Aggie's Kitchen

Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls

A fun twist on cabbage rolls, these Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls are a great addition to your family dinner rotation.

plate of cooked cabbage rolls stuffed with ground turkey and rice

I love it when I make a recipe that my whole family can enjoy. You would think my kids would turn their noses up at the sound of stuffed cabbage rolls (they would) but when I gave them a dish of these for the first time, I didn’t say too much about it and made sure to cut it up real well so that cabbage just blended in with the meat and rice mixture. They didn’t ask any questions and I kept my mouth shut as they ate away. Recipes like this one get noted for regular rotation in my house.

Napa cabbage is starting to become a favorite veggie of mine. It’s so versatile. You can add it to soups, use it as filling for potstickers, make a slaw or salad like this Asian Chopped Salad or of course use it to make stuffed cabbage rolls like shown here today. It’s a mild and delicate cabbage, which is why I think my kids didn’t make too much of a fuss. I find myself purchasing it more often these days, and was happy when my friend Bev shared this recipe with me from Whole Living last year which I changed up slightly with what I had in my own kitchen to create these Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls.

baking tin of stuffed cabbage rolls

As you already know I love splashing Nakano rice vinegar into any Asian inspired dish I’m making for my family. It’s such a great flavor booster, and really is a perfect way to brighten up your meals without any additional calories. You’ll always find a bottle of it in my kitchen. I added into the meat and rice filling, in addition to ginger, chili sauce and toasted sesame oil to get that fresh and distinct Asian flavor we all know and love.

Nakano Rice Vinegar

These Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls are great to prepare ahead. Mix together your filling, make your rolls and place in your baking dish (without water) to make it easier on yourself when it’s time to get dinner going. When you’re ready to cook them up, just add water and place into your oven.

plate of stuffed cabbage rolls with fork laying on plate

Print

Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls

  • Author: Aggie's Kitchen
  • Yield: 4-6 servings 1x
  • Category: Ground Turkey
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: Asian

A fun twist on cabbage rolls, these Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls are a great addition to your family dinner rotation.


Ingredients

  • 1 lb lean ground beef or ground turkey
  • 2 carrots, shredded
  • 1 cup cooked brown rice or quinoa
  • 45 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons ginger, minced
  • 1 small onion, minced
  • 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
  • 2 teaspoons Nakano rice vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon chili or chili-garlic sauce (found in the Asian section of your grocery store)
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • leaves from 1 large head of Napa cabbage

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Prepare your filling by gently combining uncooked beef (or turkey), shredded carrots, cooked rice (or quinoa), garlic, ginger, onion, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, chili sauce and a pinch of salt and black pepper in a large mixing bowl.
  3. To make your leaves easy to roll, use a rolling pin to flatten to make leaves more pliable. If you find that your leaves are on the smaller side, use two to roll, overlapping both ends to make one big leaf.
  4. Spoon your filling to each leaf. Carefully roll each leaf tightly and place side by side in a large baking dish. Pour 1 cup of water over stuffed cabbage rolls and cover with aluminum foil. Bake in preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes or until completely cooked through.
  5. Serve with juices from baking dish and additional chili sauce.

(Disclosure: I have a working relationship with and received products and compensation from Nakano, but my opinions are always my own. I developed this recipe using their product, but Nakano is a product you would already find in my home.)

Are you following me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest? If you’d like to subscribe to Aggie’s Kitchen and have each post delivered straight to your e-mail box, then please add your email here. Happy cooking!

There are affiliate links in this post. I make small earnings through any purchases made through these links. Thank you for supporting Aggie’s Kitchen!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

63 comments on “Asian Stuffed Napa Cabbage Rolls”

  1. Love cabbage rolls Aggie but never thought to do them with an asian spin!

  2. This recipe sounds incredible- what a great idea Aggie!! We love napa and of course I buy a gigantic bottle of rice vinegar from our Asian market we use it to so much!!

