Name: Beet Leaf Rolls with Creamy Dill Sauce
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 2 cups rice; 4 1/2 cups water; 1 medium onion; 1 bulb garlic; large beet leaves; 2 cups whipping cream; 1/4 cup butter; 2 tbsp flour; 1/2 cup fresh chopped dill; salt and pepper to taste

You might have heard of beatniks (dough rolled up in a beet leaf) but have you heard of beet leaf rolls? They’re a riff off of cabbage rolls, way better tasting, and a great way to use up some of your beet leaves!

By the way, did you know you can eat beet leaves? Now you do. They’re delicious in these rolls, used as salad greens, or fried up as part of a stir fry.

Or maybe you haven’t heard of any of these things! Read on and you’ll be glad you did.

Ukrainian beet leaf rolls with creamy dill sauce will be your new vegetarian comfort food. It's an easy cabbage roll recipe stuffed with rice and baked into a delicious casserole--just like Mom used to make. #casserole #beetleafrolls #cabbagerolls #Ukrainiandishes #Ukrainiancuisine #vegetariancasserole #vegetarian #casserole

Ukrainian Beet Leaf Cabbage Rolls with Creamy Dill Sauce

I was first introduced to this recipe by a neighbour of ours back when I was a kid on the farm. Rice rolled up in beet leaves with a decadent creamy dill sauce–it was simply to die for!

Beet leaf cabbage rolls are actually a traditional Ukrainian recipe called holubtsi. Having no Ukrainian blood in me that I know of, and no recipe card handed down to me, this recipe is probably not quite traditional. I am literally going off of my memory of what this much-loved dish tasted like and a few alterations I’ve made along the way to suit my tastes.

NOTE: After consulting one of my friends with Ukrainian heritage, I’m starting to think these beet leaf rolls might be some sort of fusion of two Ukrainian dishes. Since they are a small roll (or finger) I can still call them holubtsi, but she had never heard of this particular way of making them. If you have any background on this dish, I would love to hear about it in the comments!

Bake in the Tastiness

I also need to make a tiny confession–how you see the rolls pictured is not exactly how I would serve them if you would come over to my house for dinner. I styled them this way so that if you–like me–have no Ukrainian heritage and have never seen or heard of these before, it would be obvious from the pictures what they are.

If you came over to my house for dinner, the cream sauce would be spread all over the dish and baked in until boiling along the edges. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as pretty and probably wouldn’t encourage you to click on this recipe.

You can eat the dish as shown, but trust me, it’s way tastier with the cream baked in.

Related: Warm Sautéed Kale Salad

Finally, if you make this dish with the amount of garlic and onion I suggest, you might question my sanity when you smell how powerful it is in your rice cooker. Don’t freak out. Yes, the smell is powerful, but it will all balance out in the end–promise!

Beet Leaf Rolls with Creamy Dill Sauce

Yield: Serves 8-10

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

A cross between beetniks and cabbage rolls.

Ingredients

2 cups rice
4 1/2 cups water
1 medium onion
1 bulb garlic
large beet leaves
2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup fresh chopped dill
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Chop up onion and garlic.

2. Add rice, water, onion, and garlic to rice cooker and cook until done.

3. Boil beet leaves in a small amount of water until just wilted. Drain water and let cool. Make sure you cook more beet leaves than you think you will need, as some of them will break.

4. Once rice mixture and leaves are cool, place one tablespoon of the rice mixture on a beet leaf and roll.

5. Fill up a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish with the rolls.

6. In a sauce pan, melt butter, add flour, and cook until flower and butter is golden brown.

7. Add cream and stir until sauce is slightly thick. Do not worry if your sauce is a little runny. It will thicken up in the oven.

8.Stir in chopped dill and salt and pepper to taste.

9. Pour sauce over the beet leaf rolls.

10. Cook in a 350 oven for 45 minutes, or until the cream sauce is boiling at the edges.

11. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve

This recipe is a little time-consuming, but frugal and delicious. Let me know if you make it!

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Comments

Di

You can use beet leaves and stems cut up in beet soup. Also try topping with sour cream.

