1/06/14

Cabbage Roll Skillet Meal

All the goodness of cabbage rolls without precooking the rice or parboiling the cabbage in this one-pan deconstructed cabbage roll skillet recipe. 

JUMP TO RECIPE

UPDATE 12/12/23... Here, almost 10 years later, I'm reading over this and so many things come to mind. The first of which is that my photography has come a long way - haha!!

But more importantly, I'm thinking back to those days when we struggled so hard to make ends meet. Thanks to the good Lord's mercy and our refusal to give up, things are a whole lot different now but man, oh man, I can remember being equal parts sick of having to cook hamburger meat again and being truly grateful I had it.

If anyone out there is struggling and needs a reminder, just keep working hard, take comfort in then ones you love, do the next right thing, be grateful for what you have and yes, it will get better! 

Cabbage Roll Skillet Meal! All the goodness of cabbage rolls without precooking the rice or parboiling the cabbage in this one-pan deconstructed cabbage roll skillet recipe.

Once again I found myself staring at a pound of ground beef trying to think of something new to do with it.

Lord, I get sick of it but I’m thankful for it nonetheless because, when we’re on that last stretch before payday, sometimes it’s what gets us by.

So anyway, I’m standing there with the refrigerator door open, hoping inspiration will smack me down when I spotted a head of cabbage. I immediately thought of a conversation I’d had the week before with a sweet little lady at the grocery store about cabbage rolls.

Then I shot that idea down because I didn't feel like taking the time to blanch the leaves.

Cabbage Roll Skillet Meal! All the goodness of cabbage rolls without precooking the rice or parboiling the cabbage in this one-pan deconstructed cabbage roll skillet recipe.

But I still had cabbage rolls on the brain when the wheels started turning… What if I cooked all the ingredients together in a skillet and made sort of a deconstructed cabbage roll dish!? Like a casserole. But quicker! Kinda like an “unstuffed” cabbage roll!

I grabbed up all the ingredients and prayed it would work!

And it totally did!

I ate and ate and ATE this stuff last night! I couldn't get enough of it! Husband kept telling me to lay off or me and my belly full of cabbage were going to have to sleep on the couch! Hahaa!

Cabbage Roll Skillet Meal! All the goodness of cabbage rolls without precooking the rice or parboiling the cabbage in this one-pan deconstructed cabbage roll skillet recipe.

If you love main dish casseroles made with rice, check out a few of these recipes too!

  • Sausage & Rice Casserole - a simple recipe perfect for supper, side dishes, potlucks and Thanksgiving (sometimes called Rice Dressing).
  • Chicken & Rice Casserole - An easy casserole recipe for creamy rice and fork-tender chicken that cooks in one dish.
  • Pork Chop & Rice Casserole - An easy pork chop bake made with rice and French onion soup.
  • Jailhouse Rice - A delicious casserole recipe with rice, ground beef and sausage perfect for feeding a crowd.
  • Hamburger & Rice Casserole - Ground beef and rice baked together in a classic casserole recipe that's easy to make your own.

Recipe for Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Skillet

unstuffed, cabbage roll, deconstructed, stir-fry, skillet, meal, cabbage, hamburger, ground beef, rice, tomato topping, tangy, recipe, how to, best, easy
Yield: 6 Servings
Author: Mandy Rivers | South Your Mouth
Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Skillet

Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Skillet

All the goodness of cabbage rolls without precooking the rice or parboiling the cabbage in this deconstructed cabbage roll recipe that cooks in a skillet!
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 45 Min

Ingredients

Main Ingredients:
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 small cabbage, chopped
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 14.5-oz. can beef broth
  • 1 cup uncooked white rice
Tangy Tomato Topping:
  • 1 10.75-oz. can condensed tomato soup
  • 1 teaspoon white vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Instructions

