Japanese Cabbage Roll Recipe
Cabbage roll or (ロールキャベツ) is a popular dish made by wrapping ground meat and diced onions in cabbage and simmering in a seasoned soup. It is a popular western-style Japanese food (yoshoku), just like hamburger steak, omurice, spaghetti napolitan, potato salad, and tonkatsu.
Japanese cabbage rolls are definitely home cooking, and it is difficult to find restaurants who serve this dish. When I lived in Japan, I only had this dish when cooked at home.
Making cabbage rolls are simple. The only difficult part is removing the cabbage leaves without tearing them. Although, even if you do tear the cabbage leaf, you can double wrap the meat to cover the hole! We made this recipe with hamburger, but it can also be made with ground pork. Please give this recipe a try!
Tips for Making Japanese Cabbage Roll recipe
- It’s really important to shave down the middle white core of each cabbage leaf. If you don’t, the cabbage leaf might break as you are wrapping the meat. Even after boiling, the middle white core might not be fully softened and can break. In the video below, we demonstrate how to shave down the core.
- You might break the cabbage leaf when removing it from the cabbage head or when wrapping the hamburger. If this happens, please feel free to use an extra cabbage leaf to cover the hole.
- After wrapping the minced meat, I place the edges of the wrap downward and try to keep the pan full to prevent the cabbage roll from falling apart. If you are worried about the cabbage roll falling apart, I also recommend using a toothpick.
- In this recipe I used chicken bouillon. It is also common to make the recipe with tomato sauce. I recommend you check this recipe for learning how to make rolled cabbage with tomato-based sauce.
Japanese Cabbage Roll Recipe
Ingredients
Necessary Ingredients
- 6 leaves of cabbage
- 1 onion
- 400 g minced hamburger (~1 lb)
- 1 egg
- 300 mL water
- 50 mL dashi
- 0.5 tsp chicken bouillon
- 0.25 tsp salt
- pepper (as you like)
Optional
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
Cabbage Preparation
- Remove 6 leaves from a cabbage head
- Shave the core of the cabbage leaves and cut off the root
- Save the cabbage cores for later
- Boil the cabbage leaves until they become soft (alternatively you can microwave for 2 minutes or until they become soft)
- Let the cabbage cool
Cabbage Roll Meat Preparation
- Dice an onion and the cabbage cores that were removed earlier
- Add the diced onion and cabbage cores into a mixing bowl
- Add the minced meat and an egg into the same mixing bowl and mix by hand
- Spoon an equal amount of the meat mixture onto a cabbage leaf and wrap
- Add the water, dashi, chicken bouillon and salt into a pan (Optional: add the bay leaf into the pan)
- Simmer over medium heat until water is boiling
- Cover with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes on low heat
- Add some pepper if desired to the broth if desired
- Serve and enjoy
Video
Did You Make This Japanese Cabbage Roll Recipe?
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