4 cups cooked, cooled rice (white or brown) – cook it in beef broth for better flavor!
3 10.75 ounce cans tomato soup (if using a deep dish pan with a 3” side use 4 cans)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F, rack in the center. Remove the core from cabbage. Place whole head in a large pot filled with boiling, salted water. Cover and cook 3 minutes, or until softened enough to pull off individual leaves. When the leaves are cool enough, use a paring knife to cut away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through.
In a large bowl, add in the ground beef, pork, rice, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, eggs, ketchup, Worcestershire and parsley. Mix gently to combine. Add in 2/3rd of a can of tomato soup (almost 3/4 of a cup) and mix.
In a glass 9×13” pan, spread out the remaining soup from the open can on the bottom of the pan. Open up the 2nd can and pour out 1/2 of it and spread out until the bottom of the pan is covered in a light coating. Lay down half of the leaves on the bottom of the pan – about 2 layers of leaves. Depending on how deep your pan is, spread out either all or half of the meat/rice mixture over top of the cabbage leaves evenly (in my pan I could only get 1 layer though if you have a deep-dish pan, go for multiple layers if possible). Top with the remaining half can of soup.
If you using a standard size pan (not deep dish) cover with 2 layers of cabbage leaves and top with the remaining can of soup. If using a deep-dish pan, add a single layer of cabbage and the remaining meat following by the rest of the cabbage leaves. Be sure to leave enough leaves to cover the top. Cover with the remaining can of soup and spread out evenly. Spray the underneath of a large piece of foil. Place foil side down on the pan and close tightly around the dish. Place the pan on a larger cookie sheet to catch any spillovers. Bake for 3 – 4 hours or until the cabbage is tender when pierced with a knife.