Main Instructions:
  1. Brown ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat; do not drain. You’ll need a large skillet with fitted lid to cook this dish. It is important to have a tight-fitting lid when cooking this dish to ensure the rice cooks properly.
  2. Add cabbage, onion, garlic, salt and pepper and continue cooking until cabbage is slightly tender.
  3. Add beef broth and rice and stir well. Cover skillet with fitted lid, reduce heat to medium-low and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes or until rice is cooked through.
  4. Remove skillet from heat and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Serve with Tangy Tomato Topping.
Tangy Tomato Topping:
  1. While the finished cabbage dish is resting, combine condensed tomato soup (without water), vinegar and brown sugar in a small pan and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes or until sauce starts to bubble.
  2. Drizzle topping over prepared cabbage dish or individual servings.
Keep up with my latest shenanigans by following South Your Mouth!


48 comments:

  1. do you drain the ground beef first? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope! You need a little grease in there for all that rice and cabbage :)

      Delete
  2. KitchenTable761/6/14, 8:10 PM

    You must have read my mind. I've been craving cabbage rolls and didn't want to do the work. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. love cabbage. I've made stuffed cabbage before. but never cabbage rolls. this sounds so much easrier to make. I'll be making this for Sunday dinner this weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tried this today! Pure genius, I'm telling ya! My babies who usually turn up their finicky little noses ate a whole bowl full. I would have never thought to do this. It's way easier than stuffed cabbage rolls!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This sounds really good! I actually love cabbage. And what a gut-warming, inexpensive meal. The tomato sauce sounds delicious! I never would've thought to make a sauce out of soup.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Do you need to soften the cabbage leaves first?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well I did it with spicy Italian sausage instead of beef and added some chicken broth for extra flavor. Awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I just made this for dinner and we were both thrilled with it. Never going to go through the hassle of blanching and rolling again. Thanks so much. It's going to be one of my favorite recipes I'm sure.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Can you use "Minute" rice?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not for this recipe, no. If that's all you have, adjust liquid and cooking time per manufacturer's instructions. I can't say for sure because I've never cooked Minute Rice so I don't know how it would work.

      Delete
  10. Thank you Mandy :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. You must have read my mind today! I just came back from the grocery store (since we have a big snow storm coming) and bought a cabbage, even though it wasn't on my list, and tomato soup was on sale so I bought that, too, with no idea what to make with that cabbage! Can't wait to try this this weekend! Thank you from a "frozen" southern transplant who lives now in NE Ohio where Old man winter is at my door day and night! But this dish is promising to keep us warm!

    ReplyDelete
  12. So...I wonder what would happen if one were to fry up three or four slices of smoked bacon until it's crisp, drain it, crumble it, and set it aside. When all but a tablespoon or so of the bacon fat was poured out, the beef could begin its cooking. At the end, one could stir the bacon back into the mixture, shred up some nice medium Cheddar, and spread it on top of the mixture for the last five minutes or so of the cooking time. I think I'll TRY that! Thanks for the idea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you just turned a healthy recipe into a not so much one, lol

      Delete
    2. Yup! But I'll sure bet it would be good! This is the sort of food a feller wants after a day of chopping wood and shoveling snow, anyway. At that point calories and fats need replenishment. If Aunt Tilly is coming over for luncheon, break out the cucumber and watercress sandwiches and save the cabbage for supper!

      Delete
    3. I do the bacon, too, but not cheese. When i have leftover rice from another meal, i just steam the cabbage until done and add precooked rice. Everything else done the same

      Delete
  13. I have made this with the soy crumbles to make it vegetarian style we loved it

    ReplyDelete
  14. I made this tonight, it was so yummy. I was full but still wanted more. Only thing I did different was, used 2 cans of tomato soup and added brown sugar n vinegar to my taste then added to the pan and simmered it altogether. So good!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Without rice, less broth and/or soup topping?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You wouldn't need any broth if you're not using rice. The topping would be the same.

      Delete
  16. Can you make this in advance and reheat?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Replies
    1. You can but you'd have to cook it longer (and possible add more liquid) to get the rice tender.

