This is one of my son’s favorite meals.  There is no sauce added to it, so all you taste is the stuffed cabbage and it’s a meal in itself.  You could have mashed potatoes on the side, but it really isn’t necessary.  And since I cook it in a pressure cooker, it’s fork tender.

This is my recipe for Stuffed Cabbage with Bacon:

What you’ll need:

Pressure Cooker                       1 cup water                    1/2# Bacon

1 head of cabbage                    1# ground beef               Precooked rice

1/2 medium onion, diced           1 Rib celery, diced          2 to 3 Eggs

onion & garlic powder               Catsup

There’s a lot of prep work when you make this meal.  The first thing that I do is dice the celery & onions, then put them in a small pot & simmer them until they’re tender.  When they’re done, drain the liquid & set aside.

I precook the rice & set that aside too cool.

Then I prep the cabbage.  Gently peel the leaves from the head, trying not to tear them.  (I know, this part isn’t easy & I usually end up ripping them)  Once the leaves are taken off of the head, I cut off any excess from the center back of the leaf.  It just makes the cabbage more tender.

Once the excess is removed from the cabbage leaves, I par boil them in boiling water for about 5 minutes.  I usually do about 5 leaves at a time.  After the 5 minutes of par boiling the leaves, I remove them & put them in a strainer to drain & cool.

After everything is cooled down enough to handle, I make the filling.

In a large bowl, add the ground meat, drained cooked celery & onions, rice, 2 eggs, onion & garlic powder to taste & catsup.  I don’t measure the rice or the catsup.  I just start with about a cup or two of rice & about 2 tablespoons of catsup.  If I need more, I’ll add it.

You could use a spoon to mix the ingredients, but I do it the old fashioned way & use my hands.  (yes, they’re clean)  If the filling seems a little dry, I’ll add an extra egg.  Mix the ingredients well so that everything is distributed evenly.

Once everything is mixed up, take a cabbage leaf, add a heaping tablespoon full of the filling to the center of the leaf.  Pull the rest of the cabbage leaf up around the filling, encasing the filling with the cabbage leaf.  Place the open side of the cabbage roll down.

Place the cooking rack in the bottom of the pressure cooker, add 1 cup of water & then place the cabbage rolls on the cooking rack.  Add your cabbage rolls, one layer at a time.

After you have all of your cabbage rolls in the pressure cooker, cover them with the raw bacon.

I always have left over cabbage.  Not to let anything go to waste and loving the way a pressure cooker makes everything taste, I wedge the left over cabbage & cook it with the stuffed cabbage.

   

Close the pressure cooker, add the pressure valve & put on high heat.  Once the pressure valve starts to rock, reduce the temperature so that the pressure valve rocks gently & cook for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes, turn off heat, place the pressure cooker in your sink, and cool with cold running water.  Once the pot has cooled (you can hear the pressure drop) you can open the pressure cooker.

Remove the cabbage wedges:

And then remove the Stuffed Cabbage.  These are so tender that they can be cut with a fork.  The bacon is fully cooked, but very tender & the way the ingredients combine is so good.

I really hope you try this recipe.  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Happy Creating everyone!