  3. I wish Josh liked cabbage! Gahhh! These look amazing. You have the best recipes. Rice vinegar is super tasty. I love the way it smells (is that weird? ;))

  4. Love this recipe! My mom made Cabbage Rolls when I was a kid and I always loved them. My kids have never tried them, but it’s high time they did 🙂 Definitely giving this a try soon!

  5. I love stuffed cabbage but always forget about making it. I am bookmarking this to try soon.

  6. I am loving all of the Asian dishes – the flavors sound perfect!

  7. I love this and I love that they include rice too, Aggie!

  8. I love this Asian version of stuffed cabbage rolls. They look really good!

  9. I love Asian twists on things – and this recipe looks like a definite keeper!

  10. Yum, these sounds so tasty and healthy! I almost bought napa cabbage on a whim at Hmart the other day – must do so next time so I can make these 🙂

  11. This looks like my kind of comfort food!

  12. Oh, Aggie. I LOVE cabbage rolls. They are so yummy. 🙂

  13. Cabbage is a favorite in our house, but I’ve never tried to make cabbage rolls- they seem hard to make, but after reading your directions I think I can manage this!

  14. Lucky you.You kids are much more adventurous than mine. Sigh. I suppose that means there would be more for me!!

  15. I love this Aggie! I love cabbage rolls but making them with napa cabbage sounds even better.

  16. Oh i make cabbage rolls EVERRRRY st. patty’s! and I just love them.

  17. Love napa cabbage! And this is a perfect appetizer!

  18. I love the looks of this one! I’ve always wanted to try stuffed cabbage but never did because the ones I’ve eaten from others are always very bland to me! This sounds very flavorful! Great post! =)

  19. This looks awesome! I love the idea of an Asian stuffed cabbage!

  20. Pingback: Cabbage ideas and recipes

  21. I just made this, and it was delicious. FYI, your ingredient list includes the rice vinegar, but the actual instructions below the ingredients don’t say when to actually use it. I thought you might like to add that to your post.

    • Thank you and thank you for letting me know about missing the rice vinegar in the instructions – fixing it now! 🙂

  22. I am currently avoiding as many carbs as possible so I made this without the rice and added in some extra veggies (diced bell pepper and shredded zucchini) and it was wonderful. Reheats well too! Love this recipe and so do my kiddos.

  23. Just made these – they were super good! Thanks!
    I used quinoa and think I might add a bit more next time. I think I also might mince up some of the remaining napa cabbage and add it to the mix!

  24. Do the cabbage leaves have to be boiled first?

    • Hi Michelle – they actually don’t! The Napa cabbage leaves are so tender and thin on their own they cook up during the baking process.

  25. Pingback: These Aren’t Your Grandmother’s Cabbage Rolls

  26. Pingback: Not Quite a Handful » Menu Plan Monday (Feb 2 – 9)

  27. Pingback: The Sunny Side – Week of 6/29/14 | Midnight Sun Farm

  28. Pingback: The Sunny Side – Week of 6/29/14 | Midnight Sun Farm

  29. Pingback: The Frugal Pantry: Cabbage |

  30. Hi! These look great! Can you please tell me how many servings this recipe makes and if you can freeze them?? Thank you!

    • Hi Jenn, thank you! These should make 4-6 servings (depending on appetite!). I don’t have any experience freezing these specific cabbage rolls, but my grandfather has given me cooked frozen cabbage rolls before that I defrosted and cooked with no problems!

  31. Pingback: CSA Week 16: Fennel, Napa Cabbage & Green Beans | Left Bower Farm

  32. I wonder if I can use a regular cabbage instead of napa cabbage for this?

    • I haven’t tried it but I think it would be fine to use, you will probably have to cook a bit longer though because the napa cabbage is thinner.

  33. Pingback: Vegetarian Quinoa Cabbage Rolls | All Documents

  34. AMAZING!!! You can eat them just after wrapping (think PF Chang’s lettuce wraps) or after baking. Thank you so much for this awesome recipe!!

  35. What is chile sauce? Not sure what this is or where to find it. Thanks

  36. When I woke up today I remembered that I had Nappa cabbage in the fridge and wondering how to use it. Now I know! I`m glad you added the tip for smaller leaves.

