How to Prepare Cabbage Leaves for Cabbage Rolls

Name: How to Remove Cabbage Leaves for Cabbage Rolls Without Boiling
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: White cabbage 1 head (about 2 kg); Cold water from the tap

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15 mins

When making cabbage rolls, the most laborious part is probably preparing the cabbage leaves. Ever since early childhood I remember my mom saying you need “soft” cabbage for cabbage rolls, because it comes apart into separate leaves more easily. Nowadays all the cabbage in the shops is hard as granite, and the old methods don’t really work.

For some reason I remember how mom would cut the core out of the head, pour boiling water from the kettle inside the cabbage, and then the cabbage would come apart into separate leaves. So taking a cabbage apart for cabbage rolls was a bit of a problem, to some extent.

There are many similar dishes whose essence is minced meat wrapped in leaves. Widespread in the East, the Balkans and the Caucasus is a dish where minced meat, a rice mixture (and all sorts of other combinations) is wrapped in a grape leaf. The name varies, and the details of the recipe differ. The dish is called dolma, dulma, tolma, sarma, sărma. So that it can be made at any time of year, national cuisines have various ways of preserving grape leaves: salting, freezing, pickling.

Here, since grapes don’t grow well, cabbage rolls are more popular. It is an ancient dish, mentioned as far back as 2,500 years ago in Aristophanes’ comedy “The Acharnians”, where a character asks: “Bring me pork in cabbage leaves”.

Cabbage rolls with pork and rice filling in tomato gravy with sour cream. This is straight from childhood. I remember that at home they always tried to make very small cabbage rolls. For some reason big cabbage rolls were considered wrong. But I always loved huge ones, filling the whole plate.

There is an explanation for my love of huge cabbage rolls, though: I was always too lazy to roll small cabbage rolls, there are simply always so many of them. But over time I started making my cabbage rolls medium-sized, even smallish. No wider than a palm. If a cabbage leaf is too big, you can cut it in two, but then it’s a bit harder to shape neat-looking cabbage rolls.

Cabbage in general is a very interesting vegetable. No one will argue that cabbage is low in calories and hugely good for you. In villages, cabbage is fermented in huge barrels; I’ve done it myself. At home we keep it simple and ferment cabbage in jars.

Cabbage keeps perfectly in a cellar all winter. So getting hold of such an in-demand ingredient for cabbage rolls as the cabbage leaf is no longer a problem.

How do you remove cabbage leaves? Quickly and without fuss. Cabbage for cabbage rolls is easy! All you need is to put the head under running water.

Ingredients

plenty of cabbage leaves

White cabbage 1 head (about 2 kg)
Cold water from the tap

Step-by-step recipe

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Removing the leaves without boiling

Believe it or not, today I dreamed of homemade cabbage rolls… After waking up, I made the filling very quickly: boiled half a cup of rice (90 g) and made the minced meat. For a while I just stood there, actively too lazy to take the cabbage apart. How do you remove cabbage leaves quickly and without fuss when the cabbage is quite hard?

You’ll laugh, but it’s really simple. I removed 10 outer leaves from a 2 kg cabbage in 2 minutes. No heating, boiling or other extremely tedious procedures. And the leaves were not only undamaged, they weren’t even scratched.

Have ready a knife, the head of cabbage and 1-2 large dinner plates, as the cabbage leaves will be wet.
The leaves come off perfectly if they are not crinkled like in the very middle of the head, where the leaves are uneven and intertwined. So only the outer leaves are worth removing.

Look carefully at the head of cabbage. A simple test of observation: work out on which side of the core the outermost leaf grows.
Cut this leaf away from the core with a knife. Cut it off completely, so that the leaf isn’t attached to the core by even a single fiber. This is important!
Put the head of cabbage in the kitchen sink and turn on the cold water. The stream should be medium, so the water doesn’t splash all over the kitchen.
Hold the head under the stream so the water falls on the cut, and lift the stem of the leaf slightly with your finger so the water runs under the leaf.
Gently rock the stem with your fingers and gently press from the core along the head to separate the leaf from the cabbage.
Water getting under the outer leaf acts as a lubricant. Don’t force it. The leaf comes off very easily; the only important thing is that the stream of water gets under the leaf.
Just 2-3 seconds and the cabbage leaf peels away. Absolutely no damage or cracks. Repeat until you have enough leaves.

Softening the leaves

But raw cabbage leaves are very brittle, and wrapping filling in them is quite tricky. Usually cabbage leaves are boiled: you boil water, pour it over from the kettle, or cook them in a pot. That process makes me miserable.

Take an ordinary plastic bag and put the removed fresh cabbage leaves into it. Tie the bag, but not airtight: leave a very small opening.
Put the bag of cabbage leaves in the microwave and heat on full power for 1-3 minutes.
The cabbage leaves turn soft very quickly. Start with 1 min, then check how soft they are and add 30-60 sec at a time.
Cool the cabbage leaves under cold running water.
Use a sharp knife to trim off the protruding part of each leaf’s stem.

Rolling the cabbage rolls

Place the filling on the prepared cabbage leaves and roll up the cabbage rolls.
Cook the rolled cabbage rolls any way you know and like.
The rest of the head can be used to make bigos. And note: the remaining head hasn’t been heat-treated, so it will keep in the fridge for quite a long time.

Calories and macros

25 kcal

100 g

Protein1.3 g27% of kcal
Fat0.1 g5% of kcal
Carbs3.3 g68% of kcal

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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To Get It Right

Which cabbage to choose

For cabbage rolls you need a firm white cabbage with smooth outer leaves. Only those come off: the middle of the head is crinkled, and the leaves there break. But a good head gives plenty of smooth leaves.

If a leaf cracks

A cabbage leaf for cabbage rolls cracks for two reasons:

you’re forcing it, and the water isn’t running under the leaf;
the cabbage is crinkled: such leaves crack whatever method you use.

What to do with the rest of the head

We no longer chop cabbage for borscht or salad: we take as many leaves as we need from the same head as for the cabbage rolls. Roll four leaves into a tube and shred them with a chef’s knife: fresh and springy, they actually crunch. The middle of the head goes into bigos.

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Questions and answers

How long do you boil cabbage for cabbage rolls?

With this method there’s no need to boil it: the removed leaves are heated in a bag in the microwave for 1–3 minutes. If you boil individual leaves the old way, 1–2 minutes in boiling water is enough, until the leaf is pliable.

How do you cut cabbage for cabbage rolls?

There’s no need to cut the whole head: you cut only the outer leaf away from the core, completely, down to the last fiber, and remove it under running water. A leaf that’s too big can be cut in half, but it’s harder to roll a neat cabbage roll from a half.

How do you prepare cabbage for cabbage rolls without a microwave?

Remove the leaves under cold water the same way, and soften them the old way: pour boiling water from the kettle over them or dip them in a pot of boiling water, then cool under cold water.

Do you need to cut out the core of the cabbage for cabbage rolls?

No. The core used to be cut out and boiling water poured inside the head so it would fall apart into leaves. Here each leaf is cut off at the base, and the head stays whole and raw, so you can keep storing it in the fridge.

Can you prepare cabbage for cabbage rolls this way for winter?

This method is for a fresh head right before cooking. The head itself keeps well in a cellar all winter, so you can remove fresh leaves at any time. Fermented leaves are a separate preserve; see how we ferment cabbage in jars in the sauerkraut recipe.

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