Golumpki (Gołąbki, Polish Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)
on Apr 25, 2018, Updated Mar 11, 2025
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This Golumpki recipe (Polish stuffed cabbage) has many names. Whether you call them pigs in a blanket, cabbage rolls, or by their traditional Polish name, Gołąbki, this Polish golumpki is a part of my family story and one of my family’s favorite Polish foods.
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This Polish stuffed cabbage recipe is an easy recipe for using a variety of ground meat. Best of all, this delicious golumpki recipe makes a ton of food to feed your family or guests for only $1.69 per serving!
Table of Contents
What is Golumpki?
Golumpki (also spelled golabki) are traditional Polish cabbage rolls that are a staple in Eastern European cuisine. The name “golumpki” is a term of endearment in Polish, it comes from “gołąb,” which means little pigeon. Oddly, it refers to the shape and size of the rolls rather than any ingredient.
Golumpki, holds a special place in our family because it plays a small part in defining who we are as a family and where we came from.
This Polish golumpki recipe comes from my great-grandmother, who was born a Polish Jew and escaped the ravages of the Nazi regime by changing her identity and fleeing to America.
It was not until after her death, some 50 years later, that her true identity was discovered.
What Makes Our Golumpki the Best?
Our whole family agrees that this golumpki recipe is one of our favorite meals.
We do a lot of Polish cooking. We show you how we make authentic Polish dumplings (pierogies), lazy golumpki, and even golumpki soup (cabbage roll soup.) Traditionally, Polish golumpki is made with ground beef and ground pork but we love to mix it up a bit, (even when our readers protest!),,
We love to make this golumpki recipe with Italian sausage and even chopped-up bits of bacon, but that really threw some of our readers into a tizzy. So. I’m sharing the traditional recipe for Polish stuffed cabbage, or golumpki, as it is known in our kitchen and around our family dinner table.
This Polish golumpki recipe was handed down through generations and is steeped in tradition and perfected with a touch of modern culinary technique. Indeed, Gołąbki is a favorite family meal in our house and one that I hope our kids will teach their kids how to make.
This family casserole has comforted our family through generations of countless mid-west falls and winters. It’s always a special meal when word gets out that golumpki is being made!
Ingredients for Golumpki
Ingredients and Cost:
For this golumpki recipe, you’ll need the following:
- Cabbage: 1 medium head of green cabbage – $2.50
- I prefer using smaller heads of cabbage as they cook faster than the bigger ones.
- Meats: 1 lb ground chuck – $5.57
1 lb ground sausage – $4.82 - Aromatics: 1 large white onion, chopped – $1.10
- Binding Agents: 1 egg, beaten – $0.26
1 cup cooked rice – $0.22
1/2 cup breadcrumbs – $0.30 - Sauce: 1 family-size can of tomato soup (preferably Campbell’s.) You can add about a half a can of water to this, just to thin it out. Sometimes I forget to do this and it turns our just as good. – $2.75
3 oz tomato paste – $0.40
8 oz. tomato sauce – $0.45
A pinch of sugar – negligible cost - Seasoning: 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp black pepper – $0.05
- Vinegar: 3 cups white vinegar (for boiling the cabbage; optional, per family tradition. My mom says it takes away the bitterness of the cabbage.) – $0.90
Total Cost: $20.32
Cost per Serving (12 servings): Approximately $1.69 per serving
Note: Ingredient costs are determined by using data from The Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Recipe Tip
I prefer to use lean ground beef (85% lean and 15% fat) for this golumpki recipe. This reduces the amount of grease that mixes into the tomato sauce as it bakes in the oven.
How to Make Golumpki (Gołąbki, Stuffed Cabbage)
(The full golumpki recipe is in the recipe card below.)
This recipe is designed to make 12 servings and can be made ahead of time and frozen.
This golumpki recipe involves stuffing cabbage leaves with a mixture of ground chuck and ground sausage, complemented by rice and bread crumbs.
The gołąbki are then baked in a tomato-based sauce. Preparation includes boiling and softening the cabbage, mixing the filling, and assembling the rolls, with a total cook time of 2 hours.
Cooking Steps:
Prepare the Cabbage:
- Place whole cabbage along with the vinegar in a large pot of boiling water until the leaves are pliable and al dente. Cool and separate leaves, trimming the tough central vein with a paring knife.
Make the Meat Filling:
- In a large bowl, combine the meats, diced onion, egg, rice, and breadcrumbs. Season well.
- Combine it all together until well combined.
Make the Sauce:
- Combine the soup, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and sugar. Add a little water to thin it out.
- Mix it together using a wire whisk.
Form the Cabbage Rolls:
- Place a portion of filling on each cabbage leaf.
- Fold and roll each portion of golumpki.
