Hungarian-Style Beef & Cabbage Rice
with Paprika Sour Cream & Fresh Dill
- Milk
This Hungarian-inspired meal channels the flavors of classic stuffed cabbage (no rolling required!). Ground beef and cabbage are simmered in a rich and tangy paprika-spiced tomato sauce. Fluffy rice soaks up every savory drop. Topped with creamy paprika sour cream and fresh dill, this 25-minute wonder delivers pure comfort food perfection!
Ingredients
1.5 tablespoon
Sour Cream
(Contains: Milk)
½ cup
White Rice
1 unit
Crushed Tomatoes
10 ounce
Ground Beef
1 unit
Conehead Cabbage
2 clove
Garlic
2.5 teaspoon
Red Wine Vinegar
1 teaspoon
Paprika
1 unit
Beef Stock Concentrate
⅓ tablespoon
Onion Powder
¼ ounce
Dill
Not included in your delivery
1 teaspoon (tsp)
Sugar
1 teaspoon (tsp)
Cooking Oil
teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
1 tablespoon (tbsp)
Butter
(Contains: Milk)
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
-
In a small pot, combine rice, ¾ cup water (1½ cups for 4 servings), and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low. Cook, covered, until rice is tender, 15-18 minutes.
-
Keep covered off heat until ready to use in Step 4.
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While rice cooks, wash and dry produce.
-
Remove and discard any wilted outer leaves from cabbage and quarter lengthwise; remove thick core and stem. Cut cabbage into 1-inch cubes. Peel and mince or grate garlic. Pick and roughly chop fronds from dill.
-
Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add beef*, half the paprika (you’ll use the rest later), 1 tsp onion powder (2 tsp for 4 servings), salt, and pepper. (Be sure to measure the onion powder—we sent more!) Cook, breaking up meat into pieces, until beef is browned and cooked through, 4-6 minutes.
-
Add garlic; cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30-60 seconds.
-
To pot with beef, stir in cabbage, tomatoes, stock concentrate, ¼ cup water, and 1 tsp sugar (½ cup water and 2 tsp sugar for 4 servings). Cook, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is tender and sauce has thickened slightly, 6-8 minutes.
-
Turn off heat; add half the vinegar (for a tangier flavor, add all the vinegar) and 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4). Taste and season with salt and pepper.
-
Stir in rice.
-
While beef and cabbage cook, in a small bowl, combine sour cream and remaining paprika. Add water 1 tsp at a time until mixture reaches a drizzling consistency.
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Divide beef and cabbage rice between shallow bowls. Drizzle with paprika sour cream. Garnish with dill and serve.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Feb 2026- Flavor: Some found it mild and bland, while others loved the comforting Hungarian-inspired taste. Consider adding extra paprika or hot sauce for more kick.
- Ease of prep: Many struggled with the cabbage prep; consider shredding instead of cubing for easier cooking and better texture.
- Suggestions: Use less cabbage (about half a head) and cook it longer for better texture. Add real onions and more seasoning for deeper flavor.
- Leftovers: Makes plenty, with some reporting it tasted even better reheated the next day 🍲.
- Portions: Several mentioned there was too much cabbage compared to beef and rice; adjusting ratios could improve the dish.
Reviews from our home cooks
Delicious; however, with the cabbage being soooo large, the other ingredients needed to be augmented to make it flavorful. I think the recipe should be revised to make sure not too much cabbage is added. I needed to not only add additional spices (paprika, pureed tomato and ketchup to add a bit of zing) but less cabbage than you actually sent. To make the recipe perfect, I think the cabbage needs to be measured more accurately. On the plus side I had plenty of leftovers for a hearty lunch!
Cooking this meal was a pretty comical adventure. Instead of the conehead cabbage on the recipe card, we received an enormous, perfectly spherical green cabbage. Not knowing the difference, we threw all of the cubed cabbage into the pan, creating an 18-inch mountain that couldn't possibly be stirred. After transferring to a big pot, we compensated for the extra volume with lots of our own spices from the pantry. We wound up with a very tasty dish, but it didn't look anything like the photos on the recipe card. It was basically a bowl of cabbage, with a couple grains of rice and one or two crumbles of beef as garnish. On the upside, we got to improve our improvisational cooking skills, and we have leftovers for the next day as well.
Loved it!! And to top it with dill! OMG makes my mouth watery just thinking about it 🤤 So easy to make and portion size is amazing will definitely get again! Love paprika and dill ❤️
Very good! Definitely needed to cook the cabbage longer than the recipe said, I also added Worcestershire sauce which helped the flavor
This was fantastic. I liked it as much as my grandmother's stuffed cabbage recipe with like 1/10th the time and effort.
Loved the cabbage. Great volume and flavor. It was a lot. Only used half the head of cabbage for the recipe.
6-8 minutes of cooking the cabbage left it pretty crisp. Other than that, the flavor is really good.
WAYYYYY too much cabbage. We used 1.5 of the cabbages and they barely fit in our 5 qt pan. Also took much longer to cook cabbage down. After 8 minutes it was still quite crunchy and wouldn't fit in the pan. We cooked ours for 15-20 minutes to get a more braised texture and it cooked down nicely and the texture was much better. Nevertheless, it had very good flavor, and I would make again with these changes.
I only needed about a quarter of the cabbage. I think that should be noted! The dish would also be good with a bit more rice.
I couldn't cut the cabbage into cubes for some reason, but everything cooked down as I expected. Having lived in Hungary, it was nice to have something inspired by the cuisine. Hungarian paprika would have been a nice touch, but it was still nice to have a meal that was a bit different from the standard Hello Fresh fare.
