One of the things my mother-in-law cooked well was Golumpkis or known to most, cabbage rolls. It was her go-to for most family celebrations and is still favored by her children today. They are not hard to make but can be time-consuming for a weeknight dinner, so I took the ingredients we love when we have Golumpkis and transformed them into a stew. With a bit of chopping and a little stirring, you can have the same flavors in a bowl on your dinner table in about an hour.
Golumpki (Cabbage Roll) Stew
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil, I used olive oil
- 1 ½ pounds lean ground beef, I used 95% lean
- Salt and pepper
- 2 yellow onions, chopped
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 3 large carrots, chopped
- 3 stalks celery, sliced
- ½ pound small potatoes, cubed
- 5 cups rough-cut cabbage
- 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 4 cups beef broth
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 ½ teaspoon dried paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 cup brown rice
Instructions
- Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a Dutch oven. Add ground beef, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring and breaking up meat until it is no longer pink. Remove from pot.
- Add remaining teaspoon of oil to Dutch oven. Add onions, carrots, and celery. Cook until onions soften. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.
- Add potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, broth, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, oregano, thyme, and reserved cooked ground beef to pot.
- Bring the pot to a light boil and stir in brown rice. Cover the pot with a lid and reduce heat. Simmer until rice is cooked through and veggies are soft, about 40 minutes.
- If the stew seems too thick, feel free to use a bit of water of beef broth to bring it to a consistency of your liking. Serve, eat, enjoy!
“A home cook who relies too much on a recipe is sort of like a pilot who reads the plane’s instruction manual while flying.”
Alton Brown