Vegan Cabbage Rolls Recipe
Ginny McMeans
Published:
April 14, 2018
Last Modified:
May 9, 2024
Vegan Cabbage Rolls Recipe is a special comfort food. Steamed cabbage becomes the perfect holder for a flavorful mushroom, lentils, and rice mix. It can be made ahead, too.
Let’s Talk Cabbage Rolls
Stuffed Cabbage rolls are such a great comfort food. They are made in all corners of the world and are stuffed with the region’s best vegetables, grains, and spices.
You may even have a family recipe from your ancestry line.
I’ve forgone a nationality for these cabbage rolls and just call them vegan. They’re not exactly Irish, Slovak, Russian, or Greek, so they are just good ol’ vegan.
One way or the other, they are delicious.
I’ve wanted to put this recipe on the blog for a long time. Stuffed cabbage rolls and stuffed grape leaves, to tell you the truth.
The stuffed grape leaves recipe is very Slovakian, and that will make its way onto these pages very, very soon.
You can make it all at once or break it down into two or even three days. Your choice.
Sometimes, I like to dive in and spend 30 minutes making up the stuffing and then complete it all at the same time.
What are Some Steps in Making an Easy Vegan Cabbage Rolls Recipe
You can pre-make many parts of the recipe and set them aside for the final rolling, or start at the beginning and go all the way through.
Cook the lentils.
Cook the rice.
While these are cooking, make the red sauce.
Sauté the mushroom, onion, and spice mixture.
As you can see, you have four separate steps here, and the prepared ingredients can all be placed in the fridge at this point and then combined for stuffing later.
When you get to cooking, the recipe card below will give you the exact recipe and instructions.
Cabbage Rolls are tough to freeze as there is so much liquid in cabbage leaves. It can be done, though.
You have to first place the cooled rolls in the refrigerator to get them cooler that way. Overnight is best.
Now, move them to the freezer to freeze completely. Make sure they are in a freezer-safe container and sealed tight.
TO DEFROST:
This also has to be done slowly. Take them out of the freezer and let them defrost for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator.
If there seems to be too much liquid in the bottom of the container, drain that off.
To bake, cover with the casserole lid or foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Make sure they are heated through.
Vegan Cabbage Rolls Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 head green cabbage
- 1 cup lentils, cooked
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup rice, cooked
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms or portabella mushrooms, chopped
- 1 cup white onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- dash ground black pepper
Red Sauce
- 15 ounces roasted tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- dash ground black pepper
Instructions
To Cook the Cabbage
- Fill a large stock pot with water to cover the cabbage. Do not add the cabbage yet. Cover and bring to a boil.
- Add the head of cabbage, turn down heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. The cabbage tries to float so bob it down and turn it a couple of times while cooking.
- When done life out of the water with a large slotted spoon. Set aside and start to carefully peel off the cabbage leaves. Cutting the attached end from the core. The outer one or two leaves might tear. Pull off 5 big perfect leaves. There will be some cabbage left over. Set aside and let cool for using in another recipe such as cabbage soup. Recipe link is below in the notes.
The Stuffing
- Cook lentils in vegetable broth. set aside.
- Cook rice and set aside.
- Add a couple of tablespoons water to a large skillet. Heat and add the chopped mushrooms. Cook for 10 minutes.
- Add the diced onion and cook 10 more minutes.
- Add paprika, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix and heat through.
- Add the cooked lentils and rice. Mix well and heat through. Set aside.
Make the Sauce
- To a large saucepan add all of the sauce ingredients. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat to simmer and simmer for 15 minutes.
Stuff the Leaves
- Spoon some sauce into the bottom of the casserole dish. I used about a 7″ wide x 10″ long casserole dish.
- Lay a cabbage leave out and you will see how it naturally curves up. Place soe of the filling at the base of the leaf. Roll one round and then tuck in the sides and continue rolling. Place in the casserole dish. Continue until all the rolls are done.
- Pour the remaining red sauce down the center of the rolls.
- Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
