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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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5 out of 5 stars!
I was so pleasantly surprised at how wonderful this recipe turned out! I followed the recipe exactly, and when it was done in the instant pot, I spread the mixture into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish, topping it with sauerkraut, salt and pepper. I baked it for an additional hour at 350 degrees. So delicious! Thank you, it is definitely a keeper!
Love this recipe. Made slight modification. Used ground turkey, 1.5 cups of low sodium chicken broth and added cauliflower rice at end instead of rice. For WW followers came to 4 pts/serving.
Thank you.
This is five star and my future changes will be to add some green peppers and diced carrots. Awesome!
Thank you for this delicious recipe!! My whole family loved it!! I’m fairly new to using the instapot, and the step by step directions were great! Thanks for all the recommendations! They were greatly appreciated!! Thanks for sharing this!! Yum!!!
I’m thinking of trying the radical experiment of leaving out the rice and dumping in some cauliflower “rice” at the end. Probably be a bit soupy unless I cut down on the liquid (but don’t want the instant pot to dry out either). If I get up the energy to try this, I’ll let you know how it comes out.
That sounds great! Yes, do cut down on the liquid quite a bit.
I went and did it. Used just two cups of beef broth (no rice) and after everything finished and I released the pressure, I dumped in a half bag of frozen cauliflower rice (about 10 oz) I had left from a previous experiment with cauliflower. I think it came out very nice. Pretty flavorful, and I don’t seem to miss the real rice. Might be better consistency with just 1 cup of broth, but I didn’t want the instant pot to overheat due to too little liquid. Now I’ve got lunch for the rest of the week in containers in the fridge.
That is such a great low carb option! I agree that less broth would keep that “casserole” consistency. Thank you for letting me know!
Perfect! I’m a Home Health Aide, and I made this for my client today. We both LOVED this dish! I will be making this again!! Thank you! Jesus will be returning soon, btw. It’s time to read our bibles!
I’m so glad, Sherry. Thank you for all that you do to take care of others.
Mine turned out delicious but a bit too watery for my liking. Will cut back on the broth next time and for now I’m cooking extra rice on the stove to add and soak up some of the unwanted liquid.
Made this and loved it. Thanks for the recipe!
Just made this recipe with leftover meatballs from meatball subs. Replaced the tomatoes with all the tomato sauce from the meatballs. Turned out amazing, also tossed in some garlic scapes and carrots. Very very pleased with the result!!
Yum! Sounds awesome! Thank you for your review.
Delicious, wife had seconds.
Used Hot ground pork. Substituted 14 oz. tomatoes for 2 cups broth. Shut off Saute after cooking meat and onions. Combined many ingredients in a bowl as it takes too long to measure and add each while meat is still cooking.
Hard to read recipe when ads are causing the screen to scroll up and down. Even got popup to win a prize and couldn’t back out of site without shutting down.
Hi Harry, Darn, I switched ad companies to minimize that sort of thing. If I can find which ad that was I can have them remove it. Thank you for letting me know!