My Cookbook: Souk to Table 
Malfouf (Lebanese Cabbage Rolls)
Malfouf is a classic Lebanese dish consisting of cabbage rolls stuffed with a ground beef and rice mixture, cooked in a lemony and garlic-y broth. The thin rolls end up melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the dried mint compliments the lemon and garlic flavours. It is a labour of love but so worth it when you flip it over onto a tray and simply can’t stop eating them one after another. Make this dish if you want to impress, and follow this tested and perfected recipe for excellent results!
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Lebanese Style Cabbage Rolls
Malfouf in Arabic literally translates to two words: “Cabbage” and “Rolled”. And this dish is exactly that – the Lebanese version of stuffed cabbage. What really sets Lebanese cabbage rolls apart is that they are thinner rolls and have a unique lemon-garlic flavour, highlighted by the dried mint.
I have two versions of cabbage rolls (I love them too much to only have one recipe): my addictive tomato-based cabbage rolls with a richer flavour profile, as well as this one, which I find lighter and I crave more in the summers.
What I love about malfouf is that it is easier and faster to stuff than grape leaves like yalanji or stuffed grape leaves. But that’s not to say that this dish still requires a lot of labour. And when I do want these flavours but don’t have the time, I often resort to my unstuffed cabbage soup.
Ingredients and Notes
I recommend green cabbage for this recipe. Green cabbage yields the prettiest results because of its smooth texture. Savoy cabbage may also be used, and it is softer and easier to work with, but the rolls end up looking wrinkly (which is okay too).
A few notes on the filling: make sure you use short-grain rice. It has more starch than long-grain and will yield a tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture. You’ll also need at least 3 heads of garlic – do not be alarmed! The garlic flavour mellows out a lot during cooking, and its quite required for this dish.
If you don’t have allspice, you can substitute it for Lebanese seven spice. Finally, you will also be using dried mint, which may be hard to find – try looking at a local middle eastern grocery store.
Making Malfouf – Step by Step
The first step is to prepare your cabbage by carving out around the root and removing it, making sure to go as deep as you can. Use a sharp knife and be careful. Carving the root out allows the cabbage leaves to loosen up easily.
Next, submerge the head of cabbage in a pot of boiling water and boil for a 5 to 10 minutes on each side. Then, using tongs, start to dislodge the cabbage leaves by lifting them away from the head and removing them one by one. If you come across a leaf that looks hard/rigid, leave it in the water for a few more minutes to soften, which will make it easier to roll.
While the cabbage is boiling, prepare the stuffing by combining all of the filling ingredients in a bowl. Make sure the garlic is crushed and that the onions are finely chopped. Use your hands to ensure the meat and the rice are mixed together really well.
Next, prepare the cabbage leaves by cutting out the thick rib in the middle using a knife or kitchen scissors. Then continue cutting upwards to form two equal halves. Stuff the leaves by placing roughly 1-2 tablespoons of the filling the middle, flattening it down slightly, then rolling it up. Don’t worry about folding the sides over, the leaves are rigid and won’t leak any of the filling.
Keep stuffing and rolling until you’re out of either leaves or filling. This recipe should use up both the leaves and filling evenly, but if you have filling leftover, you can always cook it on its own like a pilaf (and it turns out fantastic!).
Mix together the broth, water, lemon juice, olive oil, mint and the salt to make the cooking liquid. You can use chicken stock cubes, or the liquid stock. Alternatively, vegetable stock or even water will work fine here.
At the bottom of your pot, place a drizzle of olive oil and then place a few extra cabbage leaves. Then place your rolls in the pot, making sure to pack them in tightly next to each other. Pour in the stock mixture, then add the whole garlic cloves as well as the dried mint. The liquid should come to the surface or just under it. Place a heavy plate on top.
Bring the pot to a boil on medium high heat for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to medium and simmer for 1.5 hours, or until the cabbage is really soft. While cooking, you can taste the broth and adjust its salt and the tartness by adding a lot more lemon juice. Make sure you taste a roll and adjust accordingly!
Important Serving Tips!
To serve the malfouf, you can drain any excess liquid (just tilt the pot into the sink and place the pot lid so that no rolls come out) and then flipping the pot over onto a large tray. If you’re scared of doing that, you can just put them on a serving platter one by one, using a serving spoon.
The best way to enjoy malfouf is hot straight after flipping the pot, with some extra lemon wedges on the side, and bit of yogurt to dip into (or my yogurt and cucumber salad).
Oh and if you end up in a situation where you bought too much cabbage, why not make this cabbage salad to accompany it too?
More Stuffed Vegetable Recipes You’ll Love
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Malfouf (Lebanese Cabbage Rolls)
Ingredients
For the Cabbage:
- 2 heads Green Cabbage, (small heads)
- Boiling Water
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the Stuffing:
- 2 cups short grain rice, calroze, or italian
- 500 grams ground beef, lean or extra lean
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 8 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 teaspoons allspice, or replace with seven spice mixture
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2.5 teaspoons salt
For the Cooking Broth:
- 2 cubes chicken stock, or vegetable
- 6 cups hot water
- 6 lemons, juiced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoon dried mint
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 8 cloves garlic
Instructions
To prepare the cabbage:
- Start by carving out the cabbage root, all around, and digging as deep as you can. This step will detach the cabbage leaves and loosen them easily in the next step. Be careful when doing this – Cabbage is hard to cut through with a knife, so do this slowly!
- Next, to a pot of boiling water, add the salt and the head of cabbage and allow it to boil for a few minutes, flipping it on both sides.
