Niño envuelto is the Middle-Eastern inspired Dominican rice and beef cabbage roll, with its juicy filling of minced beef mixed with rice, then wrapped in cabbage to make a roll that is then steamed in tomato sauce. It's become a favorite as appetizer, snack, or even as a meal.
By - Reviewed: . Original: Aug 20, 2003
Why we ❤️ it
A dish that we owe to the Middle Eastern diaspora in our country, Niño envuelto is a lovely dish that can be served "para picar" (as appetizer), or - if made in larger quantitities - as lunch or dinner
With a juicy, delectable filling of ground beef mixed with rice, these cabbage rolls are a great dish to serve something new.
What is Niño Envuelto?
It depends. In a few countries, like Mexico, for example, it's a sweet roll, the same type Dominicans call Brazo Gitano. In others is just about any type of rolls, including the savory rolled "sandwiches" Dominicans call Rollitos.
In the Dominican Republic, Niño Envuelto is a rice and ground beef mixture, wrapped in cabbage, and cooked in plenty of tomato sauce. Loosely translated from Spanish, the name means "swaddled baby".
Niños envueltos (Dominican cabbage rolls).
Serving suggestions
If you're serving these as party food, then a "fría" (frosty cold Dominican beer) is just the thing to serve with a Niño envuelto.
If you're serving as a dinner (or lunch) dish, then pick a Dominican salad to go with it, be also mindful that you'll need to at least double the recipe if this is to be served as a whole meal.
Top tips
- Wrapping: I have to say that I'm not very fond of making any dish that requires wrapping (looking at you, pasteles en hoja!). Working with the cabbage leaves is kind of messy, so I don't have any advice on how to do it, so just wing it.
- Rice: For this recipe I used leftover white rice, though this is not how it was traditionally made. For the filling, raw long-grain rice was mixed into the cooked ground beef, and the rice would be steamed as the rolls were cooked.
The problem with that is that it is not a beginner-friendly way of doing it, as you would need to know exactly how much liquid and for how long too cook it. This require more practice and experience. I find that using leftover rice works great, and it is much easier. - Other meats: Beef is the traditional meat used in this recipe, but you can go lighter by using ground turkey.
About our recipe
I hope that reading about the history of Niño envuelto has disabused us of the notion that there is just one way to make this dish. The people who brought it here couldn't agree on one recipe themselves.
So bear in mind that, even if you are a descendant of Middle Eastern immigrants and this recipe is part of your traditional family repertoire, it will differ from the tradition of other families with a similar background. For one, this recipe calls for pre-cooked rice, a conscious choice in my part to simplify the recipe for beginners and for day-to-day meals.
If you have your own family recipe or secret, we'll love to read about it in the comments.
Video
Recipe
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Niño Envuelto [Video+Recipe] Rice & Ground Beef Cabbage Rolls
Equipment
Ingredients
For beef filling
- 2 tablespoon olive oil, [20g]
- 1 red onion, (medium-size, minced [65 g]
- 3 cloves garlic, [20g]
- 1 pound minced beef, [454g]
- 1 cup tomato sauce, [115g]
- 1 bell pepper, (diced [76g]
- 1½ teaspoons salt, (or more, to taste)
- ½ teaspoons pepper, freshly-cracked, or ground
- 1 sprig minced cilantro, or parsley
For tomato sauce for baking
For rolls
- 3 cups cooked white rice, arroz blanco per our recipe
- 1 head cabbage, (pick one with thin outer leaves)
- Minced parsley, to garnish
Instructions
1. Make tomato sauce
Dice the tomatoes.Place the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients in a pot, and simmer over low heat until the tomatoes are soft.💡 You can mash the tomatoes with a tomato masher for smoother sauce.
2. Cooking beef
- In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-low heat. Stir in onion and cook and stir until it turns translucent. Add garlic and cook and stir for a minute.Add ground beef and cook and stir, breaking it into small clumps until it browns. Pour in tomato sauce. Add bell pepper, salt, and pepper. Stir and cover. Simmer for 3 minutes.Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste if needed. Mix in cilantro. Remove from the heat and set aside. ⚠️ See the video to cook the beef.
3. Softening cabbage leaves
- Separate the outermost leaves of the cabbage. Try not to break them.Soak in boiling-hot water cooking over low heat until they are slightly softer.Remove from the water, discard water and set aside the leaves.
4. Making the rolls
- Preheat oven to 400 ºF [200 ºC]Put 2 tablespoons of the rice and beef mixture in the center of one of the leaves. Wrap tightly (using more leaves if necessary) securing the bundle with a toothpick if necessary.Cover the bottom of a lasagna pan with half the tomato sauce. Place the rolls on top and cover them with the rest of the tomato sauce.
5. Bake
- Cover the baking pan tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 15 minutes, or enough to heat everything until it starts steaming. Uncover and let it cool for a few minutes before serving.
6. Serve
- Remove the toothpicks, if you used any,Sprinkle with minced parsley and serve each with some of the tomato sauce.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated automatically based on ingredients listed. Please consult your doctor if you need precise nutrition information.
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More cabbage recipes
While cabbage seem an unlikely crop for a tropical country, we grow most of our cabbage in the mountains, where the temperature is perfect for this crop. You can find cabbage in Ensalada verde, our traditional Dominican salad, as well as in Ensalada de repollo y zanahoria, our Dominican slaw, and my Lenten Bacalao con repollo, a our lovely vegan Repollo guisado.
Cabbage also feature in our street foods, like Chimi, in Rikitaki and Frikitaki sandwiches, and this Dominican hot dog.
If you want to try some of my lovely non-traditional cabbage recipes, don't miss this Cabbage with ground beef, or Sautéed red cabbage with bacon.
History
We Dominicans love Niños Envueltos (Rice and Beef Cabbage Rolls), but it's likely that not many of us are familiar with the convoluted origin of this popular dish. As well as the linguistic confusion that seems to be an intrinsic part of Hispanic cuisine, here we have the historical disputes to top the cake.
As with many dishes worldwide, many countries claim they created it. Let's see if we can "untangle this tripe [*]" a bit.
Cabbage rolls filled with meat are claimed as a national dish by several different countries and regions in the world.
Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon (and several other neighboring countries) all claim malfouf mahshi (cabbage rolls) for themselves. Each of these recipes varies in some way or another. The Egyptian version is apparently served with tomato sauce, although it's almost certain that there are many ways of making this dish, even within these countries.
This is a dish that, like Kipes, Tipili and Arroz con fideos, is a Dominican adaptation of Middle Eastern dishes brought over by immigrants from the former Ottoman Empire in the 19th century.
To make things more interesting --and/or confusing-- very similar dishes exist in Europe, the best known of which is probably the Polish Gołąbki.
Translation note
"Desenredar esa tripa": Dominican idiomatic expression meaning to untangle a mystery or complex idea.
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