Unstuffed cabbage rolls have all the flavor of a traditional cabbage roll with minimal work! This low carb cabbage rolls recipe is super filling and totally easy for busy nights!
My family and I went on a cruise around the British Isles last year and it was a seriously amazing trip.
We stopped at 11 different ports and I absolutely loved trying the different foods in each port. But what I loved even more was watching my son get excited seeking out local restaurants to get an authentic taste of each country.
One of our ports had a little Russian restaurant that he insisted on trying. We were in Scotland at the time, but he’d had enough shepherd’s pie and wasn’t interested in trying haggis, so we got a little taste of Russia.
He ordered cabbage rolls and I was super skeptical over whether or not he’d like them.
Y’all, the kid LOVES cabbage.
I’ve been making all kinds of low carb cabbage recipes for him since then. This unstuffed cabbage casserole might just be his new favorite.
How to make unstuffed cabbage casserole:
Rather than take time wrapping cabbage leaves around a filling, we’re just going to dump chopped cabbage right in with the filling mixture and let it all cook together.
So easy and you still get all of the flavor!
To start, you’ll brown up some ground beef. When the beef is partially browned and fully crumbled, toss in some diced onion and minced garlic.
Once your veggies have softened up a bit, stir in some marinara sauce and a bit of water.
I use Rao’s marinara because it’s the BEST tasting sauce I’ve found in a jar and it also happens to be the lowest in carbs. Isn’t that a win?
Next, you’ll chop up a head of cabbage and add that to your pot. Just stuff it all in there and stir carefully. The cabbage will cook down some and your pot won’t be quite so full.
Let the cabbage cook down until it’s nice and tender.
These unstuffed cabbage rolls are ready to eat in just about 30 minutes.
More recipes you might like:
Sausage Egg Roll in a Bowl: The most popular recipe on my other blog!
Avocado Egg Salad: This one is for the avocado lovers out there!
Cauliflower Potato Salad: You won’t miss the potatoes, promise!
Brussel Sprouts and Bacon: Who would have guessed Brussels sprouts cold be so tasty?
Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls
Take the work out of cabbage rolls with this low carb cabbage roll casserole recipe!
Per serving: 325 calories, 19g fat, 26g protein, 14g carbs, 5g fiber = 9g net carbs
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 1/2 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 large head of cabbage chopped
- 24 ounces marinara sauce such as Rao's
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
-
Add the beef to a 5 quart dutch oven over medium heat. Brown the meat, crumbling as it cooks.
-
When meat is partially cooked, add the onion and garlic to the pan and continue cooking, stirring often.
-
Add the cabbage, marinara, water, and salt to the pan and stir to cover the cabbage in the marinara and beef.
-
Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until the cabbage is as tender as you'd like.
-
Serve immediately.
92 comments
Love your receipts, thanks for so for all the wonderful ideas.
Thanks, Anna!
For sure will be making this tasty looking dish tomorrow. Thank you so much. Yum!
This is a keeper. Very easy to make and the family loved it. I did add some paprika to taste and a little more salt. The cabbage soaks it up. Served it with garlic toast.
So glad to hear you enjoyed it! Paprika was a great addition!
I had this for dinner last night it was wonderful.
I will make this with ground turkey. Sounds delicious and will be a good break from chicken. Thanks.
When do you add the sour salt?
I don’t add sour salt.
Just bought all the ingredients today to make tomorrow the only thing that I’m doing a little differently is I’m using veggie meat
Iove, love, LOVE this recipe!! I suck at rolling cabbage rolls even tho I love to eat them. So quick of a meal to make on a cool day or when so busy!! Programming on a busy out of the house day is perfect!!! Thank you so much!!!
Never no info on cholesterol or sodium or sugar. That’s why I never make these recipes
You’re welcome to plug the info into a nutrition calculator yourself, if those values are important to you.
I add cooked white rice!
Not Low carb if you add white rice.
Should have used cauliflower and made rice. It’s tasty and you don’t even realize it’s not rice. The rice totally blew the low carb (kept) and used most of your daily carbs, if not more
When do you add the rice in?
Looks very good and I plan to make it very soon
Looks very good and I plan to make it very soon yum
What is the serving size?
The nutrition info is calculated based on this recipe making 6 servings.
My family of 10 all gave 2 thumbs up!! I have some cabbage haters here, but they loved this!
Is it important to cover while the cabbage is tenderizing?
It should speed things up if you do cover it. 🙂
The unstuffed cabbage roll was great….I don’t even have to watch my carbs, but it’s a great meal and something different!!!! Thanks
So glad you enjoyed!
I would like to add some rice, suggestions as to when & how much extra water to add
I’ve never added rice to this before, so I’m just guessing here, but I’d add a cup of rice and an additional 2 cups of liquid (water or broth). It’ll probably take about 15 minutes to finish up, so I’d add with the marinara. Can’t guarantee that will work though.
7you could add riced cauliflower to keep the carbs down!
Frozen riced cauliflower (Birds-Eye is good) holds its shape so it’s really much more like rice than making your own in a food processor. I use it in recipes like this and jambalaya all the time.
If you ever look up the amount of carbs in a little bit of rice you’ll never eat it again. It’s insanely high in carbs.
For this recipe I’d use a large can (28 oz) of crushed tomatoes instead of marinara, 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and 3 heaping tablespoons of fake sugar. This will give it a true cabbage roll taste.
I had a few questions:
1. Do I have to use marinara or can I use tomato soup or spagetti sauce?
2. Can I make this in a frying pan or do I need a dutch oven?
3. Sounds delish!
Spaghetti sauce is fine, but I haven’t tried this with tomato soup.
You’d need a really large frying pan to fit all of the cabbage in, but otherwise that should be fine.
Would it be good with cauliflower rice added?
