This Instant Pot stuffed cabbage is a great dinner filled with ground beef, rice, cheese and tons of flavor. Just a few minutes in your pressure cooker!
This Instant Pot stuffed cabbage is now one of my favorites because I can make it so easily and quickly. We are at it again with another dinner to add to our 101+ easy Instant Pot recipes and this one is a favorite. (affiliate links present)
I wasn’t a fan of cabbage recipes when I was younger.
BUT after making this for my husband when we first got married, I started to really enjoy this and have made many others which I will share below.
Let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- This is a great InstaPot cookbook and set of wooden utensils are great to grab too.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot. It is easier to clean and will avoid the burn message too.
For reference, this is the pressure cooker I have and use for all recipe creations.

I made a version of this a while back called Instant Pot stuffed cabbage casserole that came out well but there is something about the traditional style that we love too.
Instant Pot stuffed cabbage
So good right???
I have a 6 qt Instant Pot and have a few accessories I use, this bowl is one that works well for this easy cabbage recipe.

Start by making Instant Pot white rice which only takes a few minutes, then proceed to the next steps.
Instant Pot stuffed cabbage
- Electric pressure cooker
- Instant Pot or Ninja Foodi
- 7″ bowl
- Head of cabbage
You’re only going to use the outer largest cabbage leaves of it though. With the rest you can make all sorts of things like our Instant Pot fried cabbage.

- Cup of water
- Diced tomatoes
- Cooked rice – white rice or brown rice
- Ground beef – this is how to defrost Instant Pot frozen ground beef in case you forgot to thaw it out the night before. 😉
- Italian sausage – spicy is good
Salt and pepper to taste, and any other seasonings that are your musts.
This is what your stuffed cabbage rolls will look like when they’re put in the pan and on the trivet inside your pot.

This is how to make this:
First you’ll want to get your rice cooking in any way you prefer. I pressure cook it but that is up to you, set aside when done.
On the stove top get a pot of water boiling and add blanch cabbage leaf in order to soften them a bit.
- Take your cooked cabbage (not mushy cooked, just softened so you can roll/fold them) out and place on a paper towel

Set Instant Pot to saute, add sausage, olive oil, onions and cook until meat is no longer pink. Turn pot off now. Add cooked rice and tomato sauce into your mixture, stir.
- Move this meat mixture to a bowl and rinse out your pot.
- Pour water into your pot with a trivet inside.
Put 1 cabbage leaf on a cutting board, spoon in meat rice mix and roll up like a present

Place this with folded side facing down into a 6-7″ oven safe dish or springform pan
- Then pour diced tomatoes on top of it all like in the photo above.
- You can add any seasonings now, at least salt and pepper is great
- Set to high pressure cook time for 15 minutes
- I like to quick release the pressure when done
Spoon out on to a plate and sprinkle with more seasonings and parmesan cheese

You can add spices of your choice but if you use spicy Italian sausage you really don’t need a lot. For a really flavorful and spicy stuffed cabbage dish just use the sausage and omit the ground beef.
I have added some diced onion as well too at times if I have it.
Looking for more simple cabbage recipes?
- Our Instant Pot fried cabbage is amazing.
- Then try an easier version than this but with all the same flavors with this Instant Pot stuffed cabbage casserole recipe.
Here is the printable recipe.
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Instant Pot Stuffed Cabbage
Ingredients
- 1 head cabbage
- 1/2 lb Italian sausage spicy is best
- 1/2 lb ground beef
- 2 c Instant Pot rice white or brown, cooked
- 1 can diced tomatoes petite, 14 oz., with chiles is good
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1 tsp seasoning salt optional, I use Lawry’s if I add it.
- 3/4 c tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce
Instructions
- Make rice so it is precooked, use your Instant Pot to make it (2 cups). Remove core from cabbage and gently remove the largest outside leaves off, boil for about 3 minutes just so they soften.
- Turn your Instant Pot on to the saute mode and add sausage and ground beef. Add diced onion and seasoning salt if you want to add that.
- Mix in cooked rice and tomato or spaghetti sauce.
- Lay cabbage leaves out on a large surface and stuff with meat and rice mixture.
- Fold the ends of the cabbage leaves over and roll up. Place in a springform pan or oven-safe dish that will fit in the Instant Pot (6"-7" dishes fit in my 6 qt.), with the folded side of the rolls down.
- Rinse out pot from meat mixture. Add 1 ½ cups of water to the inner pot of the Instant Pot, then a trivet goes in too. Pour diced tomatoes over the cabbage rolls, place the dish on trivet in the Instant Pot.
- Close the lid of the Instant Pot and turn to sealing position. Set for a manual high-pressure time of 15 minutes.
- When the time has finished, allow for a natural release. Serve with additional rice if desired.
Beth Moss
Wednesday 2nd of October 2019
for stuffed cabbage rolls: Confused On what you mean by adding one 1-1/2 cups water to "inner pot". Do you mean to the oven safe dish that will contain the stuffed cabbage? Or the slow cooker pot that goes inside of the Ninja Foodi?
The Typical Mom
Monday 30th of December 2019
The inner pot is underneath the dish with the cabbage in it so it can steam.
Tracy Lucas
Sunday 19th of May 2019
Justine I want to try this with my new pot. What kind of dish is safe to put in this cooker metal, glass, ceramic dinner dishes etc... confused on this
The Typical Mom
Monday 20th of May 2019
There's a link in the post that is blue for the 7" bowl.
Carrie Kleckner
Saturday 7th of July 2018
This recipe for stuffed cabbage is my childhood right there! I loved them as a kid & would love them even more now! Thanks for sharing!