How to remove leaves from cabbage for cabbage rolls. How to make cabbage soft for cabbage rolls. How to make cabbage leaves for cabbage rolls soft

Most housewives believe that the most difficult thing in preparing cabbage rolls is preparing the cabbage leaves for subsequent filling with minced meat. Regardless of the chosen method, the process is equally lengthy and labor-intensive, and besides, there is always a risk of being scalded by boiling water. But you can also make the leaves for cabbage rolls soft in the microwave, which is much faster and safer than in a saucepan. How to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls in the microwave in different ways, we will tell you in our article. Here we will present a recipe for delicious homemade cabbage rolls.

How to choose cabbage for cabbage rolls

Helps make the labor-intensive process of separating cabbage leaves easier right choice head of cabbage It is recommended to pay attention to the following:

  • To prepare cabbage rolls, choose large heads of cabbage that are slightly flattened on top. Usually the leaves on them are thin, even and can be separated quite well even without scalding.
  • There should be no damage or holes on the leaves, otherwise the minced meat will fall out of them.
  • Don't forget to cut off or use a kitchen hammer to beat off the dense part of the leaf at the base of the head of cabbage.

Before we tell you how to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls in the microwave, let’s consider traditional way leaf separation. It involves scalding a head of cabbage in a pan of boiling water.

How to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls in a saucepan

Traditionally, cabbage for stuffed cabbage rolls is boiled in a large saucepan. The dimensions of the container must match the selected head of cabbage so that it fits easily into the pan. Let us remind you how to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls without a microwave, and in what order:

  1. Pour at least two liters of water into a four-liter saucepan and bring it to a boil.
  2. From cabbage weighing about 1.5 kg, remove the top and damaged leaves and, if desired, cut out the stalk.
  3. Place the cabbage in boiling water, let it boil and immediately remove the cabbage from the pan onto a plate.
  4. Allow the head of cabbage to cool slightly, then unroll the top leaves a little and, turning the head of cabbage over onto the stalk, cut them off at the base.
  5. After the first scalding, it is possible to remove 3-4 cabbage leaves, after which the head of cabbage is again lowered into a pan of boiling water and all actions are performed in a similar sequence until the required number of leaves can be removed.

How to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls in the microwave: photos and step-by-step instructions

The tedious task of sorting cabbage leaves to prepare cabbage rolls is greatly simplified by the microwave. In this case, the preparation takes several times less time and effort.

How to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls in the microwave and in what order:

  1. Prepare the head of cabbage: remove the top and damaged leaves.
  2. Prepare a five-liter saucepan with cold water, filled to half the capacity of the container.
  3. Place the cabbage on the stalk in the microwave.
  4. Set the power to the highest level and operate the microwave for 10 minutes.
  5. After the specified time, remove the head of cabbage from microwave oven and immerse in cold water. The top leaves will immediately begin to separate from the cabbage. They will need to be unfolded a little more with your hands and cut off at the base of the head of cabbage. Similarly, you will need to remove all other flexible and elastic leaves. If they are hard, the head of cabbage will need to be microwaved for another 3 minutes, and then continue disassembling the cabbage again.

After disassembling the head of cabbage, you will need to cut off the hard part at the base with a knife or cut it out completely.

How to cook cabbage leaves in the microwave

This method of cutting a head of cabbage is more suitable for young cabbage with tender leaves, which do not need to be cooked at all, since they are already quite elastic. If you are just looking for a way how Cooking cabbage for cabbage rolls in the microwave is delicious, the proposed option will suit you perfectly.

To begin with, the head of cabbage is cut into leaves, very carefully so as not to damage them. Otherwise, the minced meat will leak through the holes. Each leaf is moistened with a small amount of water and placed in a glass plate or bowl. Then the plate with the stacked leaves is microwaved for 2 minutes at high power. After the specified time, they are taken out, cooled and used to prepare cabbage rolls.

How to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls in the microwave in a bag

There is another way to cook cabbage in the microwave. Moreover, it is also considered the fastest, since the leaves will become soft and elastic in just 4 minutes.

How to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls in the microwave quickly using a bag:

  1. Prepare a bag or sleeve for baking.
  2. Place a head of cabbage in it. Wrap or tie the bag and poke small holes in it.
  3. Set the microwave power to the highest setting and cook time for 4 minutes.
  4. After the specified time, remove the head of cabbage from the microwave and place it under a stream of cold running water.
  5. Unfold the top leaves and cut them from the stalk at the base.

If the leaves do not seem elastic and flexible enough, you can stack them in a bag, tie it and put it in the microwave again for 2 minutes.

Recipe for delicious cabbage rolls

To prepare cabbage rolls, you can use the following recipe. All you need is a head of cabbage, about 700 g of minced meat, some cold boiled rice, salt and spices, as well as onions, carrots and tomato paste for frying.

First you need to decide how to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls in the microwave. The recipe involves using the first method, in which a whole head of cabbage is sent to the microwave at once, and then it is cut into leaves. Then the hard veins on each leaf are removed, a tablespoon of the filling (minced meat with rice) is placed in the center of the leaf, after which it is folded into an envelope. The prepared cabbage rolls are placed in a pan, filled with fried onions, carrots and tomatoes, and water so that it covers them completely. Stuffed cabbage rolls are cooked over low heat for about 1 hour after boiling.

