Holubtsi

The story

Holubtsi, rolled cabbage leaves filled with rice and mushrooms in the Lenten version made for the Holy Supper, belong to a wider Central and Eastern European family of stuffed cabbage that also includes Croatian sarma, Hungarian töltött káposzta, and Polish gołąbki. Every country has its own name and local twist, yet all share the same basic idea of using a cabbage leaf as a “wrapper” for a filling. The meatless Christmas Eve version leans on mushrooms, onion, and rice rather than meat for richness, and it cooks slowly in its own juices or in a light tomato sauce. Some Ukrainian families also make a meat version for Christmas Day itself, once the fast leading up to Christmas Eve supper has ended. For Ukrainian families in America, holubtsi are often one of the dishes in which guests from outside the community immediately notice a resemblance to Croatian sarma or Polish gołąbki, a small piece of evidence of a shared Central European culinary heritage that reaches beyond national borders.