Halumpki or Stuffed Cabbage

 

Prep time:                          30 minutes

Prep notes: 

Cooking time:                   60 minutes

Yields:                                    6 people

 

Ingredients: 

Don't know what to do with cabbage besides coleslaw. This Slovak dish is one of my favorites the recipe is passed down from my Great Grandmother (Baba).

1 head cabbage 1 tsp sugar
3 slices of bacon 1 onion chopped
1 clove garlic 1 cup rice
1/2 tsp salt and pepper 1 1/2 lb ground meat
1/2 cup water 1 large can of tomatoes
1/2 cup vinegar 1 cup spaghetti sauce
1 small can of tomato paste

 

Directions: 

The cabbage will cook more evenly if you cut out the core. Boil cabbage until soft, this may require taking outer leaves off as you are cooking, while removing from pot be sure not to puncture the leaves. Cook rice then set aside to cool. Mix onions, rice, salt, pepper, and raw meat this is your filling. To fill cabbage you will first need to prepare the cooked leaf take a cabbage leaf and place it in your palm with spline facing up, slice off the spline so the thickness of the leaf is even. Turn over the leaf and place on counter with spline nearest you. With your spoon take a scoop of the filling and place in the base of the leaf in a cylindrical shape, roll once then tuck in the sides and continue rolling up the leaf and set aside. It should look like a spring roll. When your cabbage is all stuffed brown bacon and garlic in the bottom of a large stock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients in the pot and stir just to incorporate. Layer in the cabbage rolls cook on low for 45 min to a hour occasionally rotating the cabbage so the bottom doesn't burn. The halumpki freeze very well, when reheating be sure to add a little water so the sauce doesn't dry out. You should get at least 18 halumpki.