Grandma's Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage, Slow Cooker Variation

Good old fashioned recipe which we usually baked in the oven. I was happily surprised how it came out in the crock pot. The only thing I did different was not use tomato juice. I mixed some canned tomato sauce with a carton of chicken broth. Next time, I will season it up a little more to suit our tastes, maybe use spicy italian sausage instead of mild, but as written, this is very good. We liked it! To the reviewer named punkin...the rice is wet because it was rinsed...not cooked. Also, I did not use the water from the cooked cabbage. I personally don't think it would add any significant flavor but if you need more liquid in the pot, it's right there.

To confused Punkin: wet refers to rinsed rice. Depends if you get whole long rice or cheaper version. Also big factor, many methods, times, ways to cook cabbage rolls. Stove top, shorter cook time needs longer time to soften rice. Ground pork (not Bob Evans type breakfast, spiced sausage) should be used. Don’t form very tight meatballs, to let rice expand. Paprika, 1 to 2 T. Mix in filling. Put bigger leaves on bottom of pot. No need at all to save cabbage water. If your V8 and tomatoes WITH juice don’t just cover rolls, add a little water to pot. Bring to just boil and then let simmer about two hours.

I'm confused. Can someone help?? The recipe ingredients call for uncooked rice but the instructions say 'stir in wet rice'.... What is the reserved water from the cabbage used for?? Is it to cook the rice partially?? I'm sure this will be delicious.....

Excellent recipe. My changes included skipping the rice, season meat with rosemary and thyme, salt, pepper and garlic. Put in slow cooker or electric frypan, put small red potatoes around rollups, cover with home canned stewed tomatoes or diced tomatoes. Add 1/2 jalapeño if you want a little heat. Your guests will be begging for more!

This is pretty much how we always made cabbage rolls and my family. The only addition would be, I put canned petite diced tomatoes in with the meat and rice mixture. And I always use Sacramento Tomato Juice if you can find it. I pour it over the cabbage rolls before I bake them. It just adds a special flavor. Some brands of tomato juice and vegetable juice are too sweet for my taste. I really like the flavor you get from the Sacramento brand tomato juice. I make a big batch and freeze the leftovers.

This is very good. I always add a teaspoon full of Allspice to my sauce. Its very subtle, and delicious. People taste and say "What is the mystery flavor? We love it!"

We loved it. I've been looking this taste from my childhood for a long time - for those who complained it was bland - this is exactly the way it's suppsed to taste. I will be making this again but in a bigger batch. I used a 12oz can of tomatoe sauce and 12oz can of beef broth, with cooked rice as well. Perfect

Just delicious. Not one complaint...

Similar to the cabbage rolls my mom and grandma made. We would add sauerkraut too. Cooking it in the crockpot

My husband and I loved it. I did make changes to the ingredients. I used tomato soup instead and added rosemary, thyme and Basil and Romano Cheese to top it off.. This was a very good dish. I will be making this dish again.

Just like my Czech Grandma use to make! They only thing I changed is that I used V8 juice instead of just tomato juice. They turned out awesome!

Even after adding some extra spices, it came out bland, and after 7 hours of cooking the rice was still crunchy.

Yes I make them all the time I always make my cabbage rolls with som ground cayenne red pepper to make them little spicy

Really great recipes with simple instructions.

You have to make sure you have a big enough pot to boil the cabbage or it gets hard to use the leaves.

I made this and it was great, just wish I had of used a larger cabbage

Loved it. It reminded me of something that my grandmother used to make

Not happy with this recipe. Bland.

Made this according to the recipe. I only added two things, pepperoni about 10 or 12 slices. I put slices of pepperoni between the rolls. Then I added about a half teaspoon of Tony Chacheres OriginaI Creole seasoning. The flavor was subtle but really kicked it up a notch. Will be doing this again for sure.

With a little guidance from my mom and this recipe, it was good. It reminded of my Granny's meals at her home. I didn't use sausage in the meat and rice mixture, but did add Polska kielbasa because that's what my family did. I enjoyed this meal, and it was not that difficult to make. Thank you for the recipe.

