Chinese steamed cabbage rolls (翡翠包肉) (2024)

Simple cooking steps

Let’s begin with the cooking procedures. Simple and straightforward, here are five steps to follow:

1. Briefly cook cabbage leaves & carrot strips in boiling water until wilted.
2. Mix the filling which contains minced meat (pork, beef or chicken), shiitake mushrooms & seasonings.
3. Wrap the filling with cabbage leaves then tie with carrot strips.
4. Steam for 10 mins.
5. Make the sauce with mushroom water, oyster sauce & cornstarch. Pour it over the rolls. Enjoy!

Prepare the cabbage wrappers

To make perfect wrappers, your cabbage leaves should meet three criteria: large enough to hold the filling, pliable to fold easily, resistant to tearing. To achieve these goals, make sure you follow two basic rules:

Choose the right type of cabbage

For shooting this recipe, I used savoy cabbage. Their leaves are loosely layered making it easy to peel off without tearing. It also has a pretty curly look. Sometimes I use the leafy part of a Napa cabbage (aka Chinese cabbage) instead. It has a tender texture and a lovely hint of sweetness.

For this recipe, I don’t recommend green and red cabbage which are tightly layered and require a much longer time to cook.

Cook the leaves to the right texture

Before wrapping the rolls, you need to cook the cabbage leaves to make them more pliable. Bring a pot of water to a full boil. Add in the leaves. Take them out as soon as they begin to wilt. That is to say, no more than 20 seconds if using savoy cabbage. Reduce the time to 10 seconds if using Napa cabbage leaves.

Use carrot strips as ribbons

Love to make this dish even prettier? You can use carrot slices as ribbons to tie the rolls. Choose a long carrot. Use a regular vegetable peeler to peel off long strips. As they are brittle when raw, you need to soften them in boiling water. A few seconds would do the trick.

Make a tasty filling

I use a very simple filling for my cabbage rolls. The ingredients include minced meat, shiitake mushrooms, scallions & a few seasonings. It’s a classic combination that’s often found in Chinese dumplings.

Minced meat

You are free to choose your preferred minced meat. Pork, beef, chicken, turkey all work fine. If you have read my Ultimate Guide on “How to make great dumpling fillings”, you might have noticed that I always emphasize on adding liquid to the meat filling to make it juicy. This isn’t necessary for my cabbage roll filling. The steaming process will extract some of the moisture from the cabbage thus making the filling extra moist.

Shiitake mushrooms

Thanks to their strong umami taste, shiitake mushrooms make a great addition to fillings of all kinds. I prefer dried ones for their more intense flavour than fresh ones. Wash then soak them in cold water for at least 8 hours to rehydrate.

A useful trick: Don’t discard the water in which the shiitake are soaked! It has absorbed great flavour from the mushrooms and will be used to make a delicious sauce for the cabbage rolls.

How to wrap the rolls

A simple way to steam

Now we are ready to cook the rolls. Place them on a serving plate that is small enough to fit into your steamer. It will take 10 mins to cook. If the rolls are to be served later, you can keep them in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Extend the steaming time to 12 minutes if just taken out from the fridge.

What if you don’t own a steamer? Here is my easy solution: Put a small bowl in the middle of a large pot/wok. Fill the pot/wok with water (not over the bowl). Then place the serving plate on top of the bowl. Steam the usual way (Please refer to the tutorial video in the recipe card).

Top with a delicious sauce

These cabbage rolls are delicious on their own. But a sauce would make them even tastier. Use some of the mushroom water you saved earlier. Add some oyster sauce and corn starch. Mix then heat in a saucepan for a few seconds until it thickens. Pour it over the cooked rolls. Enjoy!