      Delete
  18. About how many servings does this make? I have 5 people (4 adults and 1 kid) and want to make sure I have enough or should I double the recipe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd say it serves 6 adults so I think you're good!

      Delete
  19. I made this earlier this week; was excellent! And, since I had some leftover "slow cooker stuffed bell pepper soup" it occurred to me that I could combine the leftovers (I like to have extra on hand to take to work for lunch since we have a microwave and fridge available). So, nothing is going to waste and it's "all good." Thanks for sharing your recipes.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I made this tonight and loved it so much that I had to come back to the blog to thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  21. I just wanted to let you know that I tried this dish for dinner to and it was the bomb. :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. I made it tonight using ground turkey and chicken brith. It is delicious .

    ReplyDelete
  23. I posted earlier that I thought that this dish was the bomb. I call both of my daughters and told them how much I liked this dish. So they both went to the store and cooked it for dinner last night they gave it a thumbs up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, that is AMAZEBALLS!!! Thank you for letting me know!

      Delete
  24. Love this. Going to try turkey and brown rice to reduce calories; hope it tastes as good.

    ReplyDelete
  25. My Mom made cabbage rolls. They were delish. I had never made them before until tonivht. Oh my gosh, what a pain they were to make. When something is that much trouble I won't do it twice, but I love cabbage rolls so I went in search of an easier way. When I stumbled upon this I was very excited. We have lots of left overs , so I won't be making this anyt ime soon, but next time I get a craving for it, this is the recipe I will use. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I doubled the recipe but substituted lean ground pork for one of the pounds of beef. I also threw in a can of fire roasted tomatoes. Everyone went back for seconds! Great, easy recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I make this in the slowcooker. Very good.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Made this last night for dinner. EXCELLENT and easy. Your directions are perfect. Everyone should try this for dinner!! Will become a "staple" for dinner at our house. Thanks for much for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete
  29. This was delicious and so much easier than "rolling up" cabbage leaves. I used ground chicken and chicken broth. Will make it again.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Growing up my mom made what we called Rice, cabbage and hamburger! I make it to this day, tweaking it for more flavor, mom was just a salt/pepper seasoner! I was sooo surprised to see this recipe, almost exactly the same minus the tomato topping! When I would eat leftovers everyone would ask what it was and then look at me like I was strange! Glad to see we aren't alone! Yummm, I could eat it until I explode!

    ReplyDelete
  31. This sounds totally yummy! What can I replaced the canned soup with? Thanks, Mandy! I use a lot of your recipes!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I made this for supper, tonight! Yes, I cooked! My husband, Ed, usually does the cooking. Ed doesn't usually like cooked cabbage. Guess what? We both had seconds! I made mine with Italian sausage instead of ground beef. DELICIOUS!

    ReplyDelete
  33. I love this recipe, but lately I've tweaked it and stumbled upon something awesome. I made this with ground pork and beef broth, omitted the tangy tomato sauce and substituted sambal oelek chili paste (about a half-teaspoon per serving) to give it a kick, My husband said it tasted exactly like egg rolls (minus the roll) and immediately added it to our go-to dinner list. It's delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Here in Nebraska we have Runza's. They are made with cabbage, onions, and hamburger and then wrapped in bread dough and baked. I like the idea of adding rice. Sounds delicious. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  35. What would you mix with tomato sauce if not using soup...

    ReplyDelete
  36. I've fixed this twice now and love loved it both times. I think next time I make it I might try using quinoa, do you think that will turn out okay?

    ReplyDelete

Hi there! While I’m not able to respond to every comment, I try hard to answer any questions that haven’t been addressed in the post, recipe or in other comments.

I can tell you now 1) I have no idea if you can substitute Minute Rice or brown rice in my recipes because I’ve never used them and 2) If I know how to convert a recipe to a Crock Pot version, I will make a note about it (otherwise, I don’t know).

And though I may not respond to them all, I do read each and every comment and I LOVE to hear from you guys! Thanks, y’all! - Mandy