Romanian Cabbage Rolls (Sarmale)

Last updated on March 14th, 2018 at 04:40 am

Traditional Romanian Cabbage Rolls are made with sour cabbage stuffed with pork and beef and little bit of bacon, the best cabbage rolls you will ever have.

Here’s my tried and true cabbage rolls recipe that is a must have for every Christmas. First of all, the big difference between Romanian cabbage rolls and others are that we make them with sour cabbage.  You can find sour cabbage at pretty much all grocery stores, here in Calgary, we always find them at Safeway or any Polish store. With sour cabbage you have to be careful because it is pretty salty, so what I usually do is a few hours before actually assembling the rolls, I put the cabbage in a big pot with water, so some of the salt gets out of it.

This is how I learned to make cabbage rolls from my mother and they are my favorite. The other thing that we do with cabbage rolls, is we add some kind of smoked meat. This time I used smoked bacon. The idea of adding smoked meat is to add some smoked flavor. It really makes the cabbage rolls taste great. Now, although, we always make cabbage rolls at every Christmas and Easter, we do make them other times as well. They are so delicious, you can’t stop eating just a couple rolls.

MY LATEST VIDEOS

Cabbage rolls are easy to make, it’s just time consuming to make the rolls. That’s why when we make cabbage rolls we make lots. The good thing about cabbage rolls is that you can freeze them.

First of all, chop the onion and saute it with the oil, just enough until the onion is translucent. I also like to add the rice to the onion and cook it together for a minute or so. In a large bowl, add the ground pork, dill, onion, rice, and salt and pepper.

Use your hands to mix all the ingredients together. Make sure you mix it well.

For these cabbage rolls, I used 2 smaller sour cabbages because we couldn’t find a large one. After you’ve soaked the cabbage in water, remove the leaves off the cabbage one by one, and cut each leaf in two, if the leaf is too big. I also cut the core piece off. Place them on a plate so they are ready for you when you start rolling.

Get your bacon ready as well or whatever smoked meat you use, just cut it up in smaller pieces.

With the remaining sour cabbage, usually I leave some leaves on the core and I chop it up and place at the bottom of my big baking dish. Depends on how many cabbage rolls you’re making but you’ll need a fairly big dish, that’s deep enough to hold at least 2 rows of cabbage rolls.

Start rolling the cabbage rolls. I like mine a bit smaller, but I know some people make them really large. I usually use about 1 to 2 tablespoons of the meat mixture in each rolls. Roll them up and line them up in your dish. After the first row add the bacon in between the rolls. Continue until done with meat mixture.

Pour the liter of tomato juice all over the cabbage rolls. If the cabbage rolls are not completely covered, add water. Cover them up with the lid, or aluminum foil and bake in a preheat 375 F degree oven for 2 hours. After two hours, you’ll notice most of the juice has evaporated so you might need to add more water, you don’t necessarily have to fill it up to the top this time. Bake for another 2 hours without the lid on. Your house will smell wonderful.

They are just wonderful, truly one of my favorite dishes ever.

Check out the video to see how to make this version of cabbage rolls in a crockpot or check out the recipe here!

If you guys love this recipe, and most importantly make it yourselves, please let us know. Take a picture and tag it #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!

4.7 from 10 votes

Print

Romanian Cabbage Rolls (Sarmale)

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

4 hrs

Total Time

4 hrs 30 mins

 

Traditional Romanian Cabbage Rolls are made with sour cabbage stuffed with pork and beef and little bit of bacon, the best cabbage rolls you will ever have.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Romanian

Servings: 10

Calories: 474 kcal

Author: Joanna Cismaru

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1/2 cup long grain rice uncooked, I prefer basmati
• 2 lb ground pork or whatever meat you prefer
• 1/4 cup parsley chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh dill chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 lb sour cabbage leaves
• 15 slices bacon chopped
• 4 cups tomato juice

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Heat the oil in a skillet, add the onions and cook until softened and translucent. Add the rice and cook for another minute. 

3. In a large bowl, add the ground pork, salt, pepper, parsley, dill and the onion and rice mixture. Be careful with the salt, not too much is needed because the sour cabbage is already salty. Mix well using your clean hands.

4. Remove all the cabbage leaves and cut each leaf in half. Romanian cabbage rolls are traditionally smaller than the Polish cabbage rolls, so that's why I recommend cutting each leaf in half, otherwise you can use the entire leave for one roll.

5. Fill each leaf with about a couple tbsp of the meat mixture and roll. Repeat with all the remaining meat and cabbage. If you have any cabbage left over, chop it up and spread it over the bottom of a big pot. 

6. Put all the rolls in the pot, add the chopped bacon in between the cabbage rolls and add the tomato juice over the rolls. Add more water if needed, the juice should cover the cabbage rolls entirely. Cover the pot with aluminum foil or a lid. 

7. Place in the oven and bake for 2 hours, remove the foil or lid and place back in the oven and cook for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Serve hot with a bit of sour cream on top.

Recipe Notes

I usually find sour cabbage leaves at my local grocery store like Sobey's or Safeway, but you can also find them at European markets. You can also order it from amazon here.

 

You can use fresh cabbage instead of sour cabbage, but more work is required. You first have to blanch the cabbage. To do so, core the cabbage first, one large cabbage should be enough for this recipe. In a large pot of boiling slated water, add the cabbage and blanch it for 5 to 8 minutes or until leaves are softened. Remove from the pot and chill under cold water.

Another alternative to softening the cabbage leaves is to wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it for a couple days. Remove the cabbage from the freezer and thaw it out at room temperature. Once the cabbage has thawed out, the leaves should be softened.

 

Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.

More delicious recipes from my kitchen

Romanian Stuffed Peppers

Crockpot Cabbage Rolls

Walnut Bread (Cozonac cu Nuca)