It needed spices.....I added some allspice (actually 7 spice Arabic), some garlic, onion, paprika, red pepper flakes and some mint. It was fantastic but I am afraid without doing that it would be so bland.....season with salt and pepper. I also used V-8 juice

This makes A LOT of food. So it does make the effort worth it as you get two meals out of it. We put half way in the freezer for another night, which is always nice to have on hand.

This is the best cabbage roll recipe I have come across. With that being said I love the ease of prepping this recipe as well as how these cabbage rolls held there shape. I did add a few herbs and spices to the meat mixture such as Italian seasoning, garlic powder, oregano and marjoram

Hubby loved them!

Followed the recipe, needed more flavor for us. But was nice to have dinner done after a long day of work.

Good, but next time I would make the meat more floofy by adding soda water

What a wonderful meal! I ended up with about 15 cabbage rolls. Since I had more beef broth than tomato juice, I mixed a can of tomato past with a of quart of beef broth, to save the tomato juice (due to stay home orders). I overlooked adding the water from cooking the cabbage, which I won't do again. I baked these in my cast iron Dutch oven at 350 degrees. They would have been ready at two hours, but I was on an electronic meeting, so left them in the oven for 3 hours. This is why the extra liquid would have been handy. Still, nothing was burned and the cabbage rolls were amazing.

Instead of tomato juice or ANY tomato anything I submitted Beef Onion soup. Dry but made the soup with water and poured over cabbage rolls-I also baked covered with foil and uncovered the last 30 min. Just a little variation from traditional tomato sauce/juice.

i am a very beginner cook and made these stuffed cabbages exactly as directed. They were yummy, however, my rice was still a little crunchy. Should I cook them longer in the slow cooker? Also, can you confirm that I was to use ground pork sausage (which I did, you know, the Jimmy Dean breakfast kind)? I'm cooking them for another hour in hopes the rice will soften and fluff inside the meat mixture. Any input would be so appreciated! About how many rolls was I to make? The recipe did not indicate. Thanks!

COOK THE RICE FIRST! (At least partially). I was suspicious of the uncooked rice in this recipe, but gave it a try thinking the long cook time would compensate. It didn't. After 7.5 hours in the slow cooker, the rice was still hard. I just cranked the cooker to high for a few more hours. I guess it'll be supper instead of lunch.

I added Pepper, Tomato sauce, Diced tomato and omitted vegetable/tomato juice.

these were awesome!!

I made this recipe it is extremely taste. I would like this recipe

Great recipe, just like my mom used to make.

I found this to be bland and relied upon using a flavorful pork sausage to bring this to life. I even used v8 instead of just tomato juice. It needs a big help of salt pepper and something else. Good starting point but as written it is simply a fills your stomach kinda meal.

This dish was very disappointing. I had been looking for good cabbage rolls to remind me of my childhood and this wasn't it. The dish was extremely bland. I didn't have any trouble with the cooking time or steaming the cabbage, but the dish itself had no flavor. Also, I'm left with tons of extra meat mixture that I will now need to doctor up to put into another dish. I would not recommend this at all.

Thank you for this recipe. This was really good. I followed the recipe quite closely. I was afraid the rice wouldn't cook, but it did. I had enough filling for two cabbages, so you might want to cut down on the filling by 30% or more. I used V8 juice. Reminds me of the Russian food I love. A little topping of sour cream would be awesome. True comfort food. I would give it 4.5 stars.

nice recipe! I use tomato soup diluted with some V8 instead of tomato juice. also put a little sauerkraut in there. I've never had a problem with the rice cooking. Thanks for sharing! also quick tip for the cabbage leaves. put the cabbage in the freezer for a few hours or overnight then microwave for several seconds. No burnt hands and the Cabbage leaves are just as pliable as boiled ones.

Wow!!! I actually made this and it was sooooo great!!! I could sit and eat it all!! Lol!! My Husband said he can’t wait for me to make it again!!!

Made a change by adding beef and chopped red onion. Definite keeper. Would make this home made Russian dish many times again. Delicious and so healthy.

My family loved this recipe... It was easier than I thought to make as well.. A keeper!

It was pretty good, added ground smoked ham to the mix,the rice, I cooked it in a pot until the water was gone before I mixed de it.Also added smoked sausage and sauerkraut in between each layer, didn’t add tomato juice at all…