Tender cabbage leaves are stuffed with a delicious ground beef and rice mixture and then allowed to simmer away in the slow cooker in a tomato based sauce in this delicious recipe for Crock-Pot Cabbage Rolls! You can also prepare the rolls ahead of time and freeze them for a dinner the whole family will love!
Slow Cooker Cabbage Rolls
It is a bit of a mystery where the stuffed cabbage roll comes from. Poland, Russia, or somewhere else? I am not really sure despite a lot of Google research. There have been versions of stuffed cabbage leaves for thousands of years so it is a little hard to tell.
This version however is a old family recipe that I have adapted to a slow cooker recipe. With a ground beef and rice filling and a tomato sauce that is based on canned tomato soup and vegetable juice the finished cabbage rolls are super tasty and to be honest one of my favorites!
I know what your’e saying…canned tomato soup and vegetable juice? WHAT? That is not traditional! And you would be right. But don’t knock it until you try it. The tomato soup adds a yummy texture with a little creaminess (even though you don’t add milk to the soup) and the tomato juice adds some nice zing. A touch of Worcestershire sauce added to the sauce brings forth a pop of umami flavor and the whole thing is just wonderful.
Products Needed:
- 3.5 Quart Casserole Slow Cooker OR 6 Quart Slow Cooker (Or Larger)
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- Rice Cooker With Steamer OR Steamer Pot
- Large Skillet
- Mixing Bowls
- Measuring Cups And Spoons
- Can Opener
Special Diets
Gluten Free | High Fiber | Low Fat | Low Sugar
This recipe for Crock-Pot Cabbage Rolls is Weight Watchers Friendly on the new Personal Points plan. You can see the WW personal points for this recipe here on the Weight Watchers website. Click here for MORE of our Weight Watchers Recipes
More Fantastic Ground Beef Slow Cooker Entrees To Try!
- Crock-Pot Ravioli Casserole
- Slow Cooker Italian Wedding Soup + Video
- Crock-Pot Cheesy Harvest Potato Chowder
- Slow Cooker Getting Sauced Spaghetti Sauce
- Crock-Pot Taco Spaghetti
Crock-Pot Cabbage Rolls Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Head Fresh Cabbage
- 1 Large Yellow Onion (Diced)
- 2 Pounds Extra Lean Ground Beef
- 1 Cup Cooked White Rice
- 3 Large Eggs
- 1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 10.75 Ounces Canned Tomato Soup
- 11.5 Ounces Vegetable Juice (Such As V8 Brand)
- 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
Instructions
- Core the head of cabbage and carefully remove each individual leaf off of the head and wash to remove dirt.
- Place clean cabbage leaves inside a steamer (or use a large pot with a steamer basket and tight fitting lid) and steam of 60 seconds. Remove steamed leaves and cool leaves by placing them in a bowl of ice water. Set aside.
- In a large skillet on the stove-top cook the diced onions until translucent; about 3 to 5 minutes. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the raw ground beef, eggs, salt, pepper, cooked onions and rice and mix well with your hands to combine thoroughly.
- Taking one steamed cabbage leaf at a time, add two to three tablespoons of the meat mixture on a cabbage leaf.
- Using your hands, gather the meat on one end of the lead and neatly roll the cabbage leaf around the meat mixture.
- Layer the rolled cabbage rolls into the bottom of a 3.5 quart casserole slow cooker or a 6 quart or larger oval slow cooker. Layering the rolls as you add them to the slow cooker until you have used all of the meat mixture.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the canned tomato soup, vegetable juice and Worcestershire sauce.
- Pour the tomato sauce evenly over the top of the cabbage rolls.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 5 hours or until the meat filling inside the cabbage rolls is cooked through and no longer pink inside.
- Garnish with chopped fresh parsley if desired before serving and ENJOY!
Nutrition
Thing is if you freeze uncooked cabbage, I hope you don’t plan on eatting it. It’s impossible to eat! It turns real TOUGH and stringy. ..it will choke you. You can cook them then freeze.
good to know Michele, I will cook them all first and then freeze them. Hoping to make this for dinner this weekend.
