Traditional Finnish Cabbage Casserole recipe

Name: Finnish Cabbage Casserole recipe (Kaalilaatikko)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 2 h 30 min
Total time: 2 h 50 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Finnish
Ingredients: 1 lb minced meat, beef/pork (a mix of beef and pork is tastier than just beef, because pork has more fat); 1 tablespoon butter for frying; 2 lb white cabbage; 1 generous teaspoon salt; 1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar; 1 1/4 cups water; Lingonberries, crushed with sugar or lingonberry jam

March 12, 2024

Traditional Finnish Cabbage Casserole recipe - Feels like Finland

Juicy, tasty, comforting Finnish dish! The slightly sweet taste of cabbage is perfect with lingonberries, when the tartness of lingonberry is tamed with sugar..😋

Preparing Finnish Cabbage Casserole takes time, but the oven does most of the work, so you can easily do this too!

Bring Finland to your kitchen with this easy recipe 🥰

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Finnish Cabbage Casserole recipe (Kaalilaatikko)

Tuija

Rated 5.0 stars by 1 users

Cuisine

Finnish

Author:

Tuija

Servings

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

2 hours 5 minutes

This recipe is very simple, delicious and easy to prepare - what more you could want?

Economical? Yes, it's not expensive.

Healthy? Yes, like most Finnish food, cabbage casserole is also healthy.

This recipe is from my family archives, and it actually has not been written down before this, it has just been passed on for generations, it is originally from my grandmother's grandmother (She was born in 1860).

So this recipe is way over 100 years old, from the time rice was not yet common in normal Finnish households.

We call it "kaalilaatikko", even though it is more like "kaalipata", a pot of cabbage and meat.

Ingredients

1 lb minced meat, beef/pork (a mix of beef and pork is tastier than just beef, because pork has more fat)
1 tablespoon butter for frying
2 lb white cabbage
1 generous teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 1/4 cups water
Lingonberries, crushed with sugar or lingonberry jam

Directions

Fry the minced meat with butter in the biggest pot you have that can handle also oven.
Chop the cabbage to about tablespoon sized pieces.
Add the cabbage pieces on top of the meat.
Add salt and sugar.
Add 1 cup of water.
Heat the oven to 400 °F) and add the pot there with the lid on.
Check every 30 min that there is still water (if not, add 1/4 cup of water, cabbage will also produce liquid) so that it will not burn.
Remove the lid to get more color on top (in case the casserole seems to be soon burning, add the lid back on).
After 2.5 hours the casserole should be ready, a little brown on top.
Enjoy with crushed, sugared lingonberries or lingonberry jam.

Recipe Video

Recipe Note

Some Finnish recipes for Cabbage casserole call for rice. We have never used that in this dish. If you wish, you can add 1/4 or 1/2 cup of short grain rice (the same that you can make rice porridge with) and add some more water.

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