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Instant Pot Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls is a deconstructed version of the classic cabbage rolls my mom made. They are inexpensive to make, and you can feed the family a nutritious, tasty meal for very little. This pressure cooker unstuffed cabbage rolls recipe is like a stew, and is very good.
Instant Pot Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls
Cabbage rolls are a comfort food in many cultures, mine included. Recreating a comfort food from my childhood brings me back to our tiny little kitchen (I called it our 1-butt kitchen, lol!).
This recipe is rather old fashioned. Nothing fancy, except for maybe the balsamic vinegar! I was going to make this into more of a soup (and you can), but I really wanted the thickness of a casserole, and for it to be more like when you mash up a cabbage roll.
If you decide you want to make Instant Pot Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls into a soup, just increase the broth, and adjust the seasonings a little, to your liking. Easy!
Two questions I get asked about this recipe are:
1) Is the rice cooked or uncooked when I put it in? It is uncooked. Rinse it well before adding it to get some of the starch off.
2) Will I get the dreaded “BURN” error from this being thick? You shouldn’t. As long as you pay attention to the amounts of the ingredients, and don’t stir in the tomatoes before pressure cooking, it should come to pressure with no burn issues.
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Instant Pot Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Beef or Ground Turkey (93% lean), or use sausage or half sausage for added flavor.
- 1 large Yellow Onion, chopped
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 4 large cloves Garlic, pressed or minced
- 2 tsp Paprika
- 1 ½ tsp Coarse Salt (or 1 tsp table salt) more to taste
- 1 tsp Pepper
- ¼ tsp Oregano
- 1 small-med Head of Green Cabbage, chopped in 2" pieces
- 3 ½ cups Beef Broth,* low sodium (or chicken, if using gr. turkey)
- 1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 cup Long Grain White Rice, rinsed, uncooked
- 1 (14 oz) can Diced Tomatoes, with juice
- 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
- 2 tsp Sugar
Instructions
- Get all of your veggies chopped, and all other ingredients ready to go. Then turn on the pressure cooker's Sauté setting.
- If using ground beef, add it to the pot and start browning it. Then add the onions.
If using ground turkey, add some olive oil to the pot and add the onions first. Then add the ground turkey when the onions just start to turn translucent. - Add the bay leaves and garlic. Sauté, stirring frequently, for a minute.
- Add the paprika, salt, pepper, oregano, cabbage, broth*, balsamic vinegar, and Worcestershire. Stir well and let heat up for a few minutes.
- Add the rice and stir well.
- Pour the can of diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and sugar over the cabbage mixture, but don't stir.
- Put the lid on the pot and lock in place.
- Set the steam release knob to the Sealing position.
- Cancel the Sauté function and then press the Pressure Cook/Manual button or dial. Use the + or - button or dial to choose 4 minutes.
- When the cooking cycle is finished, let the pot sit undisturbed for 5 minutes (5 minute natural release). Then do a controlled Quick Release to manually release the remaining pressure. This will take a few minutes as the pot is full.
- To do a controlled Quick Release, use a spoon handle to gently push the steam release knob towards the Venting position, but don't turn the knob fully over. The reason is that with a full pot there is a risk of sauce spewing out of the knob with the steam. It make a huge mess, and could burn you. So just feather it and when you feel sure that only steam is coming out, turn it fully to Venting. If sauce starts to come out, just turn it back and feather it some more.
- When the pin in the lid drops down, open the lid carefully and give the contents a stir.
- Taste and adjust salt, if desired.
- Serve with some soft dinner rolls.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Resources to Make Instant Pot Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls Recipe and More
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Absolutely comfort food at it’s finest.
This is a very tasty alternative to traditional cabbage rolls. The only thing I changed was that I omitted the sugar. Quality tomatoes, plus the balsamic and Worcestershire, gives it plenty of sweetness.
Not a huge fan of cabbage rolls but had some cabbage that needed to be used up. This recipe is great! Tasty and easy. An excellent take on the traditional rolls
This was AWESOME. If I closed my eyes I would have thought I was eating real cabbage rolls. I Google’d for small and med sized cabbages and found a small is equivalent to 1.5 lbs and medium is 2 lbs. To avoid possible spewing, I opted to use the lesser amount. I may try the soup (more broth) version next time. Thanks for sharing!
This was fabulous! I used half cup brown rice and adjusted liquid and time. I opened at 10 minutes (brown rice 3/4 cooked) to put cabbage in as I prefer more texture to my cabbage.
Hi, wondering if you would have the nutritional facts for this recipe? Thank you
You can plug the ingredients into a nutrition calculator. I haven’t found one that is reliable for blog recipes yet, and I don’t want to get anything wrong.
This looks so simple and lovely! Any tips for substituting brown rice or eliminating rice altogether, would be much appreciated. Thanks for the recipe!
Maybe try some cooked quinoa, or add a little more meat and veggies.
I made this pretty much as the recipe called for. I used ground turkey and didn’t have the diced tomatoes ,so i used a can of stewed tomatoes instead. It was delicious and will now be a winter go to in my house.
Super easy and yummy. At first I was going to use instant rice, as sometimes my rice has turned out undercooked, but used regular rice and it was fine.
How when brown rice takes longer?
Hi, I don’t understand what you are asking. Will you reword the question?
One of our favorite meals! I use 1/2 lb Turkey and 1/2 lb mild sausage with chicken broth, and no sugar. I have used both white rice and brown rice. Works well with either one. My husband loves this! Also good with saltine crackers in place of bread.