Can unstuffed cabbage be assembled in advance?

Yes, this is a great prep in advance meal. Just mix all ingredients together, except the rice, and store in an air tight bag in the refrigerator. When you are ready to cook, you can dump it into your slow cooker along with the rice and you are set!

Can you freeze ingredients before cooking

Yes! Assemble all ingredients except for rice, combine and freeze. Rice can be added at the time of cooking. One thing to note, however is that frozen raw cabbage doesn’t last as long as frozen cooked cabbage, so when possible, it is better to cook this dish first and then freeze it.

Lazy Slow Cooker Unstuffed Cabbage

📝Shopping list

Unstuffed cabbage roll ingredients with labels

To make deconstructed stuffed cabbage you will need:

Cabbage - a full head of fresh cabbage is the best starting point

Browned ground beef - I brown and freeze in meal sized portions in advance

Onion - chopped

Garlic - minced

Tomato - diced. You can dice your own, but I always use the canned version

Tomato sauce - both homemade and jar versions work well

Kosher salt - or you can use table salt if that is what you have

rice - uncooked

beef stock - soup base, bullion and or any type of beef broth will all work here

Exact quantities can be found here

🥣Assembly

Some ingredients of unstuffed cabbage rolls

This is the ultimate dump and go. Just add it all to your crockpot and you are set! Depending on the size of your cabbage, your slow cooker may be filled to the very top. That is ok. Cabbage will shrink A TON during cooking. So, even if you can‘t stir all the ingredients once you add the cabbage, you will be able to after it cooks down a bit.

🍽Serving suggestions

Even though this recipe does have a small amount of rice in it, it is great served on a bed of rice or riced cauliflower. It is also delicious with a side dish of mashed cauliflower or mashed potatoes. A nice crisp garden salad makes for a cool and crunchy companion as does a loaf of crusty bread. I also love scooping out medium sized round loaves of bread to use as bread bowls for serving.

Deconstructed cabbage in a blue bowl with a loaf of bread on side

Storing leftovers

Crockpot deconstructed cabbage rolls are much easier to store than their fancier rolled cousins. No need to worry about anything falling apart - it already is apart! Storing in meal sized, air tight containers or bags is great for easy reheat-and-eat meals. Leftovers will last 3-4 days in the refrigerator and 3-4 months in the freezer. They will reheat well in the microwave.

😉Hints & hacks

Slow cooker unstuffed cabbage calls for browned ground beef . This is an item I make in bulk right in my crockpot and freeze.

To keep things lazy, you can purchase onion both fresh and frozen that has already been chopped. You can also purchase cabbage that has been already shredded - although this is not an option I favor. Since cabbage shrinks during cooking, shredded cabbage can give your dish more of mushy consistency. I prefer cabbage pieces that are cut a bit larger.

This recipe also calls for tomato sauce. I generally have lots of this stored in my freezer also. However, I didn’t this time so I just used a can of plain tomato sauce.

I am a big fan of slow cooker liners and always suggest using them for easy clean up.

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