  37. This recipe is outstanding. In fact, my husband who NEVER eats leftovers asked for these the next night.  With all the wonderful fresh produce at our Farmers Markets right now, I was looking for a recipe in which I could use many of these ingredients. I did substitute a vegetarian protein (I had frozen crumbles on hand, which look like ground beef) that absorbed all these great flavors nicely.  

    • wow, thanks so much for the wonderful feedback! I’m happy it was a success! love that you adapted the recipe to your tastes!!

  38. Hi!! Love this idea and want to make a pretty presentation. Any ideas on what to serve with this? Thanks!!!

  39. I made these tonight and we liked them, a lot.  I used to make old fashioned cabbage rolls 20 years ago, but hadn’t made them in years.  I like Asian cooking, so these looked intriguing.  Our grocery store had two very sad looking heads of napa cabbage, so I used savoy cabbage, and found out that savoy cabbage needs to be blanched to make it pliable enough to make the rolls.  I also felt that, at least for us, the recipe needed more soy sauce, as we ended up putting more on top of the cabbage rolls.  I used quinoa as I really dislike brown rice.  I also doubled the ginger, because I really like ginger.  But the recipe is definitely a keeper.  Very healthy but filling.  Lots of good flavors.  This is a very nice twist on cabbage rolls!

  40. Kolleen left the comment that you can eat them right after wrapping. The ground beef is RAW before it’s the cabbage rolls are placed in the oven though. Correct? I want to try this tonight with the Napa cabbage we received in our latest CSA delivery. 🙂

    • I don’t see Kolleen’s comment but the way the recipe is written is definitely raw before the cabbage rolls are place in oven. The beef cooks up in the oven in the rolled cabbage. I’m excited for you to try them! I miss my CSA delivery box. Let me know how they turn out for you!!

  41. Unfortunately, my husband did not like them at ALL! He wouldn’t even eat anymore after a bite or two. 🙁 They were bland, and I followed the directions exactly, except that I’m not certain my sesame oil was “toasted”, AND I used sweet chili sauce instead of the other. That was probably the reason. I imagine kids would have liked them just fine. Oh, well. at least I used up the Napa cabbage in our CSA delivery. We just got another box of produce today – and guess what’s in it? Yet another head of Napa cabbage! 🙂

    • I’m so sorry to hear it didn’t work out for your family 🙁
      That’s funny you got more cabbage in your box, have you tried making an Asian slaw with it?

  42. Hi there! I have some sesame oil in my pantry, but it doesn’t appear to be “toasted” . Do you think it’ll be okay to use? Thanks!

  43. Thanks for the great recipe with Napa cabbage.. Hubby loved this .. I used 1/4 tsp Thai shirachi in the filling because first to try it . it was not too spicy at all.   but next time .. wondering whether a Asian sauce with hoisin might be good.  

  44. I used ground turkey and a bag of stirsry veggies from also with a premade sauce and instant white rice but my five year old still loved  it!
    Thanks for the inspiration on co-op day!!






  45. I was browsing through for Napa cabbage recipe and saw this and had to make it.  I was right!!!  IT WAS DELICIOUS!  So tasty and easy to make.  Thank you!






  46. This was not very good. The cabbage was tough and dry and might have been better to parboil the leaves first.

  47. Yum! Best cabbage rolls ever! I even used vegan beef crumbles. Whole family said I hit it out of the park. Thank you so much for a delicious meal. #keeper






  48. I just popped them in the oven. I have not tried them yet. I had a lot of meat left over. I added pork sausage to the beef. Can’t go wrong with a little pork in Asian recipes. Chopped up remaining Napa and added meat mixture and made a small casserole. LEFT OVERS! YUM! Pictures coming in about 40 minutes.






  49. Absolutely stunning! Thank you on a detailed recipe! 🙂






  50. Very tasty.  I really veggied it up with celery, water chestnuts, red bell pepper and subbed green onion for white.  Serving with Sweet chili sauce a must.  Thinking of substituting ramen broth for the water for more steam flavor.  Thinking of an alternative cooking method however since the rolls sit in water become too wet.