Stuffed cabbage rolls are a very tasty and interesting dish that will definitely appeal to all family members. The process of preparing cabbage rolls could be called simple if it were not for preparing the cabbage. Beginning housewives sometimes cope with this task only after several attempts, so everyone is interested in how to prepare cabbage for cabbage rolls?

Cabbage cooking options

In order to prepare tasty and tender cabbage rolls, you must first of all deal with cabbage. To remove leaves, you have several options:

  • - boil in water;
  • - freeze;
  • - bake in the microwave.

These cooking methods are very popular, but each of them has its own characteristics and disadvantages. Most often, people face the problem of uneven cooking of cabbage leaves.

You can cook cabbage with or without a head of cabbage, but then you need to insert a fork into the center to make it easier to remove the vegetable from the water. The microwave option is only suitable for small or medium-sized cabbage, since one that is too large may simply not fit.

Boiled cabbage

To prepare leaves for cabbage rolls, you can use one of the oldest and most proven methods, which people used many years ago. To do this you need to first prepare:

  • - a large saucepan;
  • - 4 liters of water;
  • - a tablespoon of salt;
  • - cabbage.

How to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls? This question interests many, but the process of separating cabbage leaves is quite simple and for this you should follow these steps:

  1. Peel the cabbage, remove damaged leaves and make several small cuts near the head of cabbage so that the bases of the leaves can be easily separated from the head of cabbage. After this, you need to insert a knife or fork into the center of the head of cabbage so that the process of removing the vegetable from the water causes as few difficulties as possible.
  2. Place a pan of water on the fire and bring to a boil, add salt and only then place the cabbage in it.
  3. The cabbage needs to be boiled for several minutes. How long to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls? It will take about 5-10 minutes to cook the top leaves, but inside, they may not be quite as desired, so after the first layers have been removed, the vegetable should be placed back for another couple of minutes.
  4. Leaves from cabbage must be removed until they are the desired size, since leaves that are too small are not suitable for preparing cabbage rolls.
  5. After all the leaves have been removed, they need to be cooled to make it easier to wrap the filling in them.

This option for preparing cabbage leaves takes a decent amount of time, but they continue to use it today. If you have modern technology in your home, such as a microwave, cabbage roll leaves can be prepared a little faster and easier.

Cabbage in the microwave

Today, preparing cabbage rolls scares off many women because of its complexity. But it turns out that the leaves are for this tasty and interesting dish can be prepared very quickly and with a minimum of nerves, effort and time.

Before you put cabbage in the microwave, you should first of all choose the appropriate option. Cabbage should not be too small and not very large - it is best to choose a medium-sized vegetable and not round, but slightly flattened. Cabbage, which looks a bit like a tablet, has fairly large leaves that are ideal for making cabbage rolls. Microwave cabbage for cabbage rolls is prepared in several stages:

  1. The cabbage should be cleaned, the top layers unsuitable for preparing cabbage rolls and damaged areas should be removed so that there are no black spots on the leaves.
  2. Cabbage weighing up to two kilograms is placed on a plate and placed in the microwave for 10-13 minutes at a power of 900W.
  3. As soon as the microwave turns off, you need to carefully remove the plate with cabbage and cool it with running, cold water.
  4. Place the cabbage stalk side down and carefully separate the leaves, unrolling them like a rose.
  5. When all the leaves are separated from the stalk, you need to turn the cabbage over and separate the leaves with a knife, carefully trimming them.
  6. When all the leaves have been removed, you need to carefully cut off the thick veins-stems from them so that the cabbage rolls turn out tender and tasty, and it is easier to roll them.

The advantage of this method of preparing leaves for cabbage rolls is that it takes a fairly short amount of time. The leaves are separated very easily and simply, and at the same time, there are practically no damaged or defective leaves.

Freezing

This method of preparing cabbage for cabbage rolls seems a little unusual at first glance, but as it turns out, it is quite effective, although it has its drawbacks. To prepare cabbage this way you need:

  1. Prepare the cabbage: remove the top layers that are unsuitable for preparing cabbage rolls, remove areas with dark spots and damaged leaves.
  2. Place the cabbage in a tight plastic bag and place it in the freezer overnight.
  3. In the morning, you need to take out the cabbage and put it to defrost at room temperature.
  4. When the cabbage is defrosted, it will be very soft, so there will be no problems with separating the leaves from the stalk.

This option for preparing leaves for cabbage rolls takes a lot of time and if it is not available, then it is a little problematic. If the preparation of cabbage rolls is planned for the next day, it can be successfully used, but you should take into account the fact that you will need to use all the leaves at once.

Each method of preparing cabbage leaves has its own advantages and disadvantages, so every housewife needs to try all these options and choose the one that she likes best. Using these options for preparing cabbage for cabbage rolls, the whole family can enjoy them more often. delicate taste and exquisite aroma.

Boil cabbage for cabbage rolls for 2-10 minutes

How long to cook cabbage for cabbage rolls?

