Many dieters sometimes dream of pampering themselves with such a delicious dish as cabbage rolls. When following a strict diet, you need to know how many calories they include and what nutritional value they provide.
There are many variations in preparing cabbage rolls. Stuffed cabbage leaves are found on the menu of Czechs, Bulgarians, Armenians, Greeks, Turks and Kazakhs.
Similar options can be found in the menus of East Asian countries, but the most popular cabbage rolls have been prepared since ancient times in Russia and Ukraine. These are cabbage leaves in which minced meat and boiled rice are wrapped. Minced meat is mainly used from pork or beef.
Ukrainian recipes also included pickled leaves, which were served with cracklings, and potato cabbage rolls stuffed with finely chopped vegetables.
In any season, you can treat yourself to such a nutritious dish by replacing classic meat with low-calorie turkey, lean chicken or even lean fish. But is it possible to lose weight with it?
How to eat to lose weight
To easily lose weight without harm to your health, it is important to adhere to the basic principles of proper nutrition. Eat small meals - often, but little by little. Avoid starchy, sweet and fatty foods. Replace difficult-to-digest and high-calorie pork with chicken fillet, turkey and rabbit.
Try to cook without oil or fat; in extreme cases, use healthy olive oil. Eat foods low in carbohydrates and fat. As a side dish, eat any vegetables except potatoes. Try to drink more water.
One of the suitable recipes for a diet, especially for a protein diet, is diet lazy cabbage rolls in the oven. They are prepared from lean meat with the addition of vegetables and seasonings. This dish is perfectly filling, healthy and low-calorie, it contains practically no carbohydrates.
The benefits of cabbage rolls
For 100 gr. classic cabbage rolls with minced meat and rice or lazy cabbage rolls account for 150-160 calories. Vegetables in the form of a filling without a meat component reduce the calorie content of the dish by 50-60 indicators.
The dish is high in protein, which is important for losing weight and maintaining muscle tissue during active sports. Cabbage is a source of healthy fiber, which, like a brush, cleanses the intestines from accumulations of toxins.
It naturally stimulates digestion, removing remaining fat and unprocessed carbohydrates.
Despite the fact that the dish contains rice, cabbage rolls contain the most fiber and protein, so you can eat them even in the evening without harming your figure.
Turkey and chicken breast, if replaced with fatty pork or beef, help normalize cholesterol and glucose levels, which has a positive effect on the heart and vascular walls.
Lazy cabbage rolls contain more cabbage than other heavier ingredients. It removes excess fluid without losing sodium and calcium cells, which are necessary for joints and bone tissue.
Oven cooking options
Stuffed cabbage rolls made from lean meat, as in the photo above, are in no way inferior in taste to regular ones, but they are much healthier, easier to digest and easier to prepare. Recipes for dietary lazy cabbage rolls require minimal labor compared to regular ones, hence the name.
Advice! Using a non-stick mat will help you avoid adding oil altogether.
Classic dish
Ingredients:
- chicken fillet – 300 g;
- white cabbage – 300g;
- 1 chicken egg;
- 1 onion;
- 1 carrot;
- a bunch of fresh herbs, preferably parsley;
- brown rice – 50 g;
- natural tomato paste – 2 tbsp;
- salt and spices;
- olive oil.
Step 1. Wash the fillet and dry with paper towels. Pass it through a meat grinder along with onions, cabbage and carrots. You can use a blender.
Step 2 . Mix the ingredients, add tomato paste, cooked rice, salt, spices, chopped parsley to the minced meat. Separate the white from the yolk, beat the white a little in a separate glass and pour into the mixture. Mix everything with your hands.
Step 3. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil, form small balls of minced meat, place them on it at a distance of about a couple of centimeters from each other. Place the baking sheet with diet cabbage rolls in the oven, preheated to 200 degrees, and wait 50 minutes.
Interesting! The laziest housewives know how to prepare diet cabbage rolls using the simplest, easiest method. You don’t need to form the minced meat into balls, but simply simmer the mass in a deep frying pan with water. In this case, you will get a meat sauce that tastes like cabbage rolls. You can put it separately on vegetables and eat it with pleasure.
