Keto Hungarian Cabbage Rolls

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  • prep time

    prep time

    35 min

  • cook time

    cook time

    1 h 35 min

  • ready time

    ready time

    2 h 10 min

Keto Hungarian Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage is normally an acquired taste, but just about anybody will go for multiple servings of the Keto Hungarian cabbage rolls. The soft cabbage leaves are cooked down in a stew of tomato sauce and ground turkey for an hour or more, so you taste one unified and delicious flavor in each roll. Green cabbage is stuffed with a ground turkey mixture, which is a little untraditional from normal Hungarian cabbage rolls. The ground turkey is mixed with a tomato and paprika sauce made with extra butter to complete the filling. Let your dutch oven do the hard work and cook the cabbage rolls for you. The effort is totally worth the final dish.

What are Keto Hungarian cabbage rolls?

Also known as stuffed cabbage, Hungarian cabbage rolls are traditionally made with beef or sometimes lamb. In this case, though, you’ll make Keto Hungarian cabbage rolls with ground turkey. A tomato sauce is seasoned heavily with paprika and gets mixed in with the ground meat. Stuff the meat filling in boiled cabbage leaves, cook them, and you have cabbage rolls.

Tips for making cabbage rolls

The first important tip is to make sure you don’t overcook your cabbage leaves when you’re boiling them. If you overcook the cabbage, the leaves will fall apart into shreds. After boiling the leaves, drain them and rinse them in cold water right away to stop the cooking process. The large, outer leaves will be easier to work with than the small, hard leaves in the center of a cabbage head.

More Hungarian Keto recipes

Want to see more traditional Hungarian recipes Keto-fied? Carb Manager has other Hungarian Keto recipes like Keto Easy Hungarian Goulash. Try the Low Carb Hungarian Mushroom Soup recipe or our Hungarian Sausage Lecso.

  • Net Carbs

    2.1 g

  • Fiber

    1.1 g

  • Total Carbs

    3.2 g

  • Protein

    7.1 g

  • Fats

    4.5 g

79 cals

Keto Hungarian Cabbage Rolls

#1 Low Carb & Keto Diet App Since 2010

Track macros, calories, and access top Keto recipes.

Download on the App Store
Get in on Google Play

Ingredients

  • Cabbage, green, raw

    Cabbage, green, raw

    20 large leaf

  • Ground turkey, lean, 7% fat (93% lean meat)

    Ground turkey, lean, 7% fat (93% lean meat)

    1 lb

  • Salt

    Salt

    0.25 tsp

  • Black pepper

    Black pepper

    0.25 tsp

  • Tomato sauce

    Tomato sauce

    1.5 cup

  • Beef broth

    Beef broth

    1 cup

  • Salt

    Salt

    0.25 tsp

  • Black pepper

    Black pepper

    0.25 tsp

  • Onion powder

    Onion powder

    0.5 tsp

  • Garlic powder

    Garlic powder

    0.75 tsp

  • Paprika

    Paprika

    2 tsp

  • Butter, unsalted

    Butter, unsalted

    3 tbsp

Recipe Steps

steps 6

2 h 10 min

  • Step 1

    Bring a large pot of water to a boil while you prepare the cabbage leaves (it’s optional to add salt to the water). Cut the base off a head of cabbage and remove the outer leaves. Discard any outer leaves that may be brown or wilted. Once the water is boiling, add all your cabbage leaves (one per serving). Cook the cabbage leaves until they’re bright green and the cores of the leaves are tender.
    Step 1
  • Step 2

    You’ll need to drain the cabbage leaves and leave them aside to cool down. Meanwhile, add ground turkey to a large pan, and break the turkey up into small pieces. Season the turkey with salt and pepper while you cook it on high heat. Keep breaking up the ground turkey until it’s very crumbly and cooked all the way through. Make sure excess moisture from the meat has cooked off.
    Step 2
  • Step 3

    To make the sauce for the cabbage rolls, add tomato sauce, beef broth, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika to a pot on the stove. Whisk the ingredients together over medium heat until the sauce starts to simmer. Add one tablespoon of butter to the sauce, whisk it in until it completely melts, then add the next amount of butter. Follow this process until all the butter is used.
    Step 3
  • Step 4

    Let the sauce simmer until it emulsifies with all the melted butter and excess moisture has cooked off. When the sauce is done, pour about 1 cup of sauce into the ground turkey and mix it in. To assemble a cabbage roll, lay a boiled cabbage leaf down flat. Place about 3 tablespoons of ground turkey filling in the middle of the leaf, then fold the leaf up into a roll.
    Step 4
  • Step 5

    When all your cabbage rolls are made, you’re going to arrange them in the base of a dutch oven. It’s more than okay to layer cabbage rolls on top of each other. If you happen to have any ground turkey filling remaining, combine it with the remaining sauce. Pour all the sauce over the cabbage rolls in your dutch oven.
    Step 5
  • Step 6

    Close your dutch oven and bring the ingredients to a simmer. Let the cabbage rolls stew in bubbling sauce for at least 1 hour, but it’s recommended you go longer. The longer you stew the cabbage rolls, the more the flavors will melt together. One cabbage roll is one serving, so include as many servings as you see fit on your plate.
    Step 6