for a richer flavored sauce.

A non-traditional option would be to add shredded mozzarella cheese on top of the rolls in the last 15 minutes of baking.

Baking Bloggers

September 2020: Polish Baking

• • Baba Kartoflana - Polish Potato Pie from Food Lust People Love
  • Babki Śmietankowe (Cream Tarts) from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
  • Kapusta Casserole – Polish Cabbage, Potato, and Bacon Bake from Making Miracles
  • Karpatka (Polish Carpathian Cream Cake) from Tara's Multicultural Table
  • Kolaczki - Jam-Filled Polish Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
  • Kotlety Ziemniaczane from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
  • Mom Klik's Breaded Pork Chops from A Day in the Life on the Farm
  • Oven Braised Pork with Sour Cream (Karkówka w śmietanie) from Palatable Pastime
  • Piernik - Polish Gingerbread Cake from Caroline's Cooking
  • Polish Stuffed Cabbage Rolls from Cookaholic Wife
  • Veg Pierogi Casserole from Sneha's Recipe

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