Golabki Cabbage Rolls gluten free dairy free

This Polish dinner will delight those looking for fall comfort food. The recipe adaptation comes from the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival Cookbook. I highly recommend enjoying the Food and Wine Festival, or picking up a world sampler cookbook like this to play with different flavors from around the world.  It's a lot of fun!
We edited this dish a bit by swapping out the pork with pasture raised ground beef and subbing tomato juice with V8 original.  The photo shows the cabbage rolls before the sauce is added, just before baking.
To make life easier in the kitchen, make this the day after you cook rice. Save 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice for this recipe and you'll have one less thing to prepare.
Ingredients:

• 4 chopped, cooked, nitrate free slices of bacon
• 1 pound of pasture raised ground beef
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
• 1 tablespoon oregano 
• 1 egg
• 1 large head of cabbage (green)
• 1 cup beef stock (or chicken)
• 1 cup V8 juice, original 

Directions:
Cook bacon, remove, cool, chop. Cook beef in same pan. Add onion and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes, or until translucent.Add paprika, salt, pepper, caraway, and bacon and remove from heat. Add rice, oregano, egg and mix.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bring large pot of water to boil. Add cabbage, chopped in half length wise with core removed. Boil for 4-5 minutes. Cool leaves in cold water and separate aprox 15 outer leaves. Stuff with what each will hold (small leaves may only hold 1 tablespoon, while largers may hold 1/2 cup). Wrap and place snug together in a 9x13 pan. When finished rolling, pour stock and V8 juice over the cabbage rolls and bake for 1 hour.

My dear friend, Shannon, has informed me that this dish freezes well, so consider adding servings to the freezer for easy lunches down the road. Enjoy!