- 3 heads cabbage with nice green leaves
- 4 cups cooked rice, cooled
- 3 packs of Costco organic lean ground beef (about 4 pounds)
- 2 large onions
- 1 stalk celery
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. black pepper
- 4 cans condensed tomato soup (add the can of water to the soup first), but Mom said she used tomato juice
Bring a large, wide saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Clean cabbage, cut out the core, and use apple corer to take out more of the core. Add one cabbage at a time and cook until softened, pull leaves off one at a time and drain in colander. We did not cook the cabbage long enough, and would cook for 15 minutes. The inner leaves are actually tougher because they are more fibrous.
Spray bottom of crock pot or roasting pan or roaster with cooking spray. Put some of the tomato soup or tomato juice on the bottom.
Use food processer to chop celery and onions until fine.
Mix well ground beef, rice, chopped onion and celery, eggs, salt, and pepper. Had the idea of adding a can of the tomato soup to the meat to make it moister, since I use lean meat.
Take a cabbage leave and shave off part of the tough white center stalk. Put beef mixture into the bottom of the cabbage leaves and roll like a burrito. Place in pan with rolled side down.
Place leftover cabbage and a couple of celery sticks on top and pour the rest of the liquid on top.
Note: The amount time to cook them is what we do not know. We cooked for two hours in a 350 oven and it was not enough time as the cabbage was still tough. Some people cook in slow cooker all day. Continue to add water if needed and baste when you check on them if cooking in the oven.