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The 🇷🇴🔮 Romanian Balls here, Mom and daughter, Vivi & Adara. We prepare unsophisticated short & easy recipes for cookingromania.vivianaball.ro.

It is our mission to make you fall in love 💞 with our easy recipes with a Romanian twist. We ❤️‍🔥 love what we do, we love cooking 🍔 fast recipes and enjoy preparing food 👯‍♀️ together.

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Today the Romanian Balls are tempting you with the mighty TRADITIONAL ROMANIAN ROLLED CABBAGE (SARMALE)! Our unsophisticated yet delish dishes will make you lick your fingers! All photos and videos by daughter Adara and mother Vivi.

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Traditional Romanian Cabbage Rolls or Stuffed Cabbage sarmale are made with sour cabbage stuffed with pork and/or beef and smoked bacon. 1 kilo of meat yields 50 to 80 sarmale, depending on their size. If you make them approximately 8 cm long, the yield is 60 sarmale. You can serve 3-4 cabbage rolls sarmale per serving.

Prep time is 30 minutes, however, the baking time is minimum 8 hours. These are the best cabbage rolls you will ever have. Try the recipe out for yourself!

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INGREDIENTS

1 kilo of minced fat pork meat (and/or beef)
200 g rice
5 tbsp olive oil
4 medium onions chopped
2-4 tbsp tomato paste
1 l tomato juice
sour cabbage leaves (2 large cabbage heads)
peppercorn to taste
4-6 bay leaves
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp dill
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp sweet paprika
salt to taste

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DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven 180° C.
2. Chop the onions.
3.Heat the oil in a skillet, add the onion and cook until golden. Add the rice and cook for 2 minutes.
4.In a large bowl add the ground pork, the onion and rice mixture, thyme, dill, pepper, salt, sweet paprika. Be careful with the salt, don’t add much because the sour cabbage is already salty. Mix well using your hands (most enjoyable part, you’ll see ❤️‍🔥.)
5. Remove all the cabbage leaves and cut each leaf in half or in square pieces with sides of approximately 15/20 cm = 6/8 inch each. Finely chop the cores, don’t discard. If you have any cabbage left over (and you should make sure you do), keep half and chop half up to use later together with the chopped cores spread over the bottom and between the cabbage roll sarmale layers.
6. Chop bacon in generous slices.
7. Add olive oil to a large baking pot.
8. Add bacon, cabbage leaves and some chopped core (not all of it, because you need some to add on top of the next layers). You will probably end up with 3 cabbage roll layers.
9. Fill each leaf with about 1-2 tbsp of the meat mixture and roll. Each cabbage roll sarma should be around 8 cm = 3.15 inch long and no thicker than 2 fingers. Make sure that you push the ends inside with your index, just like in the video. The cabbage rolls sarmale need to be completely sealed, or the filling will come out when you cook them. Repeat with all the remaining meat and cabbage.
10. Place first layer of cabbage rolls sarmale and add bay leaves. Add some chopped cabbage on top.
11. Lay all the cabbage rolls sarmale in the pot and add the tomato juice over the rolls. Add the tomato juice. Add more water if needed, the juice should cover the cabbage rolls entirely.
12. Place the pot in the oven (preferably covered). Bake for minimum 5-6 hours, remove the lid and place back in the oven and cook for another 3 to 5 hours. I know it sounds crazy, but Romanian rolled cabbage sarmale need at least 8 hours cooking time.
13. Serve hot with a bit of sour cream on top and with a side of polenta.

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NOTES

1. Sometimes it’s the size of the cabbage leaves that determines the size of your sarmale. Feel free to make them smaller or larger, as you wish.
2. Check the sarmale every hour and add more water if needed.
3. Use a large stockpot. The rolled cabbage sarmale triple in size while cooking.

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