In April we shared one for our favourite side dishes, Nalynsnky. In the post we mentioned how it’s a dish we make for our Christmas dinner. With everything going on that month we thought it an appropriate time to share the recipe, just in time for Easter. Now, many months later, we want to share another side dish inspired by the Ukraine in time for yet another holiday, Canadian Thanksgiving.
If you read the Nalynsnky post then you know that we have family and friends who are of Ukrainian descent, and although we ourselves are not Ukrainian we love to eat perogies, nalynsnky and cabbage rolls. Without a Baba of our own to teach us how to make these dishes we have resorted mainly to eating at our favorite Ukrainian restaurant. We were brave once and tried making perogies, let’s just say we need some practice, and cabbage rolls we might just leave to the experts. Hence our recipe for cabbage roll casserole often referred to as lazy cabbage rolls.
When we first made this casserole, we made almost twice the amount listed in the recipe below because we could only buy a big cabbage. Instead of using the whole cabbage we use about half of it. If our recipe is too big you can always halve the recipe. Another option is to make more and freeze it for your next big meal, we often freeze leftovers from Thanksgiving and bring it out for Christmas. Still have lots of cabbage? We have a perfect solution for this! Be sure to stay tuned for our Cabbage soup recipe, we hope to post it in a few weeks time.
When it comes to adding some meat to the casserole we like to switch it up. If we have leftover spiraled ham we will use that, other times we might use garlic sausage instead. Or we’ll pick up a small picnic ham which is the perfect size for a recipe like this. It’s often determined by what we have in the fridge, you really can’t go wrong, unless you forget the bacon. Kidding! Though we do make an effort not to forget the bacon, it adds a lot of flavour to this dish.
Lazy or not this casserole is a close second to the real thing and easy to make and we think a perfect addition to any holiday meal. Let us know if you decided to make this dish for your Thanksgiving meal, we would love to hear from you.
Ingredients
4 slices of bacon diced
¾ cup diced ham or garlic sausage
1 medium onion or ½ cup diced
850g or 4 cups of diced cabbage
¼ cup water
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup rice
2 cups chicken broth
Fry bacon until crisp if you’re using it as a garnish or partially if you plan to incorporate the bacon into the casserole right away. We prefer ours on the crispy side.
Leave some of the bacon fat in the pan to sauté onions, ham or garlic sausage. Cook until the onions are translucent.
Dice the cabbage and rinse it. There is no need to dry it off as you will be steaming the cabbage in a deep skillet with 1 tbsp of tomato paste dissolved in ¼ cup water. Cover with a lid and steam for approximately 10 minutes.
Keep in mind how long it takes to steam will depend on the amount of cabbage you use or how small or large you diced it. If it needs more water you can always add a tablespoon at a time. The key is to monitor it until you reach the texture you like.
Cook one cup of rice according to the package instructions in either water or chicken broth. We prefer to use chicken broth as it adds more flavour.
Combine everything together and you have yourself a delicious cabbage roll casserole. Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!
Cabbage Roll Casserole
Ingredients
- 4 slices of bacon diced
- ¾ cup diced ham or garlic sausage
- 1 medium or ½ cup onion diced
- 850 g or 4 cups of diced cabbage
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 cup rice
- 2 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Fry bacon until crisp if you're using it as a garnish or partially if you plan to incorporate the bacon into the casserole right away. We prefer ours on the crispy side.
- Leave some of the bacon fat in the pan to sauté onions, ham or garlic sausage. Cook until the onions are translucent.
- Dice the cabbage and rinse it. There is no need to dry it off as you will be steaming the cabbage in a deep skillet with 1 tbsp of tomato paste dissolved in ¼ cup water.
- Cover with a lid and steam for approximately 10 minutes. Keep in mind how long it takes to steam will depend on the amount of cabbage you use or how small or large you diced it. If it needs more water you can always add a tablespoon at a time. The key is to monitor it until you reach the texture you like.
- Cook one cup of rice according to the package instructions in either water or chicken broth. We prefer to use chicken broth as it adds more flavour.
- Combine everything together and you have yourself a delicious cabbage roll casserole. Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!
