Runza casserole (beef and cabbage bake)
Savory beef, onion and cabbage baked between two flaky crescent crusts with melted cheese, the Nebraska classic in easy casserole form.
- 60 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $2.18 a serving
- 580 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- ½ head green cabbage, shredded
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls
- 1½ cups shredded cheddar
From your pantry
- 1¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 580 calories, 27 g protein, 38 g carbs and 34 g fat, and costs about $2.18 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No green cabbage? Red cabbage or coleslaw mix works.
- No shredded cheddar? Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the oven to 350°F.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
the onion.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Cut the core out of the cabbage and slice it into thin shreds.
Heat a large over medium-high and cook the beef and onion 7 to 8 minutes, breaking up the beef, until no pink is left. Spoon off the fat.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min 30 sec
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Add the cabbage, salt, pepper and Worcestershire, and cook 8 to 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the cabbage is soft and sweet.
Medium heatTimer: 9 min
Dolly’s tip: The pan will be piled high at first. Cabbage shrinks a lot as it cooks.Unroll one can of crescent dough into a 9x13-inch baking dish and press the seams together to make a bottom crust.
Spread the beef and cabbage over the crust and scatter the cheese on top.
Unroll the second can of dough over the top, stretching it gently to cover and pinching the seams closed.
Dolly’s tip: It doesn’t need to be perfect. Small gaps bake up fine.25 to 30 minutes, until the top is deep .
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 27 min 30 sec
Let it sit 5 minutes, then cut into squares.
Timer: 5 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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