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Slow cooked Romanian stuffed cabbage rolls in a tomato and sauerkraut sauce. An authentic Romanian holiday dish!

This is an authentic Romanian recipe that is my family’s traditional Christmas and Easter dish. We ALL crave this dish and cannot wait for the holidays to eat it! We usually only make it for Christmas and Easter since it is a bit of a process, but that’s what makes it special too!

This is made with a mixture of 70% ground pork and 30% ground beef. The ratio is important because you need the fat from the ground pork to keep the filling from being too dry and to give it more flavor. The ground beef is usually around 80/20.

Another important factor is to use regular rice and not the instant rice. The regular rice can withstand the long cooking time, whereas the instant rice will turn to mush and just not taste good!

Way back in the day, my grandma used her own homemade tomato sauce in this dish. However we don’t always have homemade tomato sauce on hand. We use tomato juice from the store and then add some v8 juice with it to make it taste just like grandmas!

I do have her tomato juice recipe and I plan to make it in the summer when we do all our canning with the vegetables from the garden! So look for that recipe in the future!

This is a pretty big recipe and makes around 60-75 cabbage rolls. Like I said, we cook this for ALL the family at Christmas and Easter!

So cut the recipe in half if you do not think you would need that many. On the other hand, they freeze really well! I would suggest rolling them up and don’t cook them(the meat is still raw) and without the sauce, and store them in freezer bags. They freeze well for 3-4 months.

Then when you do want to cook them just add them to roaster with all the juices and sauerkraut.

Check out some more of my family favorite recipes!

Romanian Crepes: Romanian crepes are a quick and easy breakfast favorite! With only 6 ingredients, this is a budget friendly breakfast dish.

Romanian Garlic Dill Pickles: Classic Romanian pickles flavored with banana hot peppers, garlic, and dill. Crunchy and delicious with a spicy kick!

Romanian Kifla: Romanian kifla bread rolled up with a sweet nut mix. Made in long loaves and sliced up and served with warm butter.

Baked Apple Pancakes: Easy baked apple pancakes made with fresh apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, and baked in the oven. Delicious, and done in under 30 minutes for a fast breakfast!

Baked BBQ Chicken Wings: Crispy oven baked chicken wings, seasoned and then smothered in BBQ sauce. Perfect appetizer or an easy weeknight meal!

Easter Bread: A light and sweet egg bread decorated with a braid down the middle. Perfect dinner bread for your Easter celebration.

Homemade Baked Beans: Homemade baked beans that are made with crispy bacon, onion, green pepper, molasses, and brown sugar. Easy to throw together and tastes even better when made ahead.

Ingredients for Romanian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Ground Pork: Mixed with the ground beef. Used for flavor and has the fat needed to keep the dish from being too dry.
Ground Beef: Mixed with the ground pork. Used for flavor and is a bit leaner than the pork.
Onions: White or yellow onions are used in this recipe. They have a mild flavor that doesn’t overpower the dish. Chopped up small.
White Rice: Regular white rice is used, it does well with the long cook time. Instant rice tends to get too mushy and does not hold the flavor as well.
Crushed Red Pepper: Added for a little spicy kick to the cabbage rolls.
Sauerkraut: Fresh or canned are both ok to use. Pour the juice in along with the sauerkraut.
Tomato Juice: Poured over the top of the cabbages while cooking. This is the sauce that you can serve with the cabbages.
Vegetable Juice: Added along with the tomato juice for the sauce. Adds a tangier flavor than the tomato juice.
Cabbage Heads: Choose nice big heads with no rips or tears. Try to get fresh looking heads that don’t look wilted or brown.
Salt and Pepper: Added with the meat for flavor. Use fresh ground sea salt and fresh ground peppercorn for the best flavors.

Slow cooked cabbage rolls in a tomato and sauerkraut sauce. An authentic Romanian holiday dish! — We have our local butcher mix the two meats together!

How To Make Romanian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Making the meat mixture

Cook the rice according to the package. Remove from the heat just before it is done so that it is a little bit al dente.

Chop up onions and saute them in a skillet with oil, salt, pepper, and paprika, then drain on paper towels.

Once rice has cooked and onions are done, mix all meat, onions, rice, crushed red pepper, and salt/pepper together until evenly dispersed.

Prepping the cabbage leaves for rolling

Fill a large pot (big enough to fit a whole cabbage head) with water and heat till hot. Core cabbages and one at a time add a cabbage to the hot water and cook just enough till you can pull the leaves off.

You don’t want to fully cook the leaves, just enough to get all the leaves off the cabbage. As you pull the leaves off, set them aside on paper towels to cool off. Do that for each of the cabbage until you have all the leaves off all the cabbages.

You will not use the very little leaves towards the middle of the cabbage, these are too small for filling and rolling.

Once the leaves have cooled enough to handle, take a small knife and on the backside of the leaves, pare off the big bump of the vein to make flat so it’s easier to roll.

Rolling the cabbage rolls

Once all the leaves’ veins are pared, take small amounts of the meat mixture and add it to the leaves. Fold half of the leaf over the meat and start to roll it up, then tuck the end into the roll.

Cooking the Romanian stuffed cabbage rolls

In a roaster or a slow cooker add some sauerkraut to the bottom of the pan, and some tomato juice and some v8 juice, then add a layer of rolls, then add another layer of sauerkraut tomato sauce mixture.

Keep layering rolls and sauerkraut mixture until all rolls are used.

In a roaster cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes to get it nice and hot, then turn it down to 225 degrees for 8-10 hours. We usually use a roaster to cook these since it is bigger and can hold all the cabbages. If you are cooking less you can use a slow cooker if you choose. Cook on low for 8-10 hours in the slow cooker.

Serve with a little salt and pepper if you like, and enjoy an authentic Romanian tradition!

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