Greek Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Sauce: Lahanodolmades

[Music] another episode of dimitra's dishes today I'm gonna teach you how to make a comfort food that has been requested for I think for the past two years over here I'm gonna teach you how to make cabbage rolls and a tomato sauce just a little while back I taught you how to make the classic Greek cabbage rolls that are made and a Greek lemony sauce and they are absolutely delicious I will link that recipe up above in the card section this one is very similar except is made in a hearty rich tomato sauce it is out-of-this-world good very easy to make fries as well so you can make a double batch and have something ready in the freezer for those busy weeknights let's go over the ingredients that we can start making so in my pan over here I have a small onion that I've chopped up and cooked over medium heat with some olive oil for about five to six minutes or until it was soft and golden we're gonna need some chicken broth you can also use water dried oregano olive oil dill I have dried dill here but if you use fresh dill some rice I have basmati rice because that's what I use all the time you can use regular rice if you want to some fresh parsley I have a pound of ground beef but you could definitely use ground lamb or ground chicken salt three cloves of garlic and the cabbage leaves that have been steamed before we begin making this let's talk about how we're going to prepare the cabbage and then there are two very popular ways to do this one either freezing the cabbage overnight and then throwing it out at room temperature then the leaves just literally peel off and you do not have to cook it that is great and I've tried it the only thing is that takes a lot of planning so you're going to have to bring the cabbage home from the supermarket make sure you remember to freeze it make sure you remember to take it out of the refrigerator the next day and it does take a couple hours for it to thaw and come to room temperature where the leaves just peel off easily that is definitely an option my favorite way to cook it is to boil it so all I do is I fill up a big pot about 3/4 of the way up with water I bring it to a boil so once the water comes to a boil you add a little bit of salt to it and then you take the core out of the cabbage that it's very easy to do that you just with a knife you just slice a little bit diagonally about 45 degrees to the core to the center of the cabbage to release the core easily try to get out as much of the core as you can if you spend a little bit of time carefully doing that in the beginning the leaves will just come off once that's done so once you take the core out carefully place the cabbage into the boiling water and leave it in there cover it make sure try to flip it upside down so that what the core is inside of the water and then the other part of it is facing up cover the pot with the lid and let it cook for about 15 minutes and that time the leaves should start to peel off by themselves take them out one by one carefully and put them in a colander so they could drain a little bit and they can also cool and then they're gonna be ready to boil you don't want to overcook these because like I said they are gonna cook for an hour and a half and you didn't do not want them to be mushy you just want it to be soft enough to handle another way to cook the cabbage that's really popular is to microwave it now I am NOT a fan of microwaving cabbage or any other type of food unless I really have to the only thing I microwave is my tea when I need to rewarm it and every now and then when I'm melting chocolate or butter or something super quick I'll stick something in the microwave for like 15-20 seconds I do not feel good about microwaving something for about 15 minutes but that is an option if you want to do it there's a lot of ways to do it you can go ahead and google it and look it up on the Internet so once the cabbage leaves are all steamed then just go ahead and take out the dark green ones and discard them because those are gonna stay tough no matter how long you cook them so you do not want to roll those or fill those with the filling now let's move on to making the homemade tomato sauce now you can definitely take a shortcut and use canned marinara sauce or jarred marinara marinara sauce if you want but this is so simple and easy just a few ingredients all you need is an onion just finely chop it and cook it into them olive oil until it's nice and golden go ahead and add three cloves of grated garlic in there and just saute it until it's warm through it shouldn't take more than 30 seconds then go ahead and add a 28 can of pureed tomatoes I like to puree my tomatoes in the blender because we all like our sauce to be nice and smooth but if you like it chunky then you can go ahead and skip that step I'm gonna season with a little bit of salt some black pepper a little pinch of crushed red pepper flakes about a teaspoon of sugar or honey to balance that acidity and a little bit of dried oregano once it boils give it a nice mix reduce the heat to a simmer and let it cook for about 10 minutes until it thickens a little bit and all the flavors come together give it a taste at the end and see if it needs a little bit more seasoning if it needs a little bit more sugar sometimes canned tomatoes tend to be a little bit acidic and while the tomato sauce is simmering could go ahead and make the filling my onions are nice and soft and golden I just have them over medium heat so I can add the garlic to it go ahead and add the grated garlic and just warm it through for a couple of seconds maybe 20 30 seconds or so as soon as