This Cabbage Lasagna is filled with sweet onions, carrots, juicy ground meat, and melted cheese. Topped with marinara sauce and some extra cheese, this dish tastes as impressive as it looks!
Let's talk about Cabbage Lasagna today. Yes, this delicious, goodness-filled dish definitely belongs on your "MUST TRY" list. You'll fall in love with the texture, colors, smell and TASTE.
We have all had traditional lasagna, but I prefer to give it a little extra twist each time I make it. This time I substituted pasta sheets with cabbage leaves and simplified the sauce a little bit. I also made it upside down. OK, I shouldn't have called this dish lasagna, but how else to call it??? Anyways, my friends and family enjoyed this Cabbage "Lasagna" tremendously and so will you.
HOW TO COOK CABBAGE LEAVES?
You'll need to cook the cabbage leaves for this recipe. It is very easy to do and you can make it a night before, or while prepping and cooking the sauce.
- Choose a medium, 2 ½ - 3 lbs. cabbage
- Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil
- Using a large sharp knife remove the hard core from the center of cabbage
- Place the cabbage inside the pot with boiling water, cut side up
- Cook about 15-25 minutes (depending on cabbage variety) until outermost leaves become soft and fully cooked
- Remove the cooked leaves with a fork or tongs
- Continue until the entire cabbage is peeled and all of the leaves are cooked through.
- Remove any tough stems from cooked leaves.
It is absolutely OK to have torn and damaged leaves! They won't be visible in lasagna anyways.
WHAT KIND OF MEAT TO USE FOR CABBAGE LASAGNA?
You may use ground pork, beef, chicken or turkey in this recipe. I enjoy it the most with ground pork.
HOW TO MAKE CABBAGE LASAGNA:
1. In a large skillet, saute the onions in olive oil and butter for 15 minutes on medium heat.
2. Add carrots and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add ground meat and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring, and breaking the meat into small pieces.
4. Add 1 cup of marinara sauce, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Stir everything well and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350F.
5. Place 2-3 cabbage leaves on the bottom of medium-sized bowl. Spread a generous amount of meat sauce onto the cabbage leaves, and add some mozzarella.
6. Repeat layers until you ran out of sauce and most of the cheese (reserve a little for topping). Finish with the cabbage leaves.
7. Place a baking tray on top of the bowl and flip the "lasagna cake" onto it.
8. Spread ½ cup of marinara sauce on top and bake at 350F for 30 minutes.
9. Take the cabbage lasagna out, spread the remaining ½ cup of marinara and add some cheese on top. Bake for another 10 minutes.
10. Let it cool slightly, garnish with chopped parsley and serve.
Hope you'll give this Cabbage Lasagna a try. This dish looks very impressive and tastes even better. Looks at these layers! YUM, YUM, YUM!
Other cabbage recipes you'll love:
CABBAGE LASAGNA VIDEO RECIPE
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Cabbage Lasagna
Ingredients
- about 15-20 cooked cabbage leaves cooking instructions above
- 1 ½ lb. ground pork
- 4 medium onions diced
- 4 large carrots shredded
- 8 oz. mozzarella cheese sliced thinly or shredded
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- 3 tbsp. butter
- 3 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. pepper
- 1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
Instructions
- In a large skillet, saute the onions in olive oil and butter for 15 minutes on medium heat.
- Add carrots and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add ground meat and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring, and breaking the meat into small pieces.
- Add 1 cup of marinara sauce, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Stir everything well and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Place 2-3 cabbage leaves on the bottom of medium-sized bowl. Spread a generous amount of meat sauce onto the cabbage leaves, and add some mozzarella.
- Repeat layers until you ran out of sauce and most of the cheese (reserve a little for topping). Finish with the cabbage leaves.
- Place a baking tray on top of the bowl and flip the “lasagna cake” onto it.
- Spread ½ cup of marinara sauce on top and bake at 350F for 30 minutes.
- Take the cabbage lasagna out, spread the remaining ½ cup of marinara and add some cheese on top. Bake for another 10 minutes until cheese melts.
- Let it cool slightly, garnish with chopped parsley and serve.
I have a couple of tips on easy ways to remove the cabbage leaves I've used to make cabbage rolls. You can cut the core out and put the whole cabbage into a plastic bag in the freezer overnight then take it out and the leaves come off whole easily as it thaws or you can put in cored in a bowl in the microwave covered in a plastic bag and it'll steam so just peel off the leaves a couple at a time now till you have them all.
If you use the freezer method you would have to cook the lasagna a little longer I assume.
Wow! What a great tip, Sue! Thank you so much! I will try it next time. 🙂
Just added this to our meal plan this week! I can't wait to try it. I'm a huge cabbage fan 🙂
Awesome! I can't wait to hear how you enjoyed it, Michelle!