Slow Cooker Cabbage (or Collard Greens) Rolls

Ingredients
24 leaves cabbage (I used Jersey Wakefield which are large and dark green.)
2 cups cooked rice (I used a brown and wild rice blend, since it’s what was in the fridge.)
2 eggs, beaten
¹⁄₂ cup milk
¹⁄₂ cup onion, minced
2 pound ground beef (Use the leanest you can get since it cooks in the slow cooker.)
2 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons salt
2 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons ground black pepper
2 (15 ounces each) cans tomato sauce
4 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

Instructions
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Boil cabbage leaves 2 minutes; drain.

2. In large bowl, combine rice, eggs, milk, onion, ground beef, salt, and pepper. Place about ¹⁄₄ cup of meat mixture in center of each cabbage leaf, and roll up, tucking in ends. Place rolls in slow cooker.

3. In a small bowl, mix together tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over cabbage rolls.

4. Cover, and cook on LOW 8 to 9 hours.

Comments
This recipe is a pretty ubiquitous one, I found the inspiration for this version at allrecipes.com.  I thought it looked like a tasty way to use up the bunch of cabbage I got from the CSA this week.  I did have some trepidation since slow cooker meals always seem to be so hit or miss for me.  Lance and I both enjoyed these cabbage rolls!  The meat filling was flavorful and each roll was hearty.  I’m glad that I took the advice from reviews to increase the sauce ingredients – it worked well. 

I used grass-fed ground cow which is extremely lean.  You should use the leanest cow you’ve got access to.  I’m sure that any lean ground meat would work well in this recipe!

Edit: So… apparently what I thought was cabbage was actually a bunch of collard greens.  Ooops.  This was still fantastic and it’s nice to know that, at least for this recipe, they’re interchangeable!

Internet - allrecipes