If you have remaining cabbage leaves, line the bottom of the pan and spread some tomato sauce over those leaves.
- Place the cabbage rolls seam side down in a casserole dish, a roaster or a Dutch oven. If you run out space, you can stack the rolls on top of each other.
- Add the sauce on top of the cabbage rolls.
- If you have extra cabbage leaves, layer them over the top of the stuffed cabbage in the roaster. Then, pour the remaining tomato soup mixture over the cabbage layer. This will help steam the golumpki underneath, keeping them tender and juicy.
- Pour the remaining tomato soup mixture over the cabbage layer covering the stuffed cabbage. This step will create steam to keep the golumpki beneath soft and moist.
- Cover the roaster with a lid or your casserole dish with foil and bake for about 1 1/2 hours at 350° F.
Slow Cooker Golumpki
You can make gołąbki (stuffed cabbage rolls) in a slow cooker. Using a slow cooker can make the process easier and allows the flavors to meld beautifully as they cook gently over several hours. Here’s a basic method to prepare them:
- Prepare the recipe as above:
- Cover and cook on low for about 6-8 hours or on high for about 3-4 hours. The golabki are done when the meat is cooked through and the cabbage is tender.
- Serve:
- Enjoy your golumpki with a side of bread, extra sauce, and perhaps a dollop of sour cream or a sprinkle of fresh herbs.
Making this golumpki recipe in a slow cooker is particularly handy if you want to prepare a meal ahead of time or if you’re hosting and want to keep the kitchen free for other tasks.
The slow cooker takes care of everything, letting you focus on your guests or other dishes!
Recipe Tip for Slow Crock Pot Golumpki
Slow cookers add moisture to this golumpki recipe as it cooks, so you don’t need to thin the sauce as much as we suggest in the oven-baked golumpki recipe.
Also, when using the slow cooker recipe, you don’t need to line the cabbage rolls with leftover cabbage leaves for additional moisture and steaming. The slow cooker will do this.
What to Serve with Golumpki
These Polish cabbage rolls can be served as a main dish, and traditionally, we often serve some homemade potato salad as a side.
But you can’t go wrong with a loaf of crusty bread and a big heap of garlic mashed potatoes next to a serving of golumpki.
Substitutions and Variations
Through the years, I’ve created some flavorful modifications of this golumpki recipe, for which I’ve received a lot of criticism from purists. Our golumpki recipe uses Campbell tomato soup for the tomato sauce.
Our kids like my spin on adding Italian sausage and Italian seasoning for another flavor boost to our golumpki. These variations drive our readers wild, but they are also the key to making this the best golumpki you’ll ever eat!
- Italian breadcrumbs are optional for making this golumpki recipe. You can also use plain breadcrumbs. Either way, they make a good binder in addition to the egg.
- For the beef mixture, you can combine a pound of ground beef with a half pound of ground pork and a half pound of ground veal. We usually use a mixture of beef and Italian sausage because we love the extra flavor the Italian flavoring brings. (Much to the chagrin of some of our readers!)
- Fresh parsley (or dried parsley) is often used. If you don’t like the Italian season, leave it out!
- If I use lean beef for this golumpki recipe, I like to use bacon as well . This adds a little fat and flavor to the golumpki.
More Tips for Perfect Golumpki
- Flavor Tip: Adding bacon to the meat mixture introduces a depth of flavor that complements the lean beef and sausage.
- Make-Ahead: The hardest part about making this golumpki recipe is the time that each step takes. You can save some time and prepare these the day before. Just refrigerate them overnight, and the next day, bake as directed.
- When Cooking the Cabbage: The outer leaves will cook before the inner leaves. Start to pull off some of the outter leaves as they cook, so the whole cabbage head is cooked layer-by-layer.
- Cabbage Size: I prefer using a medium-sized cabbage to boil.
- Smaller heads of cabbage will cook faster because they are not as dense, and we don’t waste as much of the unused cabbage leaves. Also, smaller heads of cabbage will give you smaller cabbage rolls, which I prefer to the large ones.
Common Questions
Vinegar is an optional ingredient, but we have found that it removes some of the bitterness from the cabbage leaves. Vinegar will also brighten the color of the cabbage leaves.
For making this golumpki recipe, you can use a traditional roasting pan or a Dutch oven. You can even use a sealed casserole dish with foil. The baking dish should be covered and sealed to allow the savory cabbage rolls to roast and steam.
Allow the leftovers to cool, and keep them refrigerated in an airtight container
Yes, to freeze leftover golumpki, place it in a single layer in a zip-lock bag. Remove all air. This is a good method for meal planning and portion control.
To reheat these, take them out of the freezer the night before. Once they are defrosted, you can reheat them in the microwave until they are heated through.
