Stuffed Cabbage

In October I had posted on the Facebook page that I was trying out stuffed cabbage. I did like what I came up with the first time, but the process was very tedious. I followed The Joy of Cooking's method to prep the cabbage. I placed the whole head of cabbage with core removed into boiling water. Every 5 minutes I would remove the HOT cabbage and peel away a few tender leaves and repeat. This was so tedious and my poor fingers were burned. I wised up the second time! This time to prep the cabbage I made a cut with a pairing knife at the base of each leave and gently pulled it off. I steamed the loose cabbage leaves in a steam basket until tender about 10 or so minutes. This method was a tremendous time AND finger saver.

1 green cabbage with leaves removed in tack and steamed until tender (see above)
1 lbs of lean ground beef or turkey meat
1/2 cup of blanched almond flour
1 egg
1 grated carrot
1 minced garlic clove
1 small onion chopped
1 tsp of dried Italian Seasoning
1 tsp of sea salt
1/4 tsp of ground black pepper
28 ounces of tomato puree or sauce
Water (if needed) to cover cabbage rolls


1. Set aside steamed cabbage leaves to cool. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine meat, almond flour, egg, carrot, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Combine thoroughly.
3. To fill and roll cabbage rolls. Place a cooled cabbage leave on cutting board with the stem facing you and outer part of the leaf flat on the cutting board. Place a rounded dinner spoonful of meat mixture 1/4 inch away from the stem. Fold the sides in then starting from the stem roll the cabbage leaf up jelly roll style.
4. Place cabbage roll in baking dish seam side down. Repeat until all the leaves are filled. Cover with tomato puree. Add an additional water to baking dish if needed to cover stuffed cabbage leaves.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until cooked through.

*Note you may sub in 1/2 cup of brown rice instead of almond flour though you will need to add 1/2 cup of water to meat mixture and you will need to bake cabbage rolls for 1 & 1/2 to 2 hours.