From Chinese cabbage
Very airy and light dietary cabbage rolls made from Chinese cabbage are perfect for a low-calorie diet. This type of cabbage is easier to roll, cooks faster and has an interesting taste.
Ingredients:
- a head of Chinese cabbage;
- minced chicken breast – 0.5 kg;
- 70 g brown rice;
- 2 onions;
- 1 medium carrot;
- natural tomato paste – 30 g;
- olive oil – 60 g;
- salt;
- peppercorns and ground;
- 4 bay leaves;
- water.
Step 1. First, wash the rice and boil it until half cooked in salted water.
Step 2. Peel the cabbage from the top leaves, cut at a distance of about 5 cm from the base. Take it apart into sheets and wet each of them separately with water.
Step 3. Place a pot of boiling water and a bowl of very cold water next to it. Place the leaves in boiling water for 3 minutes and then transfer them to a second bowl. This way you will ensure that the leaves are not tough, and it will be easier to wrap the minced meat in them.
Step 4. Peel all the vegetables, cut or chop them, fry them in olive oil or without oil in a non-stick frying pan.
Step 5. Divide the resulting mass of fried vegetables into two parts, one will go into the filling, and the other will go into the gravy. Combine the first part with minced chicken and rice, mix everything, add salt and ground pepper.
Step 5. Take a board, lay out a cabbage leaf on it, and spoon the resulting filling mixture onto it. Fold the sheet and place it seam side down.
Advice! You can tie the cabbage roll with a sprig of parsley or regular thread, which after cooking can be cut and thrown away.
Step 6. Add a little olive oil to the pan, heat it and fry the cabbage rolls on both sides until golden brown.
Step 7. Place the second part of the fried vegetables in a deep frying pan, add tomato paste, salt and pepper, stir everything, distribute the cabbage rolls on top and pour in water so that its level slightly covers the products. Place the pan in the oven for half an hour - you will get amazingly tasty low-calorie cabbage rolls.
Without meat
The recipe for diet cabbage rolls without meat is suitable for those who want to lose weight quickly, as well as vegetarians. It can be consumed during fasting.
Ingredients:
- 400 g carrots;
- 400 g rice;
- 80 g olive oil;
- 0.5 kg head of cabbage;
- 1 large onion;
- 0.5 tsp each ground red and black pepper;
- fresh greens.
Step 1. Take a pan, pour olive oil into it, place the onion cut into half rings, and start frying it. After a few minutes, add finely shredded cabbage, and a little later, grated carrots. Add seasonings to your vegetables that you like.
Step 2. Add vegetable broth or purified water to the pan until it covers the vegetables halfway. Simmer them for about 8 minutes.
Step 3: Rinse the rice without stopping until the water runs clear. Place it on top of the vegetables, fill everything again with broth or water so that it is about 2 cm above the rice.
Step 6. Place the saucepan in the oven, without closing the lid, keep it there until the water evaporates. You can use a double boiler.
Step 8. Take out the dish and leave it covered for about 15-20 minutes. After that, sprinkle it with herbs and serve.
Interesting!
Stuffed cabbage rolls for weight loss
The familiar cabbage rolls are wrapped in a large soft cabbage leaf. The version of lazy cabbage rolls involves mixing all the main ingredients that are stewed together in a pan, that is, meat, boiled rice, cabbage, and other vegetables.
Stuffed cabbage rolls have a wide mineral and vitamin composition, which can be changed and improved depending on the ingredients.
Simple cabbage rolls do not overload the gastrointestinal tract, and at the same time they bring a feeling of fullness for a long time. Cabbage and minced meat are a source of healthy protein and healthy fiber, necessary for the normal functioning of all cells.
Cabbage leaves, even boiled, are a source of vitamin C. A dish with purple or red cabbage instead of white cabbage additionally contains folic acid, which is important for women’s health, metabolism and the nervous system.
Tomatoes and carrots, when added to cabbage roll sauce, supply the body with carotene, lycopene and vitamin A.
Many other vegetables used as fillings include beneficial minerals such as sodium, magnesium, essential potassium.
A weekly inclusion of minced meat wrapped in cabbage leaves in the diet menu will not harm your figure and will support your immune system, help fight vitamin deficiencies and improve the functioning of your gastrointestinal tract.