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Golumpki (Gołąbki, Stuffed Cabbage)
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Equipment
Ingredients
- Cabbage head
- 1 lb Ground Chuck
- 1 lb Ground sausage
- White onion , large, chopped
- An egg
- 1 cup Cooked rice
- 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 1 Family size can Tomato Soup, I prefer Campbell's brand. You can add about half a can of water to thin it out, although it will turn out just as good without this.
- 8 oz Tomato sauce
- 3 oz Tomato paste
- pinch Sugar
- 1 tsp Salt, adjust to taste
- 1 tbs Pepper, adjust to taste
- 3 cups White Vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Put cabbage head in a large stock pot, add water to cover and then add white vinegar to the water.
- Place on stove on high heat and cover, bringing to a boil.
- Gently boil cabbage until leaves of cabbage soften and become pliable.
- Remove from stove and drain water from the pot. Set aside and allow cabbage head to cool.
- Once cabbage is cooled, remove the leafs from the cabbage head. Take a paring knife and cut the lower portion of the “vein” from the leaf. This vein is very tough and needs to be removed. It will make it much easier to roll the meat mixture in the cabbage leaf. Continue to do this until you remove as many leaves from the cabbage as you can.
- In a large mixing bowl combine ground chuck, sausage, chopped onion, egg, rice, bread crumbs and finally add the salt and pepper. Make certain to thoroughly combine the ingredients together. The "meat" mixture will be a similar consistency to meatloaf. It should be nice and moist. If it seems dry, add an additional egg.
- Lay a cabbage leaf down on a flat surface thus allowing you to roll it easier. Take some of the meat mixture and form into a large meatball. You may make these as large or as small as you prefer therefore choose the size of your preference. Place the meatball in the center of the cabbage leaf. Wrap the cabbage leaf around the meat mixture (see video above).
- Place the stuffed cabbage in a roaster with the wrapped edges down in the roaster. Repeat this process placing the Golumpki next to each other, until all of the meat mixture is used up.
- Use a kitchen whisk and mix tomato soup, tomato sauce, tomato paste and also a pinch of sugar.
- Pour tomato soup mixture over the top of the stuffed cabbage and reserve a small amount to be used in the next step.
- If you have cabbage leaves remaining, cover the entire top of the stuffed cabbage in the roaster.
- Pour remaining tomato soup mixture on top of the cabbage that you lined the tops of the stuffed cabbage. This step will help steam the Golumpki that lies below and therefore will keep them nice and moist.
- Put a lid on top of the roaster and bake for approximately 1 1/2 hours.
Video
Notes
Cooking Tips
- Make as much of the sauce as you want; if you want more sauce with your golumpki.
- Be sure to fully cover the cabbage rolls with the sauce.
- If you have any remaining cabbage leaves, place a layer of them over the sauce-covered golumpki. This will help keep them from drying out and allow them steam during the baking process.
- Pour some of the remaining sauce on the top layer of cabbage leaves and add some black pepper. When these are done, they are great to eat.
- Cooking Time: If you have the time to go low and slow, drop the oven temperature down to 325° and cook for an additional couple of hours. This allows the flavors to be better absorbed during the cooking process.
- As long as the golumpki are covered by a layer of cabbage leaves, they should not dry out. You can check the golumpki throughout the cooking process to make sure the sauce isn’t cooking down (or reducing.) Add additional sauce throughout if you think that is necessary.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
More Cabbage Recipes
Side Dishes
Easy Fried Cabbage Recipe
Side Dishes
Savory Cabbage and Bacon with Onion
Keto Recipes
Keto Enchiladas
Originally published on November 7, 2013. This golumpki recipe has been updated with new photos and information meant to help you learn how to make golumpki. It will live on for generations.
Campbell’s canned tomato soup is condensed. Do you follow the instructions on the can to mix it with water or use it without diluting it?
Thanks for this great question. We use about a half a can of water, just to thin it out a bit. And to be honest, sometimes I forget to add any water to the condensed soup and it turns out fine. Thanks for reaching out to ask us about this.
Have not tried the recipe but – Italian sausage? Italian bread crumbs? It may be good but not golumki. Using pork or breadcrumbs is goo. But Polish spices are not Italian
Hi Jessica, thanks for clarifying what constitutes the difference between Polish and Italian. When we originally wrote this Golumpki recipe in 2013, it rose to the very top of search rankings and held the number one position on Google for nearly 10 years. The additional Italian-flavored additives such as Italian suasage and Italian seasoning elevate this multi-generational recipe from a bland use of meat and cabbage to a dynamic-flavored meal that is loved by young and old alike, making it a great option for a family meal that even kids will enjoy.
Cooking is meant to be an art, and not a black and white formula. That being said, we always encourage our readers to make a recipe “their own.” I hope you try Scott’s family’s signature recipe. You can call it what you like but I promise you’ll find it to be delcious.
