Reinvent your cooking with effortless oven-baked cabbage rolls: A recipe you must try

Follow this recipe for oven-baked cabbage rolls and you won't want to make them any other way again. Baking, particularly under a layer of your favorite sauce, is a quick and reliable method to yield juicy and tender cabbage rolls. You must try this recipe.

Prepare the cabbage rolls as you normally would, making sure the filling is securely enclosed within the wrapped leaf. Importantly, the cabbage leaves should be slightly cooked until soft and without a thick stalk. Once prepared, the cabbage rolls can be arranged in the baking dish. It's a good idea to line the bottom of the dish with a few cabbage leaves before doing so. Once the cabbage rolls are in the dish, pour broth over them to ensure they remain moist and flavorful after baking. A great tip is to mix water with pickle juice or sauerkraut juice, which will give the oven-baked cabbage rolls a more pronounced flavor.

The ideal temperature to bake the oven-baked cabbage rolls is 180 - 190 degrees C (356 - 374 degrees F) using a fan oven. Initially, bake the cabbage rolls covered for an hour. After this, uncover, pour over the prepared sauce, and return them to the oven uncovered for another 20-30 minutes, to finish baking with the top heating element.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kilograms of ground pork
• 5 kilograms of white cabbage
• 200 grams of rice
• 2 onions
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup of water/broth/pickling juice from sauerkraut, pickles
• Marjoram
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh parsley
• Oil for frying
• Sauce, e.g. tomato sauce for cabbage rolls

Instructions:

1. Cook the rice in salted water.
2. Wash the cabbage and remove the stalk. Place the prepped cabbage in a pot of boiling salted water and cook on low heat for about 30 minutes. Once cooked, transfer each leaf separately onto a plate using a fork, taking care not to get burned.
3. Dice the onion and sauté until it becomes translucent. Add the minced garlic and stir everything together, continue sautéing.
4. Add the minced pork to the onions and garlic. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and marjoram. Cover and let it simmer until the meat is cooked.
5. Combine the sautéed meat and vegetables with the cooked rice and fresh parsley.
6. Trim off the thick ends of the cabbage leaves. Place a portion of the filling on each leaf and wrap it up neatly.
7. Arrange the prepared cabbage rolls in a heatproof dish that's been greased with olive oil or another vegetable oil and layered with several cabbage leaves.
8. Cover the cabbage rolls with water, broth, or a mixture of water and pickling juice from pickles or sauerkraut. Cover the dish.
9. Bake the cabbage rolls at approximately 356 degrees F for 60 minutes.
10. In the meantime, prepare the sauce for the cabbage rolls, such as the tomato sauce from our recipe.
11. After an hour, remove the cabbage rolls from the oven and pour over the prepared sauce. Return them to the oven and bake for another 20-30 minutes.