Tips and tricks
In order to get tasty and healthy dietary cabbage rolls, use the following recommendations:
- Try placing the cabbage on the bottom of a baking sheet and placing small balls of minced meat on top. Place everything in the oven and bake; halfway through the process, use a wooden spatula to wrap the minced meat in leaves and place cut side down. This way you will get delicious lazy cabbage rolls.
- Serve diet cabbage rolls with a vegetable salad of tomatoes and cucumbers or fresh cabbage - this will make the dish even healthier and tastier.
- You can also cook cabbage rolls in a double boiler; in this case, you need to place them in a bowl or on a wire rack for about 30 minutes, and after cooking, pour over a sauce made from natural yogurt, salt, spices and lemon juice.
- To get dietary lazy cabbage rolls, use chicken breast, turkey fillet, lean beef or rabbit. The meat can be minced in a meat grinder or chopped very finely.
- If you don't have tomato paste, you can use regular tomatoes. Cut off the top, scald with boiling water and remove the skin, grind the pulp using a blender, add a little lemon juice, salt and ground black pepper.
Option 2: Quick recipe for diet cabbage rolls
Lazy cabbage rolls cook instantly and have a very original taste. It is noteworthy that even the smallest leaves are suitable for preparing this dish. In this recipe we use Chinese cabbage, with it the cabbage rolls will be especially tender and light.
Ingredients:
- Beijing cabbage - 400 g;
- Bulb;
- Lean meat (poultry or beef) - 500 g;
- Rice - 150 g;
- Egg;
- Carrot.
How to quickly prepare diet cabbage rolls
Step 1: Immediately place a pan of salted water on the heat. Rinse the rice and dip it in boiling water. Cook the cereal until tender.
Step 2: While the rice is cooking, shred the meat using a knife or meat grinder. You can also scroll through the peeled onion, or just finely chop it.
Step 3: Pour the rice water over the cabbage for 5 minutes. Drain it in a colander and chop it into small pieces.
Step 4: Knead the minced meat, add the egg to it. Season with salt and pepper.
Step 5: Grate the peeled carrots. Mix it with cabbage, onions and cooled rice. Pour the resulting mixture into the minced meat, stir until smooth.
Step 6: Prepare your steamer. Boil water and place a special stand on top. With wet hands, shape the minced meat into cutlets and place them on the surface of the vessel.
Step 7: Steam the cabbage rolls for half an hour. The fire should be minimal.
You can also prepare this dish in a slow cooker. Place the cabbage rolls in a special container for steaming, select the appropriate mode and set the timer for half an hour.
Main conclusions
Dietary food can be very varied. Properly prepared cabbage rolls will allow you to lose weight without feeling hungry:
- Stuffed cabbage rolls are a hearty and healthy dish due to the rich composition of their ingredients.
- The dietary option involves avoiding fatty meats, rice, and overcooking ingredients in oil.
- The variability of fillings contributes to the variety of recipes.
- The best option for preparing the dish: in the oven, slow cooker or steamed.
- Stuffed cabbage rolls can be used as a basis for fasting days, and can also be cooked without meat.
- In addition to white cabbage, cooks use leaves of the Savoy and Beijing varieties, as well as beet tops.
Homemade cabbage rolls are a simple and tasty way to control body weight. A large selection of components will allow you to regulate not only weight, but also the complex of nutrients received by the body.
Share your best diet cabbage rolls recipes and comment on your diet based on this type of dish.
Calorie content of the product
The classic dish has 200 Kcal per 100 g and this is quite normal even for a diet - cabbage rolls are very filling, even a small amount of them satisfies the feeling of hunger for 2-3 hours. Their calorie content depends on what type of meat was used to prepare the filling, so for weight loss it is recommended to use rabbit, chicken or veal.
To clearly understand this indicator and adjust the menu in the right direction, it is worth remembering the following data: Kcal per 100 g of finished dish:
- with meat and rice – 222;
- minced chicken without fillers – 129;
- lazy cabbage rolls – 135;
- rice with vegetables – 103.
The sauce adds calories because it can contain sour cream, tomato paste, and frying in vegetable oil. This factor must be taken into account and when eating cabbage rolls, at least not get carried away with the gravy.
Watch the video about preparing diet cabbage rolls:
