Cabbage Roll Lasagne

Every time I've ever tried to make cabbage rolls, they end up half fallen apart. While still delicious, I couldn't help but feel they were taunting me from the swirling depths of the tomato sauce, and that I was a culinary failure for not being able to replicate such a classic comfort food. I tried keeping the rolls together with toothpicks, or sandwiching them close together so they didn't have the space to dissolve, all to no avail. One day, while browsing Pinterest, I saw a recipe that essentially left the cabbage rolls unassembled, like a casserole. Suddenly, cabbage rolls seemed approachable again. And how can you get more comfort food than casserole?

I took this recipe and adapted it for my own purposes, which included using regular rice, adding a bell pepper since I already had one on hand I needed to use, and layering the meat with cabbage in a similar style to a lasagne. It maintains the essence of a good cabbage roll with the ease of throwing everything in a pan and into the oven. An ideal comfort food, even with a grandma's disapproval. ;)

Cabbage Roll Lasagne
Author: Amanda, adapted from The Primal Food Blog and Joy of Cooking
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 6+

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, deseeded and diced small
• 1/2 cup white rice
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 680mL can plain tomato sauce
• approximately 1/4 head green cabbage, roughly shredded
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
Brown ground beef in a medium sized saucepan on medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Saute until onion soft and translucent, about five minutes. Add rice and beef broth, cover, and allow simmer 20-30 mins on low heat, until rice is cooked. Add tomato sauce, salt and pepper. In a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish, layer cabbage and meat sauce until dish is full. Bake at 350F for 30-45 minutes, and serve.

Step-by-Step Photos

Start off by browning a pound of ground beef in a medium sized saucepan on medium heat. Break up the ground beef into tiny pieces as it cooks.

Add the onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Saute until the onion is soft and translucent, around five minutes.

Add half a cup of rice and a cup of beef broth to the meat mixture, cover, and reduce the heat to low.

While the rice is cooking, prepare the cabbage. I ended up slicing/shredding a full half head of cabbage, and used about half of it for this particular recipe.

Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish and layer cabbage along the bottom.

After 20-30 minutes, the rice should be fully cooked. Stir to ensure most of the excess liquid has been absorbed.

Add the canned tomato sauce, and adjust salt and pepper to taste. I added about 3/4 teaspoons salt.

Layer about half of the meat mixture on top of the cabbage.

Continue layering cabbage and meat mixture until the dish is full.

Bake uncovered at 350F for 30-45 minutes, until the tomato sauce is bubbling and the top begins to brown.

Serve! I love this with a healthy drizzle of sriracha, mmm!