Reply
- Kristen Raney
  
  That sounds delicious!
  
  Reply
Kim

Can you freeze these if you don't have dill sauce on them

Reply
- Kristen Raney
  
  Yes, and I would personally freeze them even with the dill sauce, I would just make it a little runnier if I knew I was going to freeze it.
  
  Reply
Lou-Ann Archer

Made this today with beet leaves, dill and fresh garlic from my garden. Delicious!

Reply
- Kristen Raney
  
  I'm so glad you liked it!
  
  Reply
Geri

Yes, I do make these as well, but add bacon to the rice mixture. My sauce is similar. I freeze beet leaves for winter use. Lay clean,dry leaves flat in a large ziploc bag, which has a paper towel in it to absorb moisture. You can stack quite a few in a bag. Then voila, during winter you can make a batch of beet rolls! Frozen beet leaves won't crack or break like fresh ones, but be careful how you place them in the freezer. Keep them flat and don't put any heavy items on top of them.

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- Kristen Raney
  
  Thank you, these are super helpful tips, and I'm sure the addition of bacon would be delicious!
  
  Reply
Patty Carson

I love these tasty morsels of goodness. I have added bacon or ground beef.. The other day I decided to try them with Swiss Chard -- they were just as yummy !

Reply
- Kristen Raney
  
  I'm so glad you liked them, and I'll have to try the swiss chard variation.
  
  Reply
Tawni

My hubby is from Czech Republic & this dill sauce reminds me of a traditional dill sauce from there.

Reply
Celeste Glasser-Cook

Hi there, I am definitely trying these tonight. They look delicious! Any tips on how to roll them? What do you do exactly? Place in the rice middle and roll from large or small end? What works best in your experience?

Reply
- Kristen Raney
  
  I roll them like a burrito. I like to start at one end, not the centre.
  
  Reply
TeaDubb

A very similar dish is a tradition in our Romanian/ Ukrainian family. We fly bacon and then use the drippings to sauté the onion. No garlic. The. We mix the onion/ bacon in with mostly precooked rice. We wash our beet or chard leaves then pour boiling water over them to make them a workable leaf. Fill and roll and put in a casserole dish with a lid. Once all rolls are in we cover with water and bake covered for over an hour. One done we pour a sauce mixture of reduced whip cream /Sour cream, dill, salt and pepper over top and devour them. Similar but a little different.

Reply
- Kristen Raney
  
  It sounds so good! Thank you so much for sharing!!
  
  Reply
Judie

As part of my Ukranian/Romanian heritage, my mother made these. She would make them for me without meat for my vegetarian frien or if we didnt have any meat to put in. Bacon and a bit of ground meat cwould be used. Eveything had some garlic added.

Reply
Wayne

We pulled a few beets today and had mostly leaves with quite small beets. Like you, as a kid I had these just once but remembered how good they were. Excited to try your recipe in the upcoming days. Thanks for posting.

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Dianne

I love these beet rolls as have grown up eating them. Pretty much as you make them except we add dill to the rice also with bacon and onion, no garlic. The cream and dill is poured over them and baked in the oven. Will have to try them with the garlic added also. I freeze my beet leaves with moisture on them not dry. Never had a problem with them tearing.

Reply
Cheryl

Sautee onions and garlic first and add to cooked rice with salt, pepper and some dill. Blanch beet leaves first, then place a spoon full of rice at one end of the leaf and roll tight. Place in roaster. Sautee more onions until browned and translucent, add about 250ml of heavy cream or half and half and reduce until slightly thickened and browned, then add a tablespoon of fresh dill...pour over beetleaf rolls and bake in oven for 40-60 min. Leaves will soften and darken. That is My Ukrainian Baba's way of doing it. If you want something different, you can use bread dough in the leaf instead of rice...but then you have to let them rise and bake them once before adding the cream and dill

Reply
Anne

Hi, I put my washed beet leaves in the oven at 250*F for 12-15 min. and they wilt very easily to roll up. Just be sure not to leave in too long. It even works well on a bit older leaves. We have made three times this summer and they have turned out delicious! Thanks for your recipe. They are much easier than cabbage rolls or perogies. The creamy dill sauce is to die for!!

