Sour Cabbage Rolls
Vegan sour cabbage rolls with a sweet-sour filling with rice, walnuts and raisins, the perfect vegan sauerkraut recipe for the holiday season.
Prep Time1 hour hr 20 minutes mins
Cook Time1 hour hr 45 minutes mins
Total Time3 hours hrs 5 minutes mins
Course: Vegan Recipes
Cuisine: Romanian
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 430kcal
- 1,5 kg/ 3.3 lbs whole head of sauerkraut/ fermented cabbage See notes
- 100 g/ 3.5 oz/ ⅔ cup raisins
- 200 g/ 7 oz/ 1 cup short-grain rice
- 1 large onion
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 100 g/ 3.5 oz/ ¾ cup ground walnuts
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste divided
- 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 4 bay leaves
- dried thyme or savory
- dried dill seeds optional
- fine sea salt and pepper
Filling:
In the meantime prepare the filling. Place the raisins in a bowl, cover with warm water, and let soak while you prepare the rest.
Wash and drain the rice.
Chop the onion finely. Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onion for about 2 minutes.
Add the rice and cook stirring often for about 3 minutes until the rice is shiny and all coated in oil. Take off the heat.
Drain and chop the raisins and add them to the rice. Add the ground walnuts, 1 tablespoon of the tomato paste, parsley, salt and pepper to taste.
Rolls:
Drain and rinse the cabbage leaves. Place them on a chopping board, one at a time, and remove the lower part of the leaf, where the stem is very thick. Cut the larger leaves into halves, in the middle where the thick stem is. Discard the thick stem but only in the case of the larger leaves that you split in half. Leave the smaller leaves whole, but trim the thick stem as good as possible so that the leaves will be easy to roll.
Place one leaf on the working surface, place a little filling more or less in the middle of the leaf.
Fold the lower part of the leaf over, then one side of the leaf over the filling, then the other side of the leaf over. Roll the leaf and tuck in the open end of the leaf.
If some of the leaves are too small you can build a roll from two leaves, nicely arranged on top of each other.
Assemble and cook:
Chop the middle of the sauerkraut (the leaves that are too small to fill) and all leftover pieces into fine stripes.
Place about half of the chopped sour cabbage on the bottom of a heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven. Add 2 bay leaves, the thyme or savory, and the dill seeds, if you have them.
Arrange the sauerkraut rolls on top of the chopped cabbage. Add the remaining bay leaves and some more thyme/savory and dill seeds. Top with another layer of chopped cabbage.
In a small pot whisk together the remaining tablespoon of tomato paste and enough hot water to hold the sauerkraut rolls.
Carefully pour the tomato water into the pot. Add more hot water, if you don't have enough from the beginning, the rolls should be almost covered with water.
Cover the pot, bring to a boil, turn the heat down to low and simmer for one hour.
Shortly before the hour is up, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 360 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the lid from the pot and place the uncovered pot into the hot oven. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes until the rolls are nicely colored and really soft inside.
- You can use fresh cabbage as well. Read the blog post for instructions on preparing the fresh cabbage leaves for stuffing.
- If there is too much leftover sauerkraut, you don't have to use it all for this dish. Place it in a plastic container or jar and keep it in the fridge. You can use it to make a soup or a salad, for instance, during the following week.
Serving: 1/4 of the rolls | Calories: 430kcal | Carbohydrates: 59g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 17g | Sodium: 2786mg | Fiber: 15g | Sugar: 25g