First, buy a vegetable. Which cabbage is most suitable for making cabbage rolls? Best option- This is a young fruit, slightly flattened on the sides. The leaves of this cabbage are the most tender and flexible. They won't tear. But this does not mean that mid-season or late-season cabbage cannot be used. The cooking process will just take a little longer.

Let's continue. Vegetables are available. Next, wash it. Now it’s better to remove the top 2-3 leaves and cut out the stalk. After this, pour water into the container. Add salt. Bring to a boil. Then lower the fork into the bubbling water. The head should be completely covered with liquid. AND:

  1. cook young cabbage for cabbage rolls for 2 minutes;
  2. Cook mid-season cabbage for cabbage rolls for 5 minutes;
  3. Cook late cabbage for cabbage rolls for 10 minutes.

That's not all. When the time is up, remove the vegetable from the pan. Then remove those top leaves that come off easily. Return the remaining fork to boiling water and record the same time again. Repeat the procedure until you have completely “stripped” the cabbage.

If you can carefully separate the leaves from raw vegetable, then the cooking process will take only 2-10 minutes depending on what kind of cabbage is available.

It is better to prepare the stuffing for cabbage rolls in advance so that it sits in the refrigerator for half an hour. It could be minced meat with rice, salt and spices. Fried mushrooms also perfect as a filler for cabbage rolls.

So, all preparatory work is completed. Now place the filling in the middle of the boiled cabbage leaf and wrap it up. Then place the semi-finished products tightly in the pan so that they do not float during cooking. Fill with water and put on fire. Cook the cabbage rolls for 25 minutes from the moment they boil. After this, add the sauteed vegetables with tomatoes and simmer for a few more minutes.

There is another option. Fry the cabbage rolls. Place in a mold with high sides. Top with any sauce of your choice. After this, cover with a lid. Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour at low temperature.

It is best to serve cabbage rolls hot with sour cream and herbs.

The calorie content of cabbage rolls is 108.7 kcal. They contain: proteins - 6.3 grams, fats - 6.8 grams, carbohydrates - 5.4 grams.

Stuffed cabbage rolls – delicious dish Russian cuisine, which is minced meat wrapped in cabbage leaves. IN finished form This food is quite soft and tender, but requires thorough preliminary preparation of the ingredients. The most labor-intensive step is preparing the sheets. The cook’s task is to make them elastic and flexible in order to avoid cracks in the fragile cabbage leaves and, as a result, spillage of the filling. We will consider the most common methods for preparing leaves for cabbage rolls in this article.

The process of preparing cabbage for making cabbage rolls begins with purchasing a good quality head of cabbage. Where you will make your purchases, in a supermarket or at the market, or maybe you will cut cabbage in your own garden bed - it doesn’t really matter. It is much more important what shape the vegetable has. A slightly flattened, medium-sized fruit weighing up to 2 kilograms is best suited. Remove the top leaves that are unsuitable for eating immediately. Most quick way preparing cabbage leaves using a microwave oven. Cut the stalk from the head of cabbage and make notches in the leaves around the resulting hole. This will make it easier to remove the leaves. Place the cabbage in the microwave and bake at the highest power for 10 minutes. Then place the cabbage under running cold water and tear off the soft leaves one by one. After removing several layers, you will notice that it becomes more and more difficult to “undress” the head of cabbage. Then repeat the heating procedure in the microwave. The disadvantage of this method is that when the entire head of cabbage is disassembled, the sheets are still a little hard. But this problem can be easily fixed: stack the cabbage leaves one on top of the other and place in the microwave oven for 5 minutes. This way you will bring the cabbage roll wrapper to a completely soft and elastic state. A more traditional way to process cabbage is to boil it in water. Take a large saucepan, fill it with water, add salt and put on fire. While the broth is boiling, take a whole head of cabbage and make cuts around the perimeter of the stalk. Place the head of cabbage in boiling water for a few minutes; the vegetable should be completely immersed in water. As the head of cabbage sits in the hot broth, the leaves will gradually begin to separate from it. Using a fork, remove the “opened petals” from the water and place in another bowl. When the whole head of cabbage is disassembled, throw away the stalk. Return the leaves to the broth and boil for a couple of minutes, then remove completely and cool. It is better not to pour out the broth, as it will turn out delicious sauce for cabbage rolls. The next method takes the longest amount of time to prepare cabbage, but it requires minimal effort for its processing. Take a head of cabbage (the top spoiled leaves have already been removed) and put it in the freezer for 12 hours. If you did this overnight, take the cabbage out in the morning and defrost at room temperature. The melted cabbage becomes soft and the leaves can be removed in a matter of minutes. The only drawback of this method of processing cabbage for cabbage rolls is that you need to use up the entire head of cabbage at once. After freezing/thawing, the leaves are not suitable for any use other than cabbage rolls, and they are also no longer suitable for storage.

In all the cases described above, you will need to cut off the thick veins with a knife, being careful not to touch the leaf itself with the tip and not tear it. If you doubt your dexterity and are afraid of not being able to control the knife, then take a hammer and tap the veins with light movements. This is necessary so that the sheet becomes thinner and more elastic, thereby better enveloping the filling.