Nothing beats the rich warmth of a bowl of cabbage rolls, and this instant pot cabbage rolls recipe has been tested and tried and the results are pure perfection.
Cabbage rolls is definitely one of our family’s favourite fall recipes. I’ve been tweaking and adjusting this particular dish little by little for the past 4 years and every time I make it, I fall in love all over again. Thank goodness for the Instant Pot
Golubtsy, as we call them back home in Ukraine, is a common dish in many ethnic cuisines of Europe and Asia which represents cooked and staffed cabbage leaves with ground meat, rice and herbs served with sour cream. This is the most tender and flavorful dish, where an easy to make filling and a soul-satisfying tomato sauce come together with a cabbage that has been sitting in your fridge for a while waiting for its moment.
Thing I Love About Instant Pot Cabbage Rolls #37: Super Easy-To-Find Ingredients!
You don’t need any special or hard-to-find ingredients to make this easy instant pot cabbage rolls recipe! If you’ve got a well-stocked pantry, you might even have this stuff on hand. Here’s everything you’ll need to make this yummy dish:
- white rice
- medium whole cabbage
- any ground meats (beef and pork work best)
- a few onions
- a few carrots
- garlic
- tomato puree (I love Tomato Passata
for this)
- sour cream, or crème fraîche is even better
for this)HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT CABBAGE ROLLS
To soften leaves, before wrapping them with fillings, the whole cabbage head can be steamed inside your instant pot. The core of the cabbage needs to be cut out a little so that the leaves are easy to separate.
Then simply place the cabbage onto the steamer rack core side down and pressure cook it for 3 minutes. Just enough time for leaves to get nice and steamed.
When the cabbage is ready, carefully remove it from the instant pot onto the cutting board. Cool it down until your are able to handle the heat. Then separate the leaves.
Make some rich tomato sauce. I highly recommend using the tomato passata for its sweet and creamy texture.
To make the filling, simply combine the ground meats, 1/3 of the tomato sauce, some slightly undercooked rice and season it with salt and pepper.
Place a couple spoonfuls of filling onto an individual cabbage leaf. Then flip up the bottom of the leaf, fold the sides in and roll to make a wrap.
Place all the cabbage rolls into instant pot, cover with remaining tomato sauce and some reserved cabbage water, and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes.
Enjoy served warm with a dollop of crème fraîche or sour cream.
More Instant Pot Recipes:
Instant Pot Cabbage Rolls
Equipment
- pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup white rice
- 1 medium cabbage
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 1/2 lb ground beef
- 3 medium carrots shredded
- 2 medium onions chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 3 cups tomato passata or good quality tomato purée
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Cover rice with a cup of water in a small pot and cook for 7 minutes on medium. Rinse, drain and set aside (rice will be undercooked).
- Pour 2 cups of water into instant pot and put in the steamer rack. Cut out the core from the head of the cabbage. This will cause the outer leaves to loosen so you can easily remove them after steaming. Put the cabbage core side down in the pressure cooker and lock the lid. Select pressure cook mode for 3 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce. Heat oil in the skillet and add the onions. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the onions soften up, add garlic and carrots and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the tomato passata, bay leaf and brig to boil. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Combine ingredients for the filling. in a large bowl, mix the ground meats, 1/3 of tomato sauce, rice, 2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of black pepper.
- When the cabbage is ready, manually release the pressure. Carefully remove the cabbage onto a cutting board to cool down until you're able to handle the heat. The leaves will come off easily. Some leaves may have harder end of the thick stem, feel free to remove it. Some leaves may partially crack, it's ok. Separate all the leaves, that will separate and set them aside. Chop the remaining cabbage and save for another recipe. Reserve 1 cup of cabbage water, discard the rest.
- Place a scoop of the filling onto individual leaves, then flip up the bottom of the leaf, fold the sides in and roll to make the wrap. Set aside and continue until you have used up all the filling mixture.
- Place all the cabbage rolls into the instant pot and cover with tomato sauce and reserved cabbage water. Give the pot a little shake to distribute the liquids. Lock the lid and select "pressure cook" for 20 minutes. Once done let the pressure release itself.
- Enjoy served warm with a scoop of crème fraîche and garnished with fresh dill.
hi , I have a garden ,grow all heirloom s this year humid loving tomato. Swiss chard barese chard 5 kinds summer squash 5 kinds carrots 5 kind radish two beets, 4 lettuce types ,5 pepper types pole beans 5 kinds bush beans 3 kinds cucumbers 4 kind ,,, all heirloom look barer creek seed and victory seed co.
Thank you Lili!!!!! Reminds of our childhood so much!!!!!! I never tried to make them in Instant Pot! Now I will try it for sure! ♥️
Thank you! I know, right? Totally from childhood with a handy upgrade of Instant Pot:)
Wow this looks so delicious I really want to try this! Thank you for sharing
Thank you!! Hope you love it!
Looks fantastic. I know my family would love this!
Thank you so much, Katie!
These look so delicious and tasty! My husband is going to love this recipe! So excited to give this a try!
I love cabbage rolls so much! Never thought of making them in the IP so I’ll definitely be giving this recipe a go!
We are always looking for new ways to use our instant pot and these cabbage rolls look amazing.
These are perfection and the Instant Pot is such a great tool in making them so tender! I seldom take the time to actually do cabbage rolls (and often just do a deconstructed version instead) but these were worth the effort. Delicious!
The you put the cabbage rolls into the instant pot, so you put them in the pot directly or on the rack?
Hi David, I put them directly in the pot. Thanks!