In Romania, the traditional Christmas dish of stuffed cabbage rolls is sarmale.
Sarmale are rolls of minced meat and rice wrapped in cabbage leaves, often using pickled cabbage for a pleasantly sour flavor. Recipes commonly add onion, thyme, dill, and other seasonings. The rolls are simmered with chopped cabbage, sauerkraut, or smoked pork, which deepens the dish’s rich winter flavor.
They are especially associated with Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but Romanians also serve sarmale at weddings, baptisms, and other large celebrations. The dish is popular partly because it can be prepared in large quantities and tastes even better after resting.
A common mix-up is mămăligă, a cornmeal porridge frequently served alongside sarmale rather than being the stuffed-roll dish itself. Mici are grilled minced-meat rolls, while ciorbă refers broadly to sour soups. Sarmale also belong to the wider family of rolled or stuffed-leaf foods found across the former Ottoman culinary sphere.