Like its cousin (dolmathes), I am presenting a another recipe where we are stuffing something- today, it’s cabbage. In Greek: Lahanodolmades me avgo (?a?a???t??µade? µe a????eµ???).

What I love about this is that is too has the wonderful avgolemono sauce that brings a smile to any Greek’s face.

Growing up, dolmathes were my favorite, so when I was given this for the first time, I was unsure. However, it is now in a standard rotation in my home, especially when cabbage is on sale! Or when it’s easily accessible, like during saint Patrick's day (thanks to corn beef and cabbage).

The trick to remove the bittersweet taste from the cabbage leaves is to boil the heads of cabbage in salted water. Doing this will not only soften them up, but remove that taste and tame them down. If you were to go right to it and make this recipe, or not boil them correctly, you would find the broth to have that distinct bitter taste. It can ruin the dish, so make sure not to skip this step.   

Considering that a boiled head of cabbage has 24 grams of fiber, you can rest assure you’ll be getting a good dose of fiber while eating this dish, thus it will fill you up faster and keep you full longer, so that’s always a good thing. This is the main benefit this dish has over wrapping the meat in grape leaves.

I hope you enjoy these stuffed cabbage!

Ingredients

• 2 heads of cabbage
• -For the filling-
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, pressed
• ¼ cup pine nuts
• ½ tablespoon dill
• ½ cup white rice
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of chicken broth
• Salt
• Pepper
• -Broth-
• 10 cups of chicken broth
• -Avgolemono-
• 3 eggs
• 2 lemons, juiced

• Prep Time: 45 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes

• Total Time: 90 minutes
• Yield: 4-7

Preparation

1. Fill a soup pot ? of the way full with salted water and bring to boil.
   
2. Core both heads of cabbage using a sharp knife (make sure you be careful!).
   
3. Add heads of cabbage to pot (If they won’t fit, do one at a time, or use more than one pot).
   
4. Stick a fork in the hole created from coring, this will keep the cabbage submerged
   
5. After about 5 minutes, begin shaking the fork with a glove (as metal gets hot) to force the outside cabbage layers to start coming off.
   

1. As the cabbage leaves separate and fall off, remove them and add them to a strainer. Run cold water over to stop from cooking.
   
2. Continue shaking the fork every minute or so until all leaves are removed and in the strainer.
   
3. Once finished, empty water from pot, and set aside.
   
4. Combine all ingredients listed under the filling section in large mixing bowl, mix well.
   
5. Take a spoon full of the meat mixture and place it at the base of a cabbage leaf. Fold in sides, and roll up tight. Place in soup pot.
   
6. Repeat until all meat or cabbage is used.
   
7. Fill the soup pot with the 10 cups of chicken broth, add more if needed or more broth is desired.
   
8. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low.
   
9. Simmer for 45 minutes.
   
10. -Avgolemono-
    
11. With 10 minutes left, crack the eggs into a bowl.
    
12. Beat until froth, if doing by hand, it will take about 10 minutes.
    
13. Add lemon juice.
    
14. While stirring egg lemon mixture, slowly add 1 cups worth of hot broth to the soup pot with the cabbage. This tempers the eggs so they won’t curdle.
    
15. Mix well and empty the egg-lemon-broth mixture back into the soup pot with the cabbage, stir.
    

1. Cook for another minute or so.
   
2. Remove from heat and enjoy!