Sure! You might serve over cauliflower rice instead though, as the rice might get a bit mushy if it sets in the sauce for too long.
Sounds like a winner n i’m gonna make ..Have a lot of cabbage from garden to use…my kids love cabbage..thank you..
What about using a slow cooker…..just adding more time…..? I am trying it this way…
I haven’t tried it, but would love to hear how it goes!
Do you drain the meat after it cooks?
You can if you like, but it’s not necessary.
Can leftovers be frozen?
I haven’t froze this one myself, but I think it would work just fine.
My friend says, “if it’s edible, it’s feeezable”. That’s what she learned in Home ecs class back in the 60’s
This was very delicious I tried it with the ground turkey couldn’t find the Rao marinade sauce but I used low sodium diced tomatoes and tomatoe paste wasn’t so sure how it was going to turn out but my picky family gave me 2 thumbs up.
Glad to hear it works well with your swaps!
How much do you consider a serving size?
The recipe serves 6.
Do you know about how many cups are in a serving?
No, sorry, I just based the nutrition off this serving 6, I didn’t measure out portions.
Do you have a similar recipe for unstuffed peppers?
Nope, but I should put that on my list! 😉
I do unstuffed peppers same way. I slice up green peppers add my cooked hamburger I used the steam fresh cauliflower add tomato soup, shredded cheese and bake in oven for about 30 min add more cheese and cook for another 5 to 10 min
Instead of marinara sauce use a can of crushed tomatoes and add a pinch of cinnamon…. U wont be disappointed
I made this last week love it made a few changes . I used a jar of Priano Four Cheese spaghetti sauce, no water ,and 1 cup cheddar cheese and 1 cup mozzarella. I cooked half way on top of stove just till cabbage was soften a little about 10 minutes, then added my cheese and baked about 45 minutes . My fussy husband LOVED IT! Thank for all these wonderful recipes.
The cheese sounds like a great addition!
So good! I used a whole onion, more salt and just a tad more water while cooking. Then I put it over cauliflower rice and topped with mozzarella.
I’m going to have to add cheese next time! 🙂
I’ll be trying this one soon. I just found your website when a friend shared a recipe on Facebook, and I’ve marked the website as a favorite. I’ve recently been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, so all of a sudden, it’s all about carbs — especially the white carbs that are such staples of the American diet. I should (just about) throw out my long-built recipe collection, and start over. I see a number of recipes on your site that I will definitely be trying out.
Hope you enjoy the recipes! Good luck on your journey. 🙂
Just bought all the ingredients for this. Will be making tonight. I started my low carb journey today.
Made the stuffed cabbage for dinner and my family loved it. I’m making the unstuffed cabbage I think we will like it just as well, and a lot les work.
Do you thinknitncan be frozen? Ibam a trucker and want to make it for the road.
I think it would freeze fine, but haven’t tried it.
Did u list the macros for the 6 servings? Wouldn’t be hard to figure out I suppose I thought I missed it somehiw
Yes, they’re listed in the recipe carb up at the top. 🙂
My family loved this recipe, even the pickiest of eaters! The only change I made is that I added about a half teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, paprika, and chili powder.
You don’t drain the grease off the beef? I can’t wait to make this and thank you for the knowledge of Rao’s marinara sauce. I am diabetic and a lot of tomato products have added sugar.
I don’t for this recipe, but you can if you prefer.
I’m about to cook this now but… Red cabbage, ground turkey w/ white rice (and apples, maybe)
Yum!
I made the unstuffed Cabage roll for dinner tonight ,it was so good ! I just had to let you know. this is a big keeper in my house ,thank you! No leftovers.
Yay! Glad to hear that! 🙂
We made it just like it says it was very good
What pepper do you suggest adding to this recipe if they wanted to spice it up?
I’d either sprinkle in some cayenne or add diced jalapeno.
I searched the grocery aisles awhile before I found Raos Marinade. It was with the spaghetti sauces not Salsas where I sometimes find it but this brand was more than 2 times the price of others at $6.94. I used Paul Newman Marinade which cost about $2.58. Great Dish!
Hi Cathy! Yep, Rao’s is definitely in with the other Italian pasta sauces. It is pricier than most, but we love it so much. I’m sure Paul Newman’s was good too. 🙂
I’d like to make it for a weekend I’m going on… it says “serve immediately” but do you think it would taste good a day or two later?
Yes, I think so!
Do you have a specific program that can break down a recipe to carbs, sodium, protein etc.?
I use My Fitness Pal to calculate nutrition.
How long in instant pot.
I haven’t made this in an Instant Pot before so I can’t say.
Delicious and so easy! I used less beef and sauce. To make sure I didn’t lose flavor, I used Rao’s spicy sauce – Arrabbiata. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Delicious! You’re right about the Rao marinara. Tasty. No embellishments here. Straight up recipe. It takes hardly any time at all.
We have similar dish in Lithuania and we call it Lazy Cabbage Rolls 🙂
I’ve been keto for 3 months and made this recipe a few times. IT IS SO GOOD!!! I doubled it tonight and it seems to have a lot of liquid; will this boil down? Either way so good!! Thanks for the recipe!
LOVE THIS RECIPE. Works well with my keto diet. I doubled the recipe tonight and it seems to have A LOT of liquid…will this boil down eventually?
It should reduce if you boil it long enough, but in the future, you probably don’t need to double the liquid. 🙂 Glad you enjoy the recipe!
Made it just as suggested and it was great. Kind of like Hamburger Helper without all the carbs. Making again today for lunches. Even though you said serve immediately it was great the next day.
I added some red wine and a bit of sugar. Ok ok so there goes the low carb but dang the taste is awesome
What is a serving size?
The nutrition is based on this making 6 servings, so 1/6th of the recipe.