Cabbage Roll is ground meat stuffed in cabbage leaves and cooked in seasoned soup. It is one of the most popular western-style Japanese foods of all time, just like Hamburger Steak and Tonkatsu. Cabbage and ground meat are cooked in a mild but flavorful soup until very soft. This tasty and nutritious dish is a favorite dinner item for any age.
The origin of Cabbage Roll is Europe but it came to Japan a long time ago. It became close to today’s Cabbage Roll in Japan in the late 19th century. We have two kinds of Cabbage Roll dishes, one with a tomato flavor soup and one with a clear broth. There is not one that is more Japanese or popular, but it just depends on your preference or how your mother made it. Cabbage Roll is very much home cooking, and it may be hard to find restaurants who serve this dish.
We used store-bought chicken broth to make the soup, but you may use just water with a bouillon cube. That’s actually how many Japanese people make it. If you want a simpler taste, you can leave tomato paste and ketchup out, although we made tomato flavored Cabbage Roll in our video.
The most challenging part of this recipe might be peeling cabbage leaves without tearing. However, you don’t need to worry too much about it since you can just overlap cabbage leaves together and wrap around the meat. Nobody would notice it. Other than that, the steps are quite simple. Since it doesn’t take that long, you can easily make this after coming back from work.
Cabbage Roll is not a typical Japanese dish you may have seen, but it is a beloved food for a long time. If you like other western-style Japanese food, you will love this one too!
Cabbage Roll Recipe
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Ingredients
- 10 leaves of medium cabbage
- 1/2 onion
- 1/2 lb ground beef
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 1/4 tsp salt
- pepper
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
- 2 cup chicken broth
- 1/4-1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1 Tbsp ketchup
- parsley chopped
Instructions
- Remove cabbage leaves carefully, not tearing too much. Microwave cabbage for 2 minutes to make cabbage pliable. Set aside. Chop onion finely.
- Put meat, onion, salt and pepper, egg, and Panko together in a large bowl, and then mix very well. Divide the meat into 10 portions and form each into a rough cylinder. Wrap each meat ball with cabbage tucking the end of the leaf under. Place cabbage wrapped meat in a pan that fits 10 pieces of them.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot, and cook at medium heat covering loosely for 20 minutes or so.
- Serve with chopped parsley.
Video
Elizabeth
March 21, 2017 at 4:31 pmI made this tonight for my husband and we both LOVED it. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe (and the instructions were perfect for someone who is still learning to cook well.)
David
March 27, 2017 at 9:16 amWhat I like to do is make a base mix of meat and use it for cabbage rolls, Hamburg steak and menchi katsu. I can have 3 different meals during the week with pretty much the same ingredients.