Ukrainian Christmas is traditionally a feast of 12 meatless dishes, apparently symbolic of the 12 apostles who gathered at the last supper. People always ask me when Ukrainian Christmas is; well for those who are Catholic they tend to celebrate on December 24th, those of Orthodox belief celebrate on Jan 6th. For my family, we don’t really know where we fall but it’s safe to say that some cabbage rolls and perogies will be consumed in between the days of Dec 20th to Jan 6th.

One of my favorite dishes has become sour cabbage rolls. It seems to be just the right balance of smoky-sweet and sour. So for the first time, I decided I would try to create the recipe, turns out I had to recreate it because when I went to get the recipe from my mom and aunts, no one actually had it written down, and everyone seemed to have their own derivation… (deep sigh) so I had to attempt a few batches to get it as close as I can remember to  Christmas dinner. The great part about the sour cabbage is you don’t have to steam it and the whole going meatless thing? Umm no, there has to be bacon in this recipe somewhere (and I think I found a spot for it ) and it turns out according to my dad that I’m an excellent roller, for a beginner… Also, you can add additional beef to this recipe if you want, just make sure to use an entire leaf per roll instead of cutting it in half as I did for this recipe.

• 1 head of fermented sour cabbage
• 1 1/2 cups of brown minute rice
• 1 white onion
• 1/2 pound of bacon fried and chopped
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 3/4 cup of tomato paste
• 3/4 cup chicken broth

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

1. In a frying pan, cook and drain bacon. Let cool and chop into small pieces
2. Dice and saute onion, add to minute rice, and mix in bacon
3. Add 4 tbsp ketchup to rice, bacon, and onion mixture
4. Rinse sour cabbage and pull off an individual leaf, cut in half parallel to the stem, and cut away the thickest part at the base.
5. Add a generous tbsp of cabbage roll filling on one end of the halved cabbage leaf and roll up as tightly as possible, folding in the ends as you roll.
6. Repeat until you are out of the cabbage
7. Mix remaining ketchup, tomato paste, and chicken broth together and pour over rolls in a ceramic or cast iron pot. Make sure the top layer of cabbage rolls are covered.
8. Cover with a lid and bake for 1.5 hrs or until the cabbage rolls are well cooked.