Greek Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (Lahanodolmades)
A delicious Greek winter favorite. Greek stuffed cabbage rolls (lahanodolmades) stuffed with rice, meat, and herbs, served with avgolemono sauce.
Ingredients
Cabbage rolls
- 1 large cabbage head, about 1 ½ kg/53 oz (or 2 medium)
- 500 g/17.6 oz half ground beef half ground pork
- 120 ml/½ cup olive oil extra virgin
- 1 medium red onion
- 2 spring onions
- 200 g/1 cup uncooked medium grain or arborio rice
- ½ tablespoon sea salt
- 3 tablespoon chopped dill
- 2 tablespoon chopped spearmint/mint
- 80 ml/⅓ cup white wine
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 720 ml/3 cups water or vegetable stock
Egg-Lemon Sauce
- 480 ml/2 cups of the cooking liquid
- 2 medium eggs
- 80 ml/⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoon water
- pinch of salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- First, start with the preparation of the cabbage. Remove and discard the outer leaves and wash the cabbage(s).
- Turn the cabbage head over and remove the stem (core) using a sharp knife.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the cabbage cored part down.
- Boil for about 15 minutes or until the leaves start to become soft and can be easily released.
- Remove the whole leaves one by one, as they become soft. Be careful not to tear them and place them in a colander to drain.
- In a deep bottom frying pan over medium heat, add half of the olive oil.
- When the oil is hot add the onion and spring onions and sauté until soft.
- Add the ground meat and sauté until caramelized. Then add the rice and the wine and cook until it evaporates.
- Add 1 cup of lukewarm water, salt, pepper, spearmint, dill, and cumin, and give it a good stir.
- When the rice absorbs the water remove it from the heat and set it aside to cool.
- On a cutting board, lay the cabbage leaf vein side up.
- Make a v cut in the leaf stem and remove all the thick parts. Set aside the cores for later.
- Depending on the size of the leaf, add ½ to 1 ½ tablespoon of the stuffing at the end of the v cut.
- Fold inward toward the center and over the filling. Bring the one side (left) in towards the center then the other side (right) roll and fold the side in.
- Roll the leaf toward the top making sure you wrap it a bit tight but leave some room to expand. Continue the same process until the whole filling is used.
- Use a large flat-bottom saucepan/pot with a lid.Place the small cabbage leaves and the inner veins of the leaves, at the bottom, and then place the cabbage rolls seam side down in tight rows.
- Make sure that you leave no gaps between them and that they are tight, so they don’t open while cooking.
- Cover the rolls with more of the leftover leaves.Pour at the top the rest of the olive oil, and water and invert a heatproof plate on the top of the rolls to keep them pressed and stable during cooking. Add more water until is enough to barely cover all the cabbage rolls and is at the plate’s level.
- Bring them to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer about 30 to 45 minutes until the leaves are tender.
- Beat the egg whites with a hand whisk in a heatproof bowl. When they start to become frothy add the yolks, lemon juice, and cornstarch diluted in the water.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper and then start tempering the sauce.
- Drain the cooking liquid out of the saucepan and incorporate it slowly into the eggs-lemon mixture.If you don’t have enough of the liquid add some extra water.
- Remove the plate and the extra leaves from the top of the pot.Pour the tempered mixture into the saucepan over the cabbage rolls.
- Shake the pot carefully from side to side to distribute the sauce equally.Place the pot over medium heat and bring it to a light boil.
- Remove from heat and let it rest until the sauce becomes creamy and thick.
- Serve lahanodolmades, warm, and spoon some of the egg-lemon mixtures on top.Sprinkle with some extra freshly ground black pepper, extra lemon juice, and garnish with fresh dill.
- Enjoy :)
Notes
To make the cabbage leaves easily pliable, instead of boiling, place the whole cabbage into the freezer 2 days prior. Thaw it and the leaves will be ready to roll.
The best way to make the egg-lemon sauce is to boil it into a different pot and then mix it with the cabbage rolls
We can cut the prep time by half if we mix all the stuffing ingredients together in a bowl and not sauté them. The flavor will be different and we need to boil lahanodolmades for 20 more minutes.
Serve with feta and crusty bread
Store lahanodolmades in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.