You boil the cabbage 1st, before you wrap the raw ground meat and roll them. You can freeze raw no problem. I do it all the time.
Well If you freeze the whole head of cabbage in the deep freeze then let it thaw out the leaf peel off easy and no more hard labor over a hot pot of water and less problems with uncooked spots where when your peeling tend to rib the leaves
O… M…. G…!!!!! This recipe is the super best. I know this sounds overly enthusiastic, but it really is awesome. This is the first time I have attempted anything like this, and it worked out grand. Plus, I had some left to eat the whole week. (tiny family) They reheat well and taste just as delicious as when first baked. I made this recipe a week ago and just ate some for lunch now. Dash a little hot sauce on top and you are ready to go. Thanks so much for this, it was a hit!
glad to hear! aim to please.
Do you cook the ground beef first or put it in cabbage rolls raw?
raw. Mix it and then put it in. The meat will cook while it is in the crock-pot and absorb all those flavors.
I had suck a hard time peeling the leaves off..
Meant such a hard time peeling them off
You drop the whole cabbage into a pot of boiling water, the cabbage leaves will begin to come off easy, and much easiet to wrap. Don’t cook the cabbage all the way through, just enough for you to be able to work with it and wrap the meat.
This dish is a stable at my house, once a weak you make enough for 2 pots. You can eat this stuff for 2-3 days. Another thing you can do is buy grape leaves and use them instead of the cabbage, they sell them in glass jars pickled. It gives it an amazing earthy taste! Sometimes I chop up the grape leaves and mix it up with the meat, and wrap it up in cabbage! You can add anything you like to spice it up, peppers, or bacon into the ground meat stuffing, this food never gets boring! Galuptsi(cabbage rolls) are the best!
before you drop the cabbage to boil, you need to cut into, and cut out the root, Also the center part on the leaf of the cabbage where to root travels up the leaf, you want to cut some of that off at the base, to make the cabbage leaf even thickness, it makes it easy to wrap.
The smaller cabbage leafs don’t throw them away, after you stack up all the rolled galubtsi, just lay the smaller cabbage leafs on top, they will taste great after cooked with the meat stuffing! 🙂
Great tip Dimitri, thanks for sharing!
I actually take the whole head of cabbage and put in the deep freeze. After is is frozen I take it out the day before I plan to make them and let it thaw. After it is thawed the leave peel off like butter and no more laboring over a hot pot of water.
How long can you leave head of cabbage in the freezer
Hi Connie, I don’t think you should freeze a whole head of cabbage for any length of time. I have seen some recipes for cabbage rolls where they froze the head of cabbage just overnight then thawed. That makes the leaves pliable enough to roll up the cabbage rolls without steaming the cabbage first.
These are great with some lemon juice sprinkled over them after you’ve plated.
I bet that would add some great tang Tanya!
No pork???This Isn’t piggies without pork Hamburg mix in my opinion
You could use pork for sure. Do a half and half mixture with the hamburger or do all pork.
I use pork and veal equal amounts.Add washed rice and diced onion.I add one egg paprika salt , pepper , garlic salt. Cover with water add a large can of tomato juice. Cook in slow cooker or on the. Stove in a large pot for 3hours.
Sounds great Bob!
Love this recipe! It’s so easy. I cut out the stem, and with a two pronged fork, plunge the whole head into a boiling pot of water with vinegar. As the leaves parboil, peel them off the head with tongs. I also add two tablespoons of garlic to the meat mixture.
So glad you enjoyed these slow cooker cabbage rolls Christie!
I love this recipe. After you get cabbage rolls all in crock pot I take a bag of sauerkraut and spread over them them the add tomato soup or juice over them and let them cook. This is the only way we like them. They are not bland the sauerkraut adds a delicious flavor too them. Yummy….
Thank you Tressie for the kind review. While I personally am not a fan of sauerkraut I know many of our readers are and they would probably love your addition!