This dish is cooked in our country since the times of tsars and Kyiv Rus.

It’s delicious and mainly healthy, because the dish is steamed, not fried.

The recipe is quite simple but takes some time.

For this dish you will need:

1 cabbage (preferably with young, tender leaves)

½ pound of pork

½ pound of beef

½ cup of rice

1 carrot

2 onions (white)

1 egg

2 tablespoons of sour cream

Salt, ground pepper

At first let’s prepare the cabbage:

Take away the leaves off the top of the cabbage. (As they may be not presentable)

Not start cutting carefully the leaves off the cabbage. These leaves you will use for your rolls.

(Cut as many leaves as you want rolls, for the amount of stuffing I listed it will be about 10-15 rolls).

Wash the cabbage leaves.  At the medium heat set a 3-4 quart pan half full of water; wait until the water starts to boil. As soon as the water starts to boil add the cabbage leaves and steam them for 3-5 min.

Meanwhile take the ½ cup of rice, wash it and set to cook for 10-15 minutes.

As soon as your cabbage leaves are cooked, drain the water and let the leaves cool off

Let’s prepare the stuffing now:

Peel the carrot and onions. Finely chop the onion and shred the carrot.

Mix beef and pork, add an egg, carrot and half of the cut onions, add salt and pepper.

(You can use only beef for this recipe or only pork, or even minced chicken meat it will be still delicious)

If your rice is half cooked by this time, drain it and wash it with cold water. (The rice shouldn’t be 100% cooked, because it will get too soft in your stuffing then).

When the rice cooled off add it to your stuffing and mix well.

Now take your cabbage leaves.

***** Tip from Helen**** See the thick stems in the middle of the cabbage leaf? Cut them away like cutting triangle in the middle of the leaf, thus the cabbage leaf will stay intact and you will take away the thickest part of the stem. Sometimes I just cut the leaf in halves and take away the stem and make two rolls out of one leaf. You choose! ****

Now take your stuffing and roll it into your cabbage leaves.

Put the ready rolls in a saucepan (3-4 quart) and when you finished making your rolls add 1 cup of water into your saucepan (carefully) and set it on medium gas for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile we can cook the sauce:

Put the frying pan on medium heat; add the cooking oil and the rest of an onion. Fry until golden brown. Add 2 tablespoons of sour cream, salt, pepper and braise for 2-3 minutes.

Carefully add the sour cream sauce into your rolls, after they’ve been cooking for 10 min, and let them boil for another 15 minutes. (Set the gas on minimum).

When the rolls are cooked you may add the herbs (dill or parsley), as you wish!

Enjoy!

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