How to Cook a Whole Cabbage

Whole cabbage recipe in Instant Pot, baked in the oven or make a Whole Head of Cabbage in Slow Cooker is here! Steamed and then crisped a bit, buttered and served as a side dish.

Cooking a Whole Cabbage

There are so many ways to slice and cook this. It took me many many years to become a lover of this crunchy veggie but now I love it all different ways. From air fryer cabbage to our most requested Instant Pot fried cabbage it is a cheap side to serve with any meal.

You may not have thought you could even cook the whole thing to tender, but you can. I will explain two different methods. It is by far better to pressure cooker whole cabbage first, then pop it into your oven. If you don’t have that device, it can still be done.

in Instant Pot

As you can imagine, it would take quite a while to get the middle tender. Let’s compare…..in the oven method that part will take 60 minutes, when making IP or Ninja Foodi cabbage it is just 5 minutes! When it comes to the brand you might have at home it doesn’t matter. They all have the high pressure function so any will work.

Since I use this device on a daily basis, and like to save time, I will always use it for the first step. If you did not want to use your oven at all and just steam it like this, I’d increase to 7 minutes. I like a little crisping on the top so 5 works, and then 20 in the oven.

You could decrease that time even if you wanted to use the broil setting, but I just set to 400 to finish the job. Now let’s talk about the steamer basket you see here, it’s killer.

in Dutch Oven

After it’s steamed to the center I want a bit of texture on the outside. The easiest way is to just transfer the basket into a dutch oven or oven safe pot. A little water on the bottom, or broth, helps keep it moist while it bakes the rest of the way.

in Slow Cooker

There is a link at the top of this recipe if you want to keep it whole. That is wonderful but you can cook it faster and more tender if you slice and make Slow Cooker Cabbage this way instead.

in the Oven

• Oven only directions: Cut the stem off and discard outer leaves too. Pour 1 1/2 cup water in pot, place trivet or this basket in middle so it can sit on it. (could sit potatoes on the sides to keep it up and enjoy those later too)
  • Add cabbage with stem side up into dutch oven or pot with lid.
  • Put butter in center core + sprinkle on all seasonings.
  • Bake in preheated oven at 400 F for 1 hour covered. (cabbage is tender now, but will continue to soften)
• Then flip head over and pour 2 tbsp melted butter (or olive oil can be used) over the top in that hole you created.
• To get roasted cabbage, uncover for another 20-25 minutes so cabbage leaves a little brown on top.

on Stove

We do have steps for boiled cabbage but honestly it is not great. Especially left whole when you bring to a boil submerged in water it sucks the nutrients and flavor out and makes it mushy.Even if done in broth from beef with onions, other methods are better.

Ingredient Tips

1. Whole head of cabbage is used, I like a medium size that has no sign of brown of wilting on the outer leaves so it is fresh.
2. Water or any liquid of choice will work for this. Chicken broth will offer more flavor to the dish, you could even use beer for that flavor.
3. Butter salted is prefer or you could just use a dairy free alternative if needed
4. Seasonings of your choice should be adde for flavor, choices are paprika, garlic salt and onion powder

Equipment Needed

You will need your cooking pot of choice and a trivet or basket with feet to keep it out of the liquid below so it can steam.

Once you slice it and serve you may want a pat of butter on top of each serving + a sprinkle of salt and pepper too. We like bold flavors when it comes this, you can see what we are talking about with our last creation, swamp cabbage.

I included both methods of cooking a whole head of cabbage below but here is a quick look. You can print it out below and keep it in your recipe book or come back again and again.

What’s the best way to use a whole head of cabbage?

You can cook it whole, without any prep at all if you want!! We will give you instructions here for that on the stove. If you want it in smaller pieces we shared how to cut cabbage. You can then boil it with butter and onions, oh my. Some call this “fried” which adds a ton of flavor to it. You can leave the leaves whole, pulled off and filled with meat like slow cooker stuffed cabbage with ground beef.

And of course it is around St. Patrick’s Day you will want it with your traditional meat cooked that day. Set inside our dutch oven corned beef and cabbage recipe is wonderful too.