Lazy stuffed cabbage rolls in a cupcake mold: a spectacular dish that will surprise guests

Lazy stuffed cabbage rolls in a cupcake mold: a spectacular dish that will surprise guests

Traditional cabbage rolls are incredibly tasty, but the process of wrapping them often requires a lot of time and patience. What to do when you want your favorite homemade dish, but you can't stand at the stove for hours? A great solution would be an original serving in the form of a large appetizing ring, baked in a round cake pan. Inside is a juicy meat filling made of rice and vegetables, and on the outside the dish is wrapped in tender cabbage leaves. After baking, it is very easy to cut into portioned slices, like a regular unsweetened pie!

This culinary format has a festive and elegant look, but completely eliminates the need for you to wrap each cabbage roll separately. How to prepare this delicious dish. This is reported by the Dnipro Advisor.

For 6–8 servings:

White cabbage or Savoy cabbage - 1 small head, approximately 1–1.2 kg

Minced turkey, chicken, veal or pork with beef — 700 g

How to cook

Take a round cake tin with a hole in the middle, approximately 24–26 cm in diameter. Grease it with oil or butter.

In a large pot, bring water to a boil, add a pinch of salt. Cut the head off the cabbage, dip it in the boiling water, and gradually remove the leaves when they are soft and pliable. Usually 2–3 minutes is enough for each batch of leaves.

Select 8–10 of the largest leaves to “wrap” the ring. Carefully cut off or smooth out the thick central veins with a knife: the leaf will not break and will fit more tightly into the mold. It is the flexible, well-blanched leaves that provide the neat shape of the finished cabbage rolls.

Rinse the rice several times, cover with water in a ratio of approximately 1:2, and cook for 5–7 minutes after boiling. It should remain slightly firm inside.

Pour the rice into a sieve and leave to cool. Do not use fully cooked rice: during baking, it will still absorb some of the tomato sauce, become soft, but not turn into porridge. The recipe with undercooked rice is often used in cabbage rolls recipes precisely to preserve the good texture of the filling.

Finely chop one onion. Grate the carrots on a large grater, and chop the garlic.

Heat the oil in a frying pan. First, fry the onion until translucent, add the carrots and cook for another 3–4 minutes. Add the shredded cabbage, garlic, 3–4 tbsp. water and simmer for 7–10 minutes, covered.

The cabbage should just lose its firmness, not turn into a puree. Remove the pan from the heat and let the vegetables cool slightly. Pre-simmering the cabbage makes the filling more tender and juicy.

In a large bowl, combine the minced meat, cooled rice, stewed cabbage with vegetables, finely chopped second onion, eggs, and herbs.

Add salt, pepper, coriander, and paprika. Mix the minced meat only until it is uniform - you don't need to "beat" it with your hands for a long time, otherwise the meat base may turn out to be dense.

Chef's tip: Fry a teaspoon of the filling in a dry pan and taste. It's an easy, professional way to check the salt and spices before the dish goes into the oven.

Place the cabbage leaves in the mold so that they overlap and hang over the sides. Also cover the central hole with strips of cabbage leaves.

Fill the mold with the meat filling, spread it well with a spoon and press down lightly so that there are no cavities inside. Do not pack too tightly: the stuffed cabbage should retain its juiciness.

Cover the filling with the overhanging edges of the leaves. If necessary, place another cabbage leaf on top to completely cover the meat mass.

Crush the tomatoes in their own juice with a fork or blender. Mix them with tomato sauce, broth or water, sour cream, sugar, salt and pepper.

Sugar won't make the sauce sweet—it'll just balance the natural acidity of the tomatoes. The sauce should be fairly thin: the cabbage rolls shouldn't be fried, but slowly simmered in moisture. It's the thin tomato sauce that helps the cabbage and rice cook evenly.

Pour about two-thirds of the sauce around the cabbage ring. Add the bay leaf.

Cover the dish tightly with foil. Place it on a baking sheet, as the sauce may rise slightly during baking.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 60 minutes. Then remove the foil, pour a few spoonfuls of sauce over the top, and bake for another 15–20 minutes to lightly brown the cabbage skin.

Leave the finished dish in the mold for 15 minutes. Then cover with a large plate, carefully turn over and remove the mold. Pour the remaining hot sauce over the ring, sprinkle with dill or parsley.

Cooking time

Ingredients preparation 35 minutes Molding 10 minutes Baking 1 hour 15–20 minutes Resting before slicing 15 minutes Total approximately 2 hours 15 minutes Benefits of the dish

Cabbage contains dietary fiber, which supports the normal functioning of the digestive system, as well as vitamin C. Carrots add carotenoids, tomato sauce - lycopene, and ground meat provides protein, iron and vitamin B12. Rice makes the dish satisfying and provides energy thanks to complex carbohydrates.

For those who love homemade Ukrainian cuisine, but don't want to waste time sculpting dozens of cabbage rolls.

To make ahead: it's convenient to cut a ring of cabbage rolls, heat them up in portions, and take them for lunch.

For children over three years old, use tender minced turkey or veal, reduce the amount of pepper, and do not add hot spices.

During exacerbation of gastritis, pancreatitis, colitis, or other gastrointestinal diseases, cabbage and tomato sauce can cause discomfort.

People with reflux or high acidity should reduce the amount of tomatoes and avoid adding garlic.

If you are trying to control your weight, you should choose ground turkey or chicken, replace sour cream with Greek yogurt, or use less sauce.

If you need to control your blood sugar levels, it is important to consider the portion of rice; some of the cereal can be replaced with buckwheat or bulgur.

For those watching their salt intake, it is better to use unsalted tomatoes and adjust the amount of salt yourself.

For an especially tender skin, choose Savoy cabbage: its leaves are usually softer and more elastic than the dense leaves of regular white cabbage.

Don't skip the step of cooling the rice and stewed vegetables before mixing with the minced meat—warm ingredients can make the filling sticky and dense.

If you don't have enough large cabbage leaves, overlap smaller ones. This will be invisible in the finished dish and the ring won't fall apart.

Do not cut the cabbage rolls immediately after they come out of the oven: 15 minutes of rest allows the juices to distribute evenly and the ring to hold its shape well.

The next day, the dish becomes even tastier: the filling has time to soak up the tomato sauce. The stuffed cabbage rolls can also be frozen — both before and after baking.

Let the dish rest in the pan for about 15 minutes before slicing, then carefully invert onto a large plate. Serve, generously drizzled with the remaining sauce and sprinkled with herbs.

Try this convenient and incredibly delicious recipe - your family will be delighted!

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