How to Make Polish Golumpki

Name: Polish Golumpki
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients: 1 medium-large cabbage; 1/2 cup white basmati rice; 1 pound ground beef; 1/2 cup raisins; 1 egg; 1 teaspoon paprika; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 4 cloves garlic, 2 minced, 2 peeled and left whole; 2 teaspoons kosher salt; 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg; 4 cups crushed tomatoes; 1/4 cup pomegranate molasses; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley (optional)

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Thanks to a simple shortcut and a unique ingredient, this Polish Golumpki recipe will be your new favorite way to cook stuffed cabbage.

cooked cabbage rolls and sauce in a baking dish

This winter, my wife and I joined a CSA from a local farm. A CSA is a subscription with a farm where you pay in advance and receive a regular schedule of seasonal goods. You essentially buy a share of their season's produce.

Jump to:

🥬 What is Golumpki?
🐄 Ingredients
🍚 Substitutions and Variations
🔪 Instructions
🧾 Polish Golumpki FAQ
🥄 Tips
🥡 Storage
🍹 Pairing
📖 Recipe
Related
💬 Comments

If you're familiar with CSAs, you may have thought they only existed in summer, when local farms have the most to offer. Yet, for home gardeners, a winter CSA actually makes the most sense. We often don't need much produce in summer, but winter is another story. It's when we have nothing fresh from our garden to enjoy, aside from what we canned or froze.

One item we're regularly getting right now is cabbage. Cabbage is a dense, crunchy vegetable that's great for stews and other heavier winter dishes. It seems to last forever, too, which is why it makes sense in a winter CSA and why I have a stockpile in my fridge.

Cabbage is also a great vegetable for fall and winter side dishes. I often braise cabbage, either red or green, with garlic, cider, and a splash of vinegar.

If you're looking for more cabbage recipes, check out:

a baking dish with golumpki covered in sauce

🥬 What is Golumpki?

Of course, cabbage has many uses, and one of the best is for making stuffed cabbage. Stuffed cabbage is a simple comfort food found in cultures throughout the world, though it's believed to have originated in Poland. That's why is often referred to by the Polish names of Golumpki, Galumpki, or Golabki.

The general idea is that softened cabbage leaves are wrapped around a ground meat filling that includes rice or another grain. The dish may also be made vegetarian by using cooked lentils in place of the ground meat. The seasonings vary based on the recipe's origin, and the sauce, usually tomato-based, may be sweet, savory, or, like the one in my recipe here, a little sweet and sour.

Though a simple dish, it seems the variations on Golumpki are endless. You'll find the dish not just in Polish cooking, but also Jewish, Italian, Bulgarian, Greek, Croatian, Czech, and Hungarian. While the ingredients may vary, everyone agrees on the satisfying nature of the dish in winter cooking.

🐄 Ingredients

Here's everyhing you need to make this stuffed cabbage recipe:

Key Ingredients

A large head of green cabbage - A large head provides larger leaves for filling and rolling, which makes the process easier.
Basmati rice - for the filling
Ground beef - for the meat filling
Garlic, paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg - for flavoring the sauce and filling
Crushed tomatoes - for the sauce
Raisins - help keep the filling moist
Pomegranate molasses - Adds a hint of tang to the sauce

For quantitites and the full ingredient details, check out the recipe card below.

A note about pomegranate molasses

Pomegranate molasses creates a tangy yet slightly sweetened tomato sauce. It's not your typical flavored sauce, yet it contrasts nicely with the savory nature of the cabbage.

If you're not familiar with pomegranate molasses, it's one of my favorite ingredients for adding flavor wherever you need a vibrant punch. It's great in salad dressings, sauces, and marinades. Despite being called molasses, it's actually not very sweet and instead has a deep richness to it. The best way I can describe it is like a syrupy, fruity balsamic vinegar.

🍚 Substitutions and Variations

Red cabbage - if you have red cabbage instead of green, that works too.
Pomegranate molasses - balasamic vinegar makes a good substitute if this isn't handy.
Ground turkey - any ground meat will work in this recipe, not just beef.
Rice - you can use any rice (or grain) you like. I like basmati because it cooks quickly.

🔪 Instructions

the golumpki filling placed on cabbage leaves

Stuffed cabbage may seem like a tedious dish to make, but once you get the hang of it, it's quick to assemble.

My Polish Golumpki recipe simplifies the process by first steaming a whole head of cabbage in a bowl of water in the microwave. Most recipes require blanching the cabbage in a large pot of boiling water. But by using the microwave, the leaves are tender in half the time and ready to get filled.

While the cabbage steams, you cook up the rice on the stove as you normally would. While that's going, in a bowl, mix the ground beef, rice, egg, raisins, and spices to form the filling. And in another bowl, stir together the crushed tomatoes, pomegranate molasses, and whole garlic cloves to make up your sauce.

After the cabbage has steamed and cooled for a few minutes, you carefully remove the leaves one by one from the head of the cabbage. You just want to be careful not to tear them as you go, as they are delicate.

Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each leaf and then fold up the bottom and the sides over the filling. Then roll.

Hint: Don't overfill the cabbage. I know, I know. I try it too and guess what? The cabbage tears as you try to roll it. (See the pic below.) A tablespoon of filling may not seem like much, but it's about all a single cabbage leaf can accommodate.

Use as many of the leaves as you can. But when you get to the center, they'll likely be too small to fill.

polish golumpki placed in the baking dish with sauce

Coat the bottom of a baking dish with sauce, place your stuffed cabbages in the dish with the seam side down, then cover with more sauce. Bake for 30 minutes, then stick it under the broiler for a little browning if you feel like it.

Finally, sprinkle some chopped parsley over top and serve with any remaining sauce.

🧾 Polish Golumpki FAQ

Can uncooked cabbage rolls be frozen?

Yes, they can. Prepare the recipe up until the point of baking. Then cover the pan well with layers of plastic wrap and foil. Defrost in the fridge and bake as instructed. Or bake directly from the freezer, adding up to 15 minutes (or more) to the cooking time.

What is the best type of cabbage for cabbage rolls?

I've made cabbage rolls with several types of cabbage and I think they all work. So it's more a matter of personal preference. However, make sure to use cabbage with large leaves so there's plenty of room for stuffing and rolling.

What does Golumpki mean?

It's the Polish word for "pigeon," which is what people liked to say the stuffed cabbages resemble.

🥄 Tips

I'm going to say it again, don't overfill your cabbage leaves. THEY WILL TEAR. Which isn't a deal breaker, just cover them in sauce and no one will really know. If you have leftover filling, you can always cook it in a pan and enjoy it on top of the remaining cabbage leaves that were too small to fill.
If you want to save yourself a little time, steam the cabbage and cook the rice up to 3 days in advance.
Not sure how to cut that core out of the cabbage? Check out this video for a quick demonstration. What you don't want to do is cut the cabbage in half, which is what they will tell you in most other videos when it comes to taking out the core.

🥡 Storage

Leftover golumpki may be stored tightly covered in the fridge for three to four days. Uncooked cabbage rolls may also be stored in the fridge for up to three days before cooking. However, it will ultimately depend on the freshness of your ingredients.