For our family, it’s also full of history, coming from Scott’s great-grandmother. She was a Polish Jew who fled from the terror of the Nazis and disguised her true identity which was not discovered until after her death some 50 years later. I feel certain this Golumpki recipe as we make it, will endure for generations to come.
My French-Canadian father made these all the time, while my Polish mother made French-Canadian tourtiere pies. I never liked cabbage so I’d always eat the filling. I tried making a batch about a year ago, and LOVED it. Now I need to make it again.
Thanks for the awesome comments, Michael! I hope you give these a try and for goodness sakes – isn’t time for a batch of your mother’s tourtiers? 🙂
U don’t put Italian sausage in Gombki !
Hi John! We love the added flavor that Italian sausage gives to golumpki; we would love for you to try it sometime!
Can i make mini cabbage rolls using 1/2 a cabbage leaf?
Yes, we’ve done this many times. You can make them as big or as small as you like.
I have always made my Grandmother’s recipe and love it but I reading your recipe with Italian sausage and thought I’d give it a try. I enjoyed it very much. It’s something different and I’m always willing to try different recipes,so people don’t knock it until you tried it. Just scroll by if you don’t think the recipe is for you,don’t criticize because a lot of people might really like it. Like me! Just saying! Lol
Hello, the cabbage rolls look delicious. What can you substitute the Campbell’s soup with?
My gma made these, but unfortunately we didn’t get the recipe for them. She was also Polish. The rolls were a favorite of mine. 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind comment and for sharing your family connection to this dish—it sounds like you have some special memories tied to these cabbage rolls! I’m thrilled this recipe reminded you of your grandmother’s cooking.
If you’re looking to skip the Campbell’s soup, you can easily make a homemade tomato sauce instead. A simple swap would be to use crushed tomatoes or tomato puree, seasoned with a bit of salt, pepper, garlic, and maybe a dash of sugar to balance the acidity. You could also add a splash of beef or vegetable broth to give it that comforting, rich flavor. If you like a creamier sauce, try adding a bit of sour cream or heavy cream toward the end of cooking.
I hope this helps you recreate those wonderful family memories. Please let me know how it turns out if you give it a try—I’d love to hear about it!
All of my grandparents immigrated from Poland. I’m sure they didn’t use Italian sausage or Italian spices. Definitely did not use vinegar. The most memorable ingredient i remember is that the last thing they did before serving was to fold in sour cream which made the sauce a medium orange color and made the sauce creamy and really yummy. Try it. You’ll love it!
Thank you so much for sharing your memories of your grandparents’ golumpki! It’s amazing how these cherished recipes vary from family to family, often reflecting the unique traditions passed down through generations. Folding in sour cream at the end sounds like a delicious twist—it must give the sauce such a creamy and tangy flavor!
Our recipe does include some variations, like the Italian sausage and spices, to give it a slightly modern spin, but I love hearing about the more traditional approach your family used. I’ll definitely have to try adding sour cream next time—it sounds absolutely wonderful. Thank you for the tip and for taking the time to share this bit of your family’s culinary history!
This recipe is the best version of Golumpki that I have tried. We love them! My husband and I are both Italian and Polish so the Italian sausage is a must.
Thank you so much for your wonderful comment! I’m thrilled to hear this recipe has been such a hit in your kitchen—especially with both Italian and Polish roots, you know a thing or two about good food! Adding Italian sausage is a fantastic choice; it brings such a flavorful twist to the traditional recipe.
I love that this version resonated with you and your husband. It’s always great to hear when a recipe brings a little taste of heritage to the table. Thank you again for sharing your feedback, and I hope golumpki continues to be a favorite in your home! 😊
An old polish trick for the cabbage is to core it, then freeze it for a day or so then bring it out and let it defrost and the leaves will be tender.
Before or after boiling it ?
you will not need to boil.
How did it come out? Lol I did the same thing.
Why the vinegar ?? For the cabbag
The vinegar is optional but we feel that it takes a bit of the bitterness out of the cabbage.
The recipe says 3 cups of vinegar but in the video, it looks like less. Can you please confirm the amount of water and vinegar?
Hi Christina, The amount of water depends on the size pot. Scoot adds enough vinegar until he dips a finger in and can taste it slightly in the water.
My husband usually makes this dish, however this Easter he is overseas, so…I have decided to give it try. I’ve already made a mistake and I am supposed to be bringing this dish tomorrow to a friends house. I precooked the meat thinking I could do this dish in two steps because besides making this there are other dishes I am bringing. Can I still stuff the cabbage with cooked meat? Do I still add the egg? I know cooking time will be less. Is there a way to salvage this?
Did you try this? Just wondering how it turned out. I’ll have to make this version and a vegan version so I’m hoping to prep as much as possible.