Sausage Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

As I have stated previously, I adore stuffing things and eating them. When you can get your entire food nutritional requirements into one dish, what’s not to like? These rolls have your vegetable group, your protein group and your grain group, and it’s all in one tasty bite. When I first started cooking, I’m sure I would have found these rolls somewhat intimidating, but rest assured that while there are a couple steps, the whole process is performed with relative ease and you can do the steps at your leisure throughout the day. You can even steam the cabbage leaves a day ahead, and you can prepare the rolls up to the final stage before cooking and refrigerate them all day if you want to make them ahead. The only thing you need is a vegetable steamer to go inside a large pot. I make my own sausage meat for this recipe, but if you don’t have the ingredients, feel free to substitute one pound of hot or sweet Italian sausage, removed from its casing and crumbled.

For the Sausage

½ lb ground pork
½ lb ground beef
½ tsp garlic salt
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp cumin
1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed with a rolling pin
¼ tsp kosher salt
Combine all ingredients together and mix well. Refrigerate one hour

Sausage Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

1 ½ cups of water
½ cup of pearl barley, rinsed
½ tsp kosher salt
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced carrot
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ tsp chopped fresh or dried sage (otional)
½ tsp kosher salt
1 lb sausage of choice
12 large Savoy cabbage leaves





Combine water, salt and barley and simmer for 40-50 minutes, until cooked through and water is absorbed. Set aside.
In a large pot, bring I inch of water to boil and set vegetable steamer inside. Place cabbage leaves inside, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Rinse leaves under cold water and place on paper towels to dry slightly. Leave water and steamer in pan and keep water simmering.
Heat olive oil in large pan over high medium-heat. Add onion, celery and carrot and cook 5 -7 minutes or lightly browned. Add garlic and sage and cook additional 30 seconds. Season with ½ tsp kosher salt. Add barley to vegetable mix and add in sausage. Mix well to combine. Working with one leaf at a time, place about ½ cup of sausage mixture into center of leaf, then fold in the sides and roll fairly tightly up. Place seam side down onto vegetable steamer and repeat steps until all the leaves have been rolled and stacked into the steamer. There may be leftover sausage mix, think yummy breakfast. Bring water back to a boil, cover and steam for 30 minutes. Check to make sure there is still water in the pan halfway through and add water as needed. Remove from pan (carefully!) and serve. Makes 4-6 servings.