Sarmale is the national dish of Romania. It never misses from the table of a special celebrations such as a wedding, christening, or funeral, nor from the holiday meals of Christmas or Easter. No matter how modern a wedding is, there will always be sarmale as one of the main dishes.
Jump to RecipeLike everyone else in Romania, I grew up eating sarmale for Christmas and for Easter. My mother would cook a big pot that we would share around the festive table with the entire family. Even if I was a fussy eater growing up, I always liked sarmale.
This sarmale recipe is how my mother makes them. As sarmale is such a cultural dish, everyone has a slightly different recipe for it. For example, in some parts of the country tomato sauce must be used in the recipe, whilst in other parts, that is unheard of. In summer, sarmale are wrapped in vine leaves. In early autumn, they are wrapped in boiled cabbage leaves. My favourite are always the ones wrapped in pickled cabbage leaves. My mother uses turmeric in the meat mix, which is an addition she came up with over the years.
Sarmale is essentially cabbage rolls, but what makes these Romanian cabbage rolls different and unique from other cabbage rolls you may have tried before is that we use pickled cabbage which gives a unique sour flavour to them. Another reason that makes them special is that within the recipe we use some sort of smoked meat. My mom’s recipe uses smoked pork ribs and it elevates the overall flavour. I use smoked meat, because ribs are hard to find in the UK. No matter how you adapt the recipe to the ingredients you can find in the area where you live, they are delicious. So if you want to know how to make Romanian Sarmale then read on to find out.
Ingredients Needed to Make the Sarmale Recipe
You won’t need a lot of ingredients to make this Romanian Sarmale recipe. The secret ingredients that my mom uses that step away from a traditional Sarmale recipe are red pepper and turmeric. But believe it, it just takes these Romanian cabbage rolls to the next level. Besides these, you will need pickled cabbage, minced meat, onions, rice, and different herbs and spices.
Recipe Notes and Tips
Sometimes recipes can be simple, other times they can appear a little complex. This is where I hope to help and guide you through this recipe with some helpful recipe notes and tips. Romanian cooking is wholesome and full of flavour, and I want to help you create that. Here are some of the helpful recipe notes and tips that will help with this Sarmale recipe.
- It is hard to explain exactly how to roll the sarmale with the cabbage leaves, so check out this link which is a video that will show you a great technique.
- It is important to use a pot with a lid when you are cooking these Romanian cabbage rolls. Also, make sure you have a plate that is thermo-resistant, big enough to cover the sarmale. This avoids the cabbage rolls from rising to the surface whilst they are cooking.
- It is very important to buy cabbage leaves in brine, that have not yet been chopped. Most of the supermarkets will sell chopped pickled cabbage. I usually buy the entire leaves from the Turkish shop near my house. If you have a Romanian shop nearby, it’s even better, as they will always have the entire head of the cabbage, pickled.
Variations to Try
I appreciate that we all like to vary recipes from time to time, and often it might be that you want to know of any substitute ingredients or any additions or changes that you can make that will work well. So here are some of the variations to try when it comes to this Sarmale recipe.
- The traditional Sarmale recipe calls for some sort of smoked meat. My mom’s recipe uses smoked pork ribs but essentially you could use smoked bacon or another type of smoked meat if you prefer. I usually buy the smoked meat at the Polish shop.
- The addition of turmeric and red pepper are two ingredients that my mom added to really transform this traditional recipe. If you wanted to be true to tradition then you can omit these ingredients. However, I really recommend you leave them in.
Romanian Sarmale Recipe
Ingredients
- 500 gr minced pork
- 300 gr minced beef
- 200 gr smoked pork ribs / smoked pork meat
- 2 kg pickled cabbage
- 200 gr rice
- 1 big onion
- 1 big red bell pepper
- 100 ml tomato sauce
- 30 ml sunflower oil
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 2-3 bay leaves
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 15 peppercorns
Instructions
- Wash the rice and put it in a bowl with one tablespoon of coarse salt. Mix well, then change the water and wash the rice two more times, without the salt. Leave it in cold water until it’s used in the recipe.
- Prepare the pickled cabbage by separating the leaves, one by one. This is what you will wrap the filling with to make the Romanian cabbage rolls.
- Combine the two types of meat and then mix it with the onion, turmeric, caraway seeds and thyme. Don’t add salt. Add 100 ml of water over the mixture then add the rice. Make sure you mix the ingredients well.
- Take a cabbage leaf and put one tablespoon of the mixture in the middle. Wrap it to form a roll and then seal the edges. If you are unsure of what technique to use check out the recipe notes section where I share a link to a video that shows you a great technique.
- Do the same until you finish the meat. Make sure to put aside 2-3 cabbage leaves. Chop the rest of the remaining leaves into julienne. Chop the red pepper the same way.
- Now get yourself a big pot that has a lid and put the oil at the bottom. Add half of the chopped cabbage and the red pepper to the pot. Add half of the tomato juice over them. Arrange the rolls in the pot very close to each other, one by one.
- Between them, put the smoked pork meat, chopped in rough chunks. Once you finish putting all the rolls in the pot, add the peppercorns and the bay leaves on top, and cover with the rest of the chopped cabbage and red pepper.
- Pour the rest of the tomato sauce over it. Cover the pot with the 2-3 cabbage leaves you saved earlier.
- Add boiling water to cover the rolls if needed, and then place a large oven-resistant plate on top of the pot. This is important to avoid the rolls lifting to the surface whilst boiling. Cover with a lid
- Put it over medium heat, until they start to boil. Reduce the heat to a minimum and let them simmer for two to three hours.
- The cabbage rolls are served hot, with sour cream on top and alongside polenta.
FAQs
There will always be questions about recipes so I hope to answer some of them below. However, please get in touch if you have a question that isn’t covered here or in the recipe notes section.
Can you make this ahead of time?
This is a great dish to prepare ahead of time, but you might not want to cook them until you need them. Essentially you could make this the night before, get to the stage where you have assembled the pot, and then add the water and boil when you need them. Store the prepared sarmale in the fridge covered.
How do I store the Sarmale?
Transfer any leftovers to an airtight container and store them in the fridge. They will last 3-4 days. Make sure you save all of the juices in there as well as this will be needed to reheat the Sarmale.
How should I reheat the Sarmale?
To reheat the Sarmale you can add the cabbage rolls and the juices to a baking dish and put it in the oven for around an hour.
I hope you enjoy this Romanian Sarmale recipe and I would love to read your comments below, on what you thought of it.
For more similar traditional Romanian dishes, check out my recommendations below:
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My favorite!!!!