Cabbage Roll Casserole, in the Pressure Cooker, quick, easy, delicious, and no rolling!

I love cabbage rolls, I love cabbage, rice, meat and tomato.  I make a cabbage roll casserole to feed an army and I cook it in the oven.  I ALSO make a cabbage roll casserole to feed my family, in the pressure cooker.  It's a big bowl of yummy warmyness (yes, that is a word).  Add a blob of sour cream, and a hunk of bread or even better, a crusty roll, and you have yourself  one heck of a fabulous winter meal.  Warm and healthy and did I mention the yummy warmyness? :D

TRACY'S CABBAGE ROLL CASSEROLE IN THE PRESSURE COOKER

INGREDIENTS

1 lb ground beef
1/2 head of cabbage, cut into bite size pieces
1 carrot, chopped small
1 rib celery, chopped small
1 onion, chopped small
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 TB of butter, optional but really, use it
1/2 cup rice
1/2 can 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 + water
salt, pepper, bay leaf

METHOD

Brown the ground beef and onions in the pressure cooker, add the carrot, celery,  garlic and till the veggies start to soften.  Add the salt, pepper and rice and stir in well.  Add the blob of butter, adding butter to a dish that has tomatoes really does cut some of the acidity and add a little extra richness.  Try it.
Add the cabbage, tomatoes and bay leaf.  Stir.  Add water so the liquid is about 2 inches deep in the bottom of the pressure cooker.

LOCK and cook on high pressure for 15 mins, leave 5 mins before you open the vent.

Stir, serve, eat, repeat.

This stuff freezes beautifully, it microwaves beautifully.  You can easily futz with it, add more rice, more veggies, no rice, the possibilities are endless, THIS recipe is your jumping off spot.
Oh and it's delicious, did I mention the yummy warmyness? HAHAHA  Make it!  Enjoy it!

THE PICTURES


Brown the meat and veggies, add the blob of butter, shush it all around

    

Add the rice, cabbage and tomatoes

   

 Stir it around, add some water, see, about 2 inches in there.  Stir some more then lock and load, high pressure for 15 minutes, leave about 5 when it's done.

    

Ahhhhhhh, the big reveal, so yummy.

  

This is my kind of one bowl, warm and delicious meal.  Confession time, this is best eaten curled up on the couch with a book, a glass of wine OR on the couch with a good movie and some family nearby.  

Go make this, 

/enjoy

Cabbage Roll Casserole, why roll when you can stir, bake and eat? My all in one bowl, all in one pot meal that satisfies, fills, feeds an army for pennies and is absolutely delicious!

 

I love cabbage rolls.  I love them but I find them exhausting to even think about making.  I have gotten together with friends to make cabbage rolls, perogies or lasagna.  They just aren't something I make on a Wednesday for dinner.

Years ago, in a fit of brilliant laziness, I came up with this version of cabbage rolls.  My roll casserole.  Delicious, all the flavors and textures hit right and easy easy easy.  Sure there's the 2 hour bake time but it's not time where I have to DO anything and that's my kind of cooking time. 

Here we go, 

Tracy's Cabbage Roll Casserole

1 large cabbage

2 lbs ground beef

1 28 oz can whole, peeled, tomatoes

1 (scant) cup long grain rice

garlic

carrot, celery, onion

salt, pepper, worchestershire sauce

apple cider vinegar
water

Chop the veggies and put aside.  Brown the ground beef until it sizzles, you want to cook of the liquid and leave just the little bit of fat in the pan. When the meat is brown, add the veggies and cook for a few minutes.
   
Add the chopped garlic when the veggies are soft. Add a little water and some worchestershire.  Add a little apple cider vinegar, about 2 Tblspoons.  Simmer until the veggies are cooked through and the meat is tender.

Add the liquid from a can of whole tomatoes with the same amount of water and simmer.  Set aside until you're ready to cook, about 2 hours before you want to eat.
   

  
**YOU CAN COOK THIS MEAT IN THE PRESSURE COOKER, SIMPLY BROWN THE MEAT AND ADD THE VEGGIES AND LIQUID, LOCK AND LOAD 15 AND LET RELEASE NATURALLY**

Chop the cabbage into quarters, remove the core and slice into squares.
   
In an ENORMOUS bowl, put the cabbage, the meat mixture, the tomatoes (squashed) in a 4 cup glass measure with enough water to bring it to full and 1 cup of uncooked, long grain rice.
Mix it well, I use my hands.
Divide into two casserole dishes and add enough water to come 3/4 up the side of the dish.
   
Cover, tightly with parchment paper and then tin foil.

Toss into a 350 degree oven and leave for 2 hours.
 
After about 15 minutes on the counter to rest and DIVE IN!

  
Generously dish it up into fabulous pale sage green bowls that I just got from Ikea
 
I made "cheater" garlic cheese biscuits to go along
  
So, an easy dinner on a Wednesday.  Sure, it takes 2 hours to cook but it's not hours that require any attention or involvement from you, that's free cooking in my books.

The meat is flavorful, the rice is perfectly cooked, the cabbage has texture and is separate yet involved in the dish.  It's not mushy food at all, it's perfect food.  You can make extra tomato sauce to pour over but I really don't think it needs it.  This is moist and scrumtious and worth making for the pennies it costs.

This is a delicious casserole and it feeds an army.  It freezes beautifully, reheats just fine and is even one of the meals I don't mind if they use the microwave to reheat.

 

go on, go make some cabbage roll casserole,

/enjoy