Description
Simple slow cooker unstuffed cabbage rolls recipe with ground meat, tender cabbage, and cauliflower rice. Comfort food that cooks itself while you’re at work!
Ingredients
For the Base:
- 1 lb ground meat (beef, turkey, chicken, pork, or sausage)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 head cabbage, chopped (about 4 cups)
- ½ cup diced onion
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
For the Sauce & Seasoning:
- 28 oz diced or crushed tomatoes
- ½ cup low-sodium beef broth
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
The Secret Ingredient:
- 1½ cups cauliflower rice
Instructions
Put your frying pan on medium-high heat and add the oil. When it’s hot, add the ground meat. Break it up with your spoon while it cooks. Takes maybe five minutes until it’s not pink anymore.
I used to skip this step and just put raw meat in the slow cooker. Big mistake. The texture was weird and it didn’t taste nearly as good. Browning it first takes five extra minutes but makes a huge difference in the final dish.
Drain off the grease when you’re done. I just tip the pan and spoon out most of the fat. You don’t have to get every drop, but too much grease makes the whole thing oily.
Put that cooked meat in the bottom of your slow cooker. Then add the chopped cabbage – it’s going to look like a lot, but it shrinks down as it cooks. Add the onion, garlic, the whole can of tomatoes with the juice, broth, salt, pepper, paprika, and parsley.
Stir it around so everything’s mixed up. Don’t stress about getting it perfect – the slow cooking will blend everything together anyway. The cabbage will be piled up high at first, but that’s normal.
Set your slow cooker to low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. I usually do low because I can start it before work and it’s ready when I get home. High works if you’re starting it later in the day.
Your house will start smelling good after about two hours. My dog starts following me around the kitchen because he knows something good is happening. Don’t lift the lid to check on it – that lets heat out and messes with the cooking time.
Notes
If you’re out of fresh cabbage, those bags of coleslaw mix work okay. Just add them in the last couple hours of cooking because they’re already shredded smaller and cook faster. Not quite as good as fresh cabbage, but it works in a pinch.
Half ground beef and half Italian sausage is really good if you want to get fancy. The sausage already has herbs and spices in it that go great with the paprika. Just brown them together like you would regular ground meat.
Don’t add the cauliflower rice too early. I made this mistake the first three times I tried this recipe. Mushy rice is gross and there’s no fixing it once it’s overdone. Better to add it a little late than too early.
Fresh parsley is way better than dried if you have it. Use about three tablespoons chopped up instead of the dried stuff. Add half when you add everything else, then sprinkle the rest on top when you serve it.
Buy pre-chopped onion if you hate chopping onions. Costs a little more but saves time and tears. When you’re already dealing with a whole head of cabbage, might as well make one thing easier on yourself.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 6-8 hours (slow cooker)
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: American