Is spring ever coming?! I can’t take this snow anymore. I’m ready to make spring salads and asparagus and maybe even start thinking about ice cream. Instead, we have another foot of snow on the ground. Today I’m making my easy lazy cabbage roll casserole to comfort me, as I try not to wallow about the winter weather in April.
Lazy Cabbage Roll Casserole with Cauliflower Rice
Traditional unstuffed cabbage roll casserole recipes can almost be naturally low carb dinners. The basic ingredients are cabbage, beef, some kind of tomato-based sauce, and unfortunately, rice. Of course, rice is not low carb. There’s an easy solution for that! Use cauliflower rice. I love using it in place of the regular kind to make recipes low carb. In fact, low carb cauliflower fried rice is one of my favorite side dishes! The ingredients for low carb cabbage roll casserole are as simple as can be:
Avocado oil Garlic Ground beef Sea salt Pepper Cauliflower Italian seasoning Cabbage Marinara sauce Mozzarella cheese
I used marinara sauce to keep this easy cabbage roll casserole recipe super fast. Just look for one with no sugar added. Otherwise, you can make you own sauce if you have a recipe you like. And, it’s easy to make this cabbage roll casserole paleo, whole30 approved, and dairy-free. Simply omit the cheese! It’s used on top only, so you can easily skip it if you want to. Our family tolerates cheese well, so we like to add it for extra cheesy goodness. It’s up to you!
The Best Cabbage Roll Casserole The Easy Way
Want to know why I think this the best cabbage roll casserole ever? Because it doesn’t get any easier. It requires much less prep time than most. Here’s why:
No pre-cooking cauliflower. You don’t need to cook the cauliflower rice separately. It will cook right inside the casserole. No pre-cooking cabbage. Same goes for the cabbage! It will cook together withe verything else. No layering. Some unstuffed cabbage roll recipes have you layer the beef, cabbage, and rice. You certainly can if you want to, but I’m all about quick and easy. Just mix everything together. It tastes just as delicious, without the fuss and extra time!
Hey, there’s a reason I called this a lazy cabbage roll casserole. If you don’t want to go through the trouble of making actual cabbage rolls, you probably don’t want your casserole to be complicated, either.
How To Make Cabbage Roll Casserole Low Carb
The process for how to make cabbage roll casserole is super simple. The only part you need to do ahead of time is brown the meat. Heat some oil in a saute pan, add some garlic for about a minute, then brown the ground beef with it. Season with salt and pepper as you do this. The whole process with the beef takes about ten minutes and is the longest part. You can drain it if you need to afterward. Next, just dump everything else into a baking dish and stir together. Cauliflower rice, cabbage, Italian seasoning, ground beef, and marinara sauce. It all goes into your easy cabbage roll casserole! And, the cauliflower rice makes this unstuffed cabbage roll casserole low carb. Yay! At 9 grams net carbs per serving, it’s great for low carb diets and is still doable even for keto. The carbs come from the cauliflower, cabbage, and marinara sauce only. Bake for about half an hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, until the cabbage is crisp tender. If you are using cheese, add that on top of your lazy cabbage roll casserole. If not, you can just continue baking without it. Bake for another 15 minutes, until the cheese is golden brown and the cabbage is completely cooked through. The cook times will vary a bit depending on how big you chop up your cabbage and even the type of baking dish you use. Just check for crisp tender doneness around 30 minutes and then make sure it’s completely done at the end. If it’s not done, you can bake it for longer. And, if the cheese starts to brown before everything else is done, you can cover it and continue baking to avoid burning the cheese.
What To Do With Leftover Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Casserole
This easy cabbage roll casserole recipe makes a large portion! You can certainly cut it in half and bake in an 8×8 baking dish if you want to. But if you’re like me, you’ll make more so that you have leftovers. It’s easy to store any leftover cabbage roll casserole. You can keep it in the fridge for several days. If you want to store it for longer, you can freeze your unstuffed cabbage roll casserole. If you do this, make sure you freeze it after baking. The cooking process will hinder the enzymes in the cauliflower and cabbage, so that they won’t deteriorate when freezing. To reheat from the fridge, either the microwave or the oven at 350 will work. From the freezer, you can either thaw first and then place in the oven, or heat from frozen. You’ll want to cover it if heating the frozen casserole, so that the top doesn’t burn, because it will take a while. There you have it! It’s easy to make, it uses common ingredients, it stores well, and it’s low carb. That’s the best cabbage roll casserole in my book.
Saute Pan – The larger surface area makes this pan ideal for cooking chicken, searing meats, or breaking up ground beef for this low carb cabbage roll casserole. Meat Chopper – I use this tool all the time. It makes breaking up ground beef quick and easy. 9×13″ Glass Baking Dish – This standard size baking dish is perfect for sheet cakes, roast chickens, and casseroles.
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