This is a beautiful Greek stuffed cabbage roll recipe from my second cookbook A Drop of Ladi & My Greek Soul. I hope you enjoy it! I used red cabbage this time, and surprisingly it came out amazing. Do keep in mind if you use red cabbage, please don’t use the cabbage stock as that will make your sauce purple.

Lahanodolmades 

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Avgolemono Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 package of ground beef
• 1 small white onion diced
• 1 leek, diced
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup of basmati rice
• 2 tablespoons of fresh dill and fresh basil
• 1 pinch of anise seed
• 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
• 1 large green or red cabbage
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt & Pepper for taste

Creamy Avgolemono Sauce

• 6 tablespoons of olive oil
• 4 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 lemons juiced

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix together the ground beef and the rest of the 10 ingredients making sure everything is combined.
2. Remove the core from the cabbage with a paring knife. Place a large pot of water over medium-high heat. Place cabbage inside the water and boil one side for 7 minutes, and another side for an additional 7 minutes. You want to make sure the cabbage leaves are tender enough so you can roll them. (Reserve the cabbage water.)
3. Place cabbage into an ice bath to cool down. Remove leaves and lay on a large plate lined with paper towels.  You want to pat each cabbage leaf dry so that it’s easy to place the meat filling inside.
4. Add about a tablespoon of the meat filling to 1 cabbage leaf at a time. Exactly how you would fill a grape leaf, you would do the same with the cabbage leaf. Start the filling at the center bottom of the leaf, and fold the cabbage-like envelope. showed you a diagram of my dolmades below to follow.
5. Once you filled all your cabbage rolls, then it’s time to cook them! Now you have a few options here. You can cook them the traditional way which would be inside a large pot with a few leaves covering the bottom of the pot to prevent the rolls from burning.  Or if you own an Instant Pot or rice cooker you can easily cook your cabbage rolls in there. That will cut your time in half and it’s super easy too.
6.  Let’s stick to the traditional way for now.  Once you place 3 or 4 cabbage leaves on the inside bottom of the pot then place the rolls around the pot making sure the rolls fit nice and tight next to each other so they don’t move. Pour the cabbage water over the rolls. Place 3 lemon slices over the rolls along with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt.
7.  Place an inverted plate over the rolls that way when they cook they don’t move around. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once the mixture starts to boil reduce heat to low and cook for about 50 minutes to an hour. I like my rolls Al dente so I usually go for about 40-50 minutes. Remove from heat and set rolls aside. (Reserve about 1 cup of cabbage stock.)

Creamy Avgolemono Sauce

1. In a small pot over medium heat whisk together the olive oil and flour until it forms a paste.
2. Cook for about 1 minute and then add the cabbage stock and whisk to combine. Remove from heat, and prepare the eggs. If you use the red cabbage do not add the stock water, as that will turn your avgolemono red. So you can use 1 cup of hot water with a teaspoon of vegetable stock. 
3. Whisk the eggs together until light and foamy.
4. Gently add the hot cabbage broth to the eggs making sure to whisk fast enough not to break the eggs.
5. Add the lemon juice and seasoning, and whisk to combine. Your sauce should be creamy and slightly tangy.

**To serve place 3 or 4 cabbage rolls on a plate and drizzle the avgolemono sauce over the top. Sprinkle dried or fresh dill over the plate.