- Once boiling, you can start to loosen the leaves using a pair of tongs, and they should come off easily. Keep separating the leaves, and if you find some of them are very thick and hard, keep them in the water for a few extra minutes to soften them.
- Loosen the leaves until you reach the middle which won't have any more large enough leaves to stuff. You can save it to use in another recipe. Repeat with the second head of cabbage.
- Remove the leaves and place on a paper towel lined tray or a colander to drain. Allow them to cool.
To prepare the filling:
- Finely dice the onions and crush the garlic cloves called for in the filling
- Mix together the washed short grain rice, ground beef, onions, garlic, and the spices. Use your hands (you can use gloves if you need to) to ensure the meat and the rice are mixed together very well
Rolling the cabbage:
- To prepare the cabbage leaves for rolling, place one leaf on a cutting board and cut away the thick rib in the middle of the leaf using a knife or kitchen scissors. Then continue cutting upwards from where the rib was to form two equal sized pieces
- Place 1-2 tablespoons of the filling in the middle of the cabbage leaf and pack it together and spread it out slightly, leaving an inch of space near each of the edges
- Roll the cabbage upwards, maintaining a tight grip. There is no need to fold the edges over, as the cabbage leaves are sturdy and won't leak any of the filling whilst cooking
- Continue rolling all of the leaves until the filling is finished (you should only have a few leaves left, but if you end up with leftover filling, read the notes)
Cooking the Malfouf:
- In a non-stick pot, drizzle a bit of olive oil and lay a few cabbage leaves at the bottom. Start stacking the cabbage rolls in the pot tightly next to each other
- Mix together the broth ingredients (except for the garlic cloves and mint) and pour over the cabbage rolls. Sprinkle over the garlic cloves and the mint, and place a plate inverted on top
- Bring to a boil on medium high heat. Once boiling, decrease the heat to medium and simmer for 1.5 hours, checking on it after the one hour mark. Adjust the seasoning by adding more salt, or more lemon juice per preference
- Remove from heat after testing a piece and ensuring that the cabbage is really soft. Serve with more lemon juice and a side of tangy yogurt!
Notes
- For best results, use green cabbage. I like it because of its smooth look. Savoy cabbage is softer and will work too, but will look a lot more wrinkly
- Depending on how much you stuff your rolls, you may or may not have leftover filling. If you do, you can cook it as a rice pilaf with some water and serve it as a side (always a hit with the kids), or you can stuff something else like a pepper and stick it in the pot too
- The key to this recipe is LOTS of garlic and lots of lemon juice, so don’t skimp on either of those! Cooked cabbage on its own can be bland, and that’s why we need to amp up the flavour
Made this using every step without any modifications and it was perfect! A huge hit from everyone in the crowd.
I’m so thrilled to hear you loved the malfouf, Dalia! Thanks so much for leaving us a review 🙂
Amazing recipe! Thanks Amina. I used the broth two days after for more malfouf! Really good.
So thrilled you loved it! Thanks so much for leaving a review!
Absolutely amazing recipe! Thank you for sharing. My father, as well as the other guests, absolutely loved them! They were exactly like my grandmother’s, which is really special to me and my father 🥰
Aww that is indeed so so special! I’m so happy to hear this recipe reminded you of your grandmother’s cooking. Thanks so much for your review!
Thank YOU 😊
Hello! Your recipe looks amazing! My father is Jordanian so I try to make some of his/our favorite foods when he comes to visit us. I’m making these for lunch tomorrow and I was wondering if I could roll everything today and cook them tomorrow because I will be short on time tomorrow.
Hi Tara! Yes – absolutely. Roll everything, stack in the pot and pop the pot in the fridge then just cook tomorrow is a perfect plan. Hope your father loves it! 🙂 Let me know how it goes!
Thank you so much! I will definitely let you know 😊
I had this dish in Oman, and it used ground lamb instead of beef, included tomato slices and sliced green Bell peppers, and I’m pretty sure it contained cumin along with the seven-spice mix.
Hi Steven! Yes, malfouf is made in so many different ways across different regions and even across families – everyone has their unique twist on it or their family recipe. There’s no one recipe!
Salam. I live in Germany and tried your recipe. Very delicious. I basically learned how to cook Malfouf through your page. I only reduced lemon juice and left the rest as it is. I wonder if your recipe is possible to make in a round tray in the oven too like some Turkish recipes do it?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Layla! So happy you learned how to make malfouf through this recipe. One of my fav dishes! Yes – you can definitely bake it. But you’d have to seal it really well. This oven baked cabbage rolls recipe here is another version I make and I bake it! I use a dutch oven. If you don’t have one then just an oven dish that is sealed well with two layers of aluminum foil. Hope that helps!
So happy to stumble across this recipe. None of the the others online are quite right (ie, not up to the standard of my Lebanese mother-in-law’s version). This was declared `better than Grandma’s’ … although not in front of Grandma! Absolutely delicious.
Thank you.
Wow – what high praise indeed!! My dream is to cook like grandma! So glad you enjoyed it Cat! 🙂
These stuffed cabbages are fantastic, I couldn’t find 7 spice so I looked it up and made my own, fresh lemons right off the tree, and freshly harvested onions and garlic, as well as the cabbage itself. This recipe also works well with ground lamb. I had a Lebanese Mother in law who taught me to cook them, and I had just forgotten how much I love them, even cold from the fridge! She used to call them Mushy Mal Fouf.
Thank you for this post and recipe.
I learned to love Lebanese food all over again.
These were absolutely delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
You’re so welcome! Glad you enjoyed them!
Is the nutritional information for the whole recipe or a serving? If so what size serving?