Cabbage Casserole

By Anna Wills

I found this recipe about a year ago when my Mom handed down to me all her handwritten recipe cards and recipe box. The recipe came from my grandmother. NOT my mom’s mother but my Dad’s mother. It was written in my Mom’s handwriting with a note from the kitchen of Mom Jordan.

My Mom’s family was from Georgia and my Dad’s family from Pennsylvania. Very little of the down-home cooking I enjoyed at my grandmothers’ homes overlapped.  Ida Mae’s was very Southern, with lots of greens, beans and okra.  My Grandma Jordan, whose parents emigrated from Syria, served a mix of northern dishes with a lot of Syrian cooking mixed in. This recipe leans toward her Syrian dishes that often included rice and ground meat.

When I prepared this for my family it did remind me a lot of Grandma Jordan’s cooking. I wonder if my Mom was served the dish and asked for the recipe or if my Dad liked it and she wanted to cook it for her husband.

The one criticism I have of this recipe is that it’s pretty bland. I prepared it as is written but I encourage you to add fresh herbs or warm spices to make this casserole your own. Home canned tomatoes in place of the soup would also makes this dish very local and give it a fresher taste.

Ingredients:

3 cups diced cabbage

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup rice (optional)

1 pound ground beef

1 can tomato soup and 1 can tomato paste mixed together with 1 cup water

Instructions:

Brown onion and ground beef in skillet with butter until beef is cooked and onion is soft. Add rice and moisten with a little of the soup mixture.

Place a layer of cabbage in the bottom of a casserole dish. Add the beef mixture on top of the cabbage. Then add one more layer of cabbage and pour the tomato soup over top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.