Reply
- Kristen Raney
  
  Thank you for this tip! I'll try it out next time I make a batch.
  
  Reply
Corinne

I've made this recipe several times over the past couple years and love it. I've adopted a lazy method, though. Instead of making rolls, I just layer minute rice (cooked) with small beet or Swiss chard leaves (two or three layers) then cover with sauce and bake for 35-40 minutes at 350F. If the leaves are large, I chop them up a little and layer with the rice, then cover with sauce. I also sprinkle 5-6 teaspoons of white vinegar on near the end of the baking (as the sauce starts to turn brown) and it adds a nice zing. I just froze two half-cooked pans to enjoy over winter. To prepare, I'll simply thaw and finish cooking until nice and hot/brown on top. Thanks for sharing this recipe! Will have to try with crumbled bacon next!

Reply
- Kristen Raney
  
  I love your variation! Thanks for sharing and I'll have to try your version!
  
  Reply
Courtney

Can I make this in the morning and pour the sauce on and keep it in the fridge until ready to cook at dinner time? Also do you buy the beet leaves separate? Or you buy beets and take the leaves off? This recipe sounds good. Do you mean a whole bulb of garlic or a clove? Thank you

Reply
Courtney

Also I don’t have a rice cooker. If I make rice in a pot on the stove how would I adjust the garlic or the recipe? Thank you again

Reply
Judy

The beet leaves take like 30 second to wilt in hot water that’s all you need ! Otherwise to limp to work with or just let them wither on the counter over night !

Reply
Shannon

My MIL used to make these many years ago. I don’t recall the dill sauce tho. I am gonna try this out and see if I can actually replicate them. They were so good. Instead of dill sauce, we used to top them with sour cream once they came outta the oven. Thanks for the recipe. Wish me luck!

Reply
Tammy W

Just wondering if you have put the creamy dill sauce on and then froze the beatniks. Made three pans but want to freeze two and put the sauce on now. Hoping it won’t curdle.

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JoAnn V

I just finished making your dill sauce recipe. I used GF flour blend instead of regular flour, lactose free whipping cream instead of regular whipping cream. With the proportions of the amounts of flour and cream, I ended up adding almost another 2 cups cream. I found it too thick, probably since I used a GF flour. Added the dil, salt and pepper and what a great sauce. Had about 1.5 cups left over so I froze it. Thanks for sharing your recipe.

Reply
Sheila Reinhardt

Could you add meat to the rice. I am think spicy Italian sausage.

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Carol

I make these quite often, I am of Ukrainian heritage and you more or less have the recipe pretty well nailed down. I think you are a bit shy on the butter because in photo your rolls look a bit dry. Another thin, when you are baking them be sure to pack tightly, cover with extra leaves on top. i have never put flour or garlic in my beet leaves, I do however put bacon at times. There are countless ways of making this. Evertone has their won little spin on it in the Ukrainian communities. Try making this recipe with chopped beet leaves and you make it pretty much the same only there is no rolling. Use lots of cream(whipping) and butter. We do not want the dry stuff here. And you just know it is so delicious that you cannot gain weight from them.

Reply
Sherrylynncc

Hi - I made these and they were delicious! I would use a drier rice next time. Less water when preparing the rice.

Reply
Karen Berube

Can I freeze without the sauce? I don’t want to waste the leaves Thanks in advance Karen

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Cindy

Hi! I was just wondering what you serve WITH your beet leaf rolls? They look delicious. Thanks. I will try them soon...I hope.

Reply
Kathy

These sound great! They actually look like a combination of cabbage rolls and Holubsi. My grandma ( who was Ukrainian) always made them with white bread dough wrapped with beet leaves. The cream sauce was always an onion, dill sauce and we LOVED them. However, your take on them sounds like they are worth a try because every recipe starts with inspiration and good ingredients and you have both here! I can’t wait to try them!

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