Golabki (cabbage roll)

Name: Golabki (cabbage roll)
Prep time: 17 min
Cook time: 31 min
Total time: 48 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients: 1 Cabbage; 2 tbs Butter; 1 chopped Onion; 1 lb Ground Beef; 1/2 lb Ground Pork; 1 1/2 cups Rice; 1 tsp Garlic; 1 tsp Salt; 1/4 tsp Black Pepper; 3 cans Tomato Puree

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Beef recipe with Polish flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 59 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · 48 min total

1 Cabbage
2 tbs Butter
1 chopped Onion
1 lb Ground Beef
1/2 lb Ground Pork
1 1/2 cups Rice
1 tsp Garlic
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
3 cans Tomato Puree

Step-by-step instructions

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place cabbage head into water, cover pot, and cook until cabbage leaves are slightly softened enough to remove from head, 3 minutes. Remove cabbage from pot and let cabbage sit until leaves are cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes.
Remove 18 whole leaves from the cabbage head, cutting out any thick tough center ribs. Set whole leaves aside. Chop the remainder of the cabbage head and spread it in the bottom of a casserole dish.
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir onion in hot butter until tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Cool.
Stir onion, beef, pork, rice, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper together in a large bowl.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Place about 1/2 cup beef mixture on a cabbage leaf. Roll cabbage around beef mixture, tucking in sides to create an envelope around the meat. Repeat with remaining leaves and meat mixture. Place cabbage rolls in a layer atop the chopped cabbage in the casserole dish; season rolls with salt and black pepper.
Whisk tomato soup, tomato juice, and ketchup together in a bowl. Pour tomato soup mixture over cabbage rolls and cover dish wish aluminum foil.
Bake in the preheated oven until cabbage is tender and meat is cooked through, about 1 hour.

Why this works on a weeknight

Golabki (cabbage roll) lands at about 48 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Sheet-Pan Dinners collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Golabki (cabbage roll) actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🍳 Sheet-Pan Dinners Beef Polish