you smell it it is ready so I'm gonna finely chop some fresh parsley and I'm just gonna add all of the parsley to the ground beef I'm gonna add a tablespoon of dried dill a little bit of dried oregano a little bit of salt some freshly cracked black pepper and in my pan over here I have an onion that I sauteed until golden and I also added three grated garlic cloves to it and the rice and I'm just gonna mix this all up with my hands and that's it the filling is ready lay a few cabbage leaves on your cutting board and then go ahead and cut off the hard stem that bottom part that's tough because that's really not going to cook down to be too soft take about two tablespoons of the meat filling and go ahead and put it on the bottom of the leaf roll the bottom up to cover the filling and tuck the sides in and roll up and set it down seam side down and continue filling all the leaves you can until you run out of filling so this recipe generally makes about 13 cabbage rolls all the leftover leaves that I have over here I'm gonna use to line the bottom of the pan and I'm also gonna top the cabbage rolls afterwards I'll show you what I mean so I have a big Dutch oven pan over here what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna lay all of these extra leaves I'm going to create a bed on the bottom [Music] [Music] now I'm gonna add about two or three little fools of the tomato sauce onto the bed of the cabbage leaves and I'm just gonna put I'm gonna nestle all of these cabbage rolls into my pot place them in there seam side down and if your pot is smaller than this one you can layer them you can definitely layer them on top of each other I'm gonna pour all of the sauce on top of them and then I'm going to place all of these other leaves that I have these leftover leaves on top of that I'm gonna put two plates on top of that I'm going to invert them to weigh them down so that with the cabbage rolls do not open while they're cooking I'm gonna pour about three cups of chicken broth into the pot place the pot on the stove top and bring it to a boil now you don't have to do this if you don't want to do this in the pot or in a Dutch oven you can go ahead and do it in a baking tray because these are gonna bake in the oven I prefer to do it in the pot because I like to give it a little quick start and bring it to a boil over the stovetop and I go ahead and I take it off of the heat and make sure that my oven is preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and then I just take the Dutch oven and I place it in the middle rack and I let it bake for an hour and a half at the hour and a half mark I go in and I test the cabbage rolls to see if they're nice and fork tender I just insert a fork in there if it comes out easily then you know that they're nice and cooked if they're not fully cooked and go ahead and bake them for another thirty minutes it's gonna take two hours max but they are going to be so Hardy and delicious I'll show you what they look like as soon as they come out so I went in after an hour and a half and I checked the cabbage rolls and they still weren't ready the fork should go in very easily and come out very easily once you put it in that's how you know they're done you could also take one out and test it but really if the fork doesn't go in and they're not tender they're not done mine took two hours to bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit it all depends on your oven how long they're gonna take but it's around that time about two hours the house smells so good I do have a little pot of vanilla and cinnamon boiling on the stove top just to get rid of a little bit of that cabbage smell it's wonderful if you have not watched that video and how to make your house smell amazing I'm gonna link it up in the card section up above make sure you do check it out I'm gonna go in and take a taste of these delicious rolls the cabbage is so soft and tender and slightly sweet that sauce is just perfect the rice and the meat filling inside is moist and perfectly cooked and delicious I think you guys are definitely gonna love this one you go over and print the recipe on dimitra's dishes calm you can definitely make a batch of this and freeze it so before you bake it put everything in a tray that's freezer safe freeze it wrap it in plastic wrap or put a cover on it if it comes with it and then just take them out and saw them in the refrigerator the day before you're gonna bake them bake them until they're soft and tender and you will have you know a meal ready with very little effort all the work will be done ahead of time so do make a double batch if you can it's totally worth it I do want to say that once they come out of the oven after the two hours of baking it is gonna look like there's too much broth in there but as they sit and they cool they absorb all of the liquid and what you're gonna be left with is just a little bit of broth and all that hearty tomato sauce on top it's gonna be so good I know that many different cultures have versions of this recipe or this dish let me know what you guys call it where you come from in the comments section down below also post any recipe requests I do keep track of them all I have a really long list that I keep plucking recipes out and I keep sharing them with you guys thank you guys so much for spending time with me today I will see you all next time 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Channel: Dimitra's Dishes

Views: 25,440

Keywords: cooking show, lahanodolmades, greek cabbage rolls, cabbage rolls tomato sauce, greek comfort food, dimitras dish, demetrias

Id: Da5A36UNKWk

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 21 2019