Instant Pot Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls Casserole
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Cabbage rolls made simple! Introducing: unstuffed cabbage rolls casserole, made in the Instant Pot to boot!
If you ever made classic stuffed cabbage rolls, you know that they are quite labor intensive, as you have to wrap the meat and rice filling into individual cabbage leaves. So how do you simplify it? By turning the “stuffed” cabbage rolls into “unstuffed”! With unstuffed cabbage rolls version, there are no cabbage leaves to stuff. Instead, the cabbage leaves are chopped up and cooked together with meat, rice and tomato sauce. The exact same flavor with so much less effort – what a winner!
Unstuffed cabbage rolls casserole is also often called “lazy cabbage rolls”. Yes, I’m super lazy so the name really speaks to me :) And to make this dish even lazier, I cook it in the Instant Pot. Instant Pot is a perfect gadget for lazy people who are short on time!
This Instant Pot unstuffed cabbage rolls recipe is so easy, you won’t believe it. All you need to do is dump all ingredients in the Instant Pot, set it to pressure cook and come back in 30 minutes to a steaming hot delicious unstuffed cabbage rolls casserole! Just like my Instant Pot dump chili, this is a true “dump” recipe as no pre-cooking of any kind is needed!
If you search for other recipes for Instant Pot lazy cabbage rolls, they all require browning of the meat before adding other ingredients. In my world the browning is absolutely unnecessary :) Lazy people always seek shortcuts! Meat will cook together with all other ingredients at the same time, and everything will taste amazing!
Simple down-to-earth ingredients produce the most amazing comfort food! Here we have ground beef, cabbage, rice and tomato sauce simmered together to perfection – so yummy! If you like the “unstuffed” concept, I have a similar recipe that simplifies the egg rolls by turning them into a hot pop of egg roll filling… in the Instant Pot. Interested? Check out my recipe for Instant Pot egg roll in a bowl.
If you like Instant Pot unstuffed cabbage rolls casserole, you will also love these easy recipes:
Instant Pot Filipino Chicken Adobo – so easy to make in the Instant Pot and so flavorful! You’ll love this chicken!
Instant Pot Cabbage And Sausage – cook the sausage and cabbage together in the Instant Pot and enjoy this classic combo!
Instant Pot Chili – put all ingredients in the pot and come back to a pot of hot chili! Easiest chili ever!
Instant Pot Bone Broth – turn rotisserie chicken carcass into amazing chicken stock! Instant Pot is like magic!
Instant Pot Brussels Sprouts – perfectly steamed in minutes! Super easy, healthy and yummy!
Instant Pot Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef or turkey
- 1 small head of cabbage cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 large jar 24 oz pasta sauce
- 6 cups water
Instructions
- Add water to the Instant Pot.
- Add rice, salt, pepper, ground beef and minced garlic.
- Add tomato sauce on top (don't mix with other ingredients).
- Add cabbage to the Instant Pot (make sure the pot doesn't get filled past the "Max Fill" line, if it does, remove some of the cabbage).
- Close the lid and turn the vent to a "Sealing" position. Press the "Pressure Cook" or "Manual" button and set the time to 20 minutes.
- After it's done cooking, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then quick release (QR) the remaining steam.
- Open the lid and stir the unstuffed cabbage rolls casserole so everything is combined and serve.
Notes
Do you just toss the meat in or do you break it up?
Either way will work.
Mine looked like soup when done????
It thickens somewhat if you let it sit in the pot for about 20 min.
Do you have a recipe using cauliflower rice instead? I am on keto.
Same recipe, just use cauliflower rice instead of regular rice and reduce water to 2 cups.
This was amazing. My question is how much is a serving? I fed 5 people and still had half a lot left.
Lol I would think 6 servings for hungry eaters, but from what you are telling me it’s probably 8 :) Glad you guys liked it!
We loved it. Mom said she’d eat it every day.
Does the beef go in raw or is it suppose to be sautéed before?
Raw
Am gonna try this recipe, but 6 cups water for 1 cup white rice seems WAY too much. max would be 3 to 1 ratio water to rice (again-depends on the rice you’re using), plus the liquid from the tomato sauce would make more like soup. I will let you know results.
Made this tonight and flavors were very good. I will make again but with some adjustments. I used quinoa instead of rice and cut the amount to 1/2c instead and 3 c water instead of 6. It was still little too soupy. I also didn’t break up the ground turkey enough and was too big of chunks same with cabbage. I think would have cooked better by breaking these up more. Overall a keeper to have again!