An Easy Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls Recipe you’ll love! These deconstructed cabbage rolls are hearty, healthy and so delicious!
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Cabbage rolls are such a delicious and budget friendly dinner, but this deconstructed cabbage rolls recipe takes it to the next level by being an incredibly easy, one pan meal!
Save time from rolling countless rolls on busy weeknights and make this easy and healthy dinner that is loaded with flavor!
If you love a one pot meal as much as we do, try our Balsamic Chicken Pasta, Deconstructed Pepper Skillet, or Chicken Parmesan Pasta!
We Love Deconstructed Cabbage Rolls
There is a lot to love about this unstuffed cabbage roll recipe, we love it for a simple dinner because it is:
- Easy to make: All you need is one large saute pan to make this dish. Everyone loves fewer dishes after dinner! If you want more one pot meals, check out these 60+ Healthy One Pot Meals!
- Flavorful: Full of flavor, this cabbage roll recipe is packed with pantry staples and uses simple flavorful spices that give this recipe a kick.
- Done in under an hour: This recipe takes around 45 minutes to make!
Unstuffed Cabbage Recipe Ingredients:
To make unstuffed cabbage you’ll need:
- olive oil
- ground beef
- onion, garlic
- pepper, oregano, basil, parsley
- tomato sauce
- white rice
- beef broth
- cabbage
- mozzarella
You can find substitutions for all of these ingredients below in the green shaded box.
Unstuffed Cabbage Substitutions
Olive Oil: You can substitute avocado oil, butter, or ghee.
Ground Beef: We like 85/15 ground beef. Feel free to use leaner ground beef depending on what you like. To make vegetarian you can use cooked lentils or ground beef substitute. You’ll need to adjust your cooking time. I haven’t tried making this with ground turkey or ground chicken but I think it would work.
Tomato Sauce: You can use your own homemade tomato sauce, but we prefer canned tomato sauce. Note that canned tomato sauce and jarred pasta sauce are very different, jarred pasta sauce is much thicker and usually has seasonings added to it.
Broth: Any broth or stock (broth and stock are the same) can be used in any soup recipe. Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or vegetable broth all work interchangeably. I always use low or no-salt broth.
White rice: Brown rice should work as a white rice substitute in this recipe, but it will take much longer to cook and you may need more broth. I wouldn’t recommend subbing cauliflower rice because I think it would be very soggy.
Cheese: Cheese is optional on top. We like freshly grated mozzarella but you can totally make this dairy free!
How To Make Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls
- In a large saute pan, heat olive oil. Brown ground beef for 10 minutes until no longer pink. Add onions and garlic and saute for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add spices, tomato sauce, white rice, beef broth, and cabbage to the pot. Stir together, cover, and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes, occasionally stirring until rice is cooked.
- Once rice is cooked, top with mozzarella cheese, cover, and let the cheese melt.
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How To Serve Unstuffed Cabbage Bowls:
These deconstructed cabbage rolls are a complete meal by themselves, but you can also:
- Top with fresh mozzarella cheese (or cheese of choice)
- Serve alongside a simple salad like our Greek Salad
- Serve with a side of Grilled Vegetables in Foil
Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls Recipe FAQ
Savoy cabbage works best for cabbage rolls.
Stuffed cabbage is good for you for so many reasons. Cabbage is full of vitamins and minerals and it is lower in calories and carbs making it a healthy veggie everyone can enjoy!
If you are making cabbage rolls, it’s best to boil the cabbage. Boil the leaves, let them cool, them stuff, and put them in a baking dish. You don’t have to boil the cabbage for these deconstructed rolls.
Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Storage
Storing: This will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container
Can Unrolled Cabbage Rolls be frozen?: You can freeze this recipe for up to 3 months. We like these containers for freezing!
Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the microwave, toaster oven, oven, or on the stove.
Other healthy dinner recipes:
Looking for other easy meals? Check out these 40+ Healthy Dinner Recipesor 30+ Ground Beef and Rice Recipes. Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Unstuffed Cabbage Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- ½ cup onion diced
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 1 cup white rice dry
- 2 cup beef broth low salt
- 4 cups roughly chopped cabbage about 1 small cabbage
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- In a large saute pan, heat olive oil. Brown ground beef for 10 minutes until no longer pink. Add onions and garlic and saute for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add spices, tomato sauce, white rice, beef broth and cabbage to the pot. Stir together, cover and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally until rice is cooked.
- Once rice is cooked, top with mozzarella cheese, cover and let the cheese melt.
Kime Jones says
I’ve been making this Cabbage recipe for years. We grow Cabbage, and I have to be creative.
Sharon says
We really enjoyed this recipe! We tweaked it by using turkey, cauliflower rice, and adding a can of diced tomatoes. Everything turned out delicious. Definitely going in my recipe book.
Heather says
What other vegetables, in addition to the cabbage, might be good to add?
Rachel says
Sounds DELISH!! Can this recipe/dish be cooked in the Instant Pot, crockpot or oven? If so, can you post the instructions?
Thank you,
Rachel
The Clean Eating Couple says
Hi Rachel – if it could be done in the instant pot, crockpot, or oven I would’ve included the instructions here! This recipe is super easy to make in one pan on the stove in under 45 minutes. There’s really no need to cook it any other way 🙂
amy thacker says
Why in the world do you use white rice ?? Nutrients and fiber have been stripped away…thought I would like your website.
The Clean Eating Couple says
if you don’t like white rice, either don’t make the recipe or read the substitutions where I say “Brown rice should work as a white rice substitute in this recipe, but it will take much longer to cook and you may need more broth. I wouldn’t recommend subbing cauliflower rice because I think it would be very soggy.”
We have 550 other recipes on our site you can look at as well.
Mary says
Thank you going to try it .Looks 😋
lynne says
this is one of our favorite easy dinners!
Katie Sanchez says
This recipe is seriously so good! I made it last night and can’t wait to eat leftovers for lunch!
Sharon from Vermont says
This is an easy, no fuss, delicious combination of ingredients. I made this recipe for the first time and it was excellent. I used both ground beef and ground turkey (2 lbs) because I wanted to use both packages up. Adjusted spices for 2 lbs of meat versus one. Stuck the man under the boiler for 2 minutes after adding the cheese and it was perfect. My husband who tends to not like these kinds of recipes loved this one. What I loved the most, other than the flavor, was dirtying only one pan. Always a plus for me! Excellent job Clean Eating Couple on yet another delicious recipe. Will be trying the Unstuffed Bell Pepper recipe next