Hearty meal for a cold winter day.
On a cold winter day you want to enjoy a hearty meal and what could be better than doing a casserole in the oven to help warm the kitchen?
My FB-friend Sandy who lives in the US, and who’s Swedish grandmother used to serve up Swedish dishes, have recently started liking cabbage. Cabbage features in quite a few Swedish dishes and both I and my husband are huge fans, so I thought I’d share this recipe for a cabbage and mince casserole with you today.
There’s precious little actual work involved in making this dish, but as with many other traditional recipes it takes time. It’s not a dish you throw together in 30 minutes after coming home from work, but it can be if you take some time in the morning to prepare the first steps.
To lift this dish to the next level you really need sweetened lingonberries, but it holds it’s own without. You find my recipe for sweetened lingonberries here, and suggestions for how to substitute them with cranberries.
Cabbage and mince casserole
Ingredients
- 500 g mixed mince 30/70% pork/beef. All beef can be used
- 1 kg cabbage chopped into 1 inch cubes
- 1500 ml beef stock
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 pinch black pepper
Instructions
- Remove the white core from the cabbage and cut the rest into 1 inch cubes. Some slice it finely and some chop into larger chunks, but I prefer them in roughly 1 inch sizes.
- Bring the stock to the boil, add the cabbage chunks and let simmer until they are soft, around 15 minutes1 kg cabbage, 1500 ml beef stock
- Remove the cabbage, but be careful to keep the stock as you will use this later. Set aside and let cool down.
- This is the point where you place the cabbage and stock in the fridge if you're planning to cook later.
- Heat the oven to 175° C (gas mark 4, 350°F)
- Put your mince in a bowl, then add 100 ml of the cool beef stock, the egg and season with salt and pepper. Mix well. If you're opting for less meat, you add the cool boiled rice to the mix.500 g mixed mince, 1500 ml beef stock, 1 egg, ½ tsp salt, 2 pinch black pepper
- In a greased casserole dish, place half the cabbage, then the mince and finally the rest of the cabbage.
- Pour beef stock into the dish until it almost reaches the top, but doesn't cover the top layer. Keep the rest of the stock to use when making your creamy gravy according to the recipe here.
- Place casserole dish in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. After 30 minutes, check that the cabbage on top is browning but not burning. Should it start to burn, cover the dish with tin foil for the remainder of the cooking time.