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Lasagna can be a puzzle when you’re trying to follow a low-glycemic lifestyle. Sometimes you just have to think outside the noodle.
Tired of noodle substitutes that just don’t quite work out? Do like I did in the Lasagna Bake on pg. 59 of my cookbook Necessary Food and omit noodles entirely, or follow today’s recipe, rethink your lasagna, and turn it into a cabbage roll or an enchilada! I had both ideas on my “recipes to make” list, but I was only intending to do the cabbage rolls this time around…until I ran out of cabbage leaves. Hey, why not kill two birds – er, recipes – with one stone? Thankfully both turned out very tasty!
The enchiladas are quite kid-friendly. The cabbage rolls, maybe not so much. I really liked both for different reasons. The cabbage rolls are wetter since cabbage contains more moisture than low-carb tortillas do. This isn’t really a good or a bad thing – just different. I love getting more veggies in by using cabbage leaves to hold the lasagna filling! Cabbage is cheap and gluten-free, so win-win! You can sauté the leftover interior part of the cabbage in butter and garlic salt for an easy side dish.
The low-carb tortilla version is a unique mashup of two classics: lasagna and enchiladas. It works! What’s not to love about a tortilla, ground beef, CHEESE, and lots of pizza sauce?
I bet you can’t guess what I love most about this recipe. Actually, if you’ve been around long enough, maybe you can. 😉  It feeds our family of 6 for 2 meals! Plus a few leftovers for lunch! I LOVE leftovers. (Of course you can feel free to cut the recipe in half if you prefer.)
As I said before, sautéed cabbage makes a great side dish for this meal. I also made some creamy garlic green beans, the recipe for which will be in my next cookbook, whenever that happens. I’m stockpiling recipes for the future. Definitely not setting any deadlines at this point – and I’m trying not to even set any goals because I’m enjoying having a bit of a break right now – but it’ll happen eventually. 🙂
As always, check out the Notes section of the recipe for extra info. Check out the links in and below the recipe to see the products I use and recommend. Some of the links included in the recipe and blog post are affiliate links, which means that if you make purchases through these links, I make a small commission to help defray the costs of running this blog (at no extra charge to you). Thanks for your help!
You may also enjoy:
- Starting THM
- my recipe index
- my recipes grouped by fuel type, allergy info, and theme
- all my casserole recipes
- no special ingredients recipes (you may need to substitute with a locally-sourced sweetener)
- 18-20 large cabbage leaves (the outer leaves of 2 large cabbages) or 9-10 low-carb tortillas, or a combination of both
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- 2½ lb. ground beef
- 1 med. onion, chopped
- -
- ¾ c. pizza sauce
- 1½ tsp. each Italian seasoning, oregano
- 1 tsp. each ground sage, salt
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- 15 oz. ricotta cheese
- 1½ c. shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¾ tsp. garlic powder
- ½ tsp. black pepper
- -
- Additional pizza sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese for topping (a 24. oz. jar of pizza sauce and a quart bag of shredded mozzarella work well for the entire recipe, including the amounts used in the previous sections)
- If using cabbage leaves, prepare them by blanching them in boiling water for 2 minutes. Remove from the water and set aside.
- Fry the ground beef and onion together until the ground beef is cooked through. Drain and chop, then return the ground beef and onion to the skillet and add the pizza sauce and seasonings. Mix well.
- Mix the ricotta, mozzarella, garlic powder, and pepper together.
- Grease two 9"x13" pans, then prepare the rolls. The cabbage leaves take half the amount of filling that low-carb tortillas do. Divide the ground beef mixture and the ricotta mixture among the cabbage leaves and/or wraps, using a spoon of each on each cabbage leaf or tortilla. (You'll use more ground beef mixture than ricotta mixture in each.) Wrap the cabbage rolls up like you would wrap presents and place them seam down in the pans. For the tortillas, just roll them up lengthwise like you would enchiladas. Place them in the pans seam side up. Top the cabbage rolls and/or tortillas with additional pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese, then bake (uncovered) at 375* for 30 minutes.
These were amazing and I am not a huge cabbage fan! Everyone enjoyed them. I like the option to make some as enchiladas for picky teens that won’t eat cabbage. I highly recommend this one!!!
Being fairly new to THM, I’m trying new recipes almost daily. But this recipe we’ve tried twice now — once as the enchilada version and once with the cabbage. What I did though, is make it a lazy cabbage roll dish by thinly slicing the cabbage and putting it in the bottom of the 9 X 13″ pan, then adding the meat mixture on that, then the cheese mixture, topping it with the additional pizza sauce and mozzarella. Yup, it’s a keeper no matter which way we serve it. Thank you so much for sharing your food-related talents, Briana. You’re amazing!
I love that idea! Thanks for sharing!
LOVE the cabbage leaf idea!
You need to do a tutorial on how to peel off the cabbage leaves. It loks so easy but they ripped and tore. So instead of make rolls I just used the cabbage leaves for my lasagna noodles and leayered everything. Will see how it turns out.
If the peeling gingerly method didn’t work, try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxCYDdJLt_8
Thanks for the U-tube video. It sure made it easier to peel the cabbage. Your cookbook is my ‘go to’ cookbook. Thank you for sharing your talents.
I love the cabbage idea! Never thought of that and it sounds great. A must try for sure.
Just an idea….Lavash bread makes a great “noodle” if you ever want to do a traditional pan lasagne recipe. Just only do 2 layers of lavash…little sauce on bottom of pan, lavash, ricotta, meat sauce (repeat) top with cheese.
Neat idea! Thanks!