The Best Simple Cabbage Recipes

Here are a bunch of simple cabbage recipes your family will love! Easy dinners in the oven, slow cooker, Crockpot, Ninja Foodi or your Instant Pot. We’ll share how to cook a whole cabbage, quartered, sliced into steaks and diced.

Savory Cabbage Recipes

I will admit that I did not like cabbage as a child. Actually I never even tried it so I can’t say legitimately that I didn’t like it, it just really wasn’t made. When I got married my husband raved about his grandmothers stuffed cabbage recipe so I thought I’d give it a whirl and surprisingly enough I really enjoyed it! From there I came up with tons of other Crockpot cabbage recipes.

These you can cook all different sorts of other ways too though. We have lots of ideas of what to cook with ground beef as well. I’ll start with my slow cooker stuffed cabbage soup recipe.

What can you make with a head of cabbage?

ALL the things!! A great way to add texture and fiber to your meals, more interesting than lettuce for sure. If you are wondering how to cook cabbage soup in the Instant Pot we have that. Adding to that with meat like diced sausage, that was great too. It turned out thicker than I had imagined and was more like a cabbage casserole so that is what I called it. And we will just keep going…..

• Whatever you call it it is a simple cabbage recipe that tastes amazing. Even my kids thought it was delicious.
• We love baked cabbage steaks with a protein too.

Want to add lots of flavor with many pieces of bacon?? Us too which you can do just with it chopped or add some into our old fashioned cabbage soup and Crockpot cabbage soup too!! Both are healthy recipe ideas you can make simple with minced garlic or load it up with seasonings.

Before you get started though you should read up on how to cut cabbage. Decide what you want to make and how large you want your pieces to be. The thinner the softer they will become so keep that in mind.

What are the Best Recipes with Cabbage?

If you want to make something cooler we have an idea with our sauerkraut recipe with meat. Something more unusual than the old fashioned “regular” style, adding hamburger into the mix makes it into a meal vs. a side dish.

How to Make Cabbage Coleslaw Recipe

No, we aren’t counting calories on many of these. 😉 Cabbage is tender to perfection when done and the perfect side dish. Cold like blue cheese coleslaw or our Hawaii coleslaw is great too.

I have made a slow cooker corned beef brisket with cabbage recipe as well and did that for years but now that I have my pressure cooker it is definitely a game changer, but both are delish.

Easy Cabbage Recipes

We also have a general post about cooking corned beef and cabbage multiple ways so you can experiment and see which method you love the most! I like to cook the veggie separately actually. Our favorite way is to serve swamp cabbage with it.

Our Dutch Oven corned beef and cabbage is great. You can add pepper flakes for some heat too! You don’t even need to make mashed potatoes once it’s done because the trivets are edible!! That is right, I use red taters inside the pot so it’s all done at once.

Can you cook cabbage in a pressure cooker?

Of course you can and we have made a lot of creations in it like our Pressure cooker cabbage soup, which is a favorite dish in our house. Serve it with a side of rolls and you’ve got yourself the perfect comfort food.

Instant Pot stuffed cabbage rolls are my husband’s favorite meal of all time. It reminds him of his Grandmother’s dish but is cooked much faster for sure. Then I went on to cook the cabbage in an Instant Pot with our most popular pressure cooker fried cabbage recipe. Adding the cabbage in with the spices my grandmother used and keeping in the bacon grease is key to YUM.

Green Cabbage Recipes

Almost every single one will use the green variety, except one below. Somewhat interchangeable you could try some with half and half for added color, purple or red is stiffer though. Try our Ninja Foodi corned beef and cabbage! It’s of course perfect for St.Patricks Day dinner but it’s so great we make it year round.

Instead of just steaming the leaves, make Southern fried cabbage as the side dish this year, so much better. Using even fewer ingredients, our stewed cabbage is like buttered cabbage cooked in a dutch oven.

Red Cabbage Recipes

You could also melt butter and use that instead of the olive oil and bacon drippings. Add some salt and pepper and it’s simple but perfect. Throw together this simple cabbage and onion dish on the stovetop someday and see what you think. Green is most popular but Purple Cabbage Recipes are fabulous too.

This type is really pretty. Some call it purple too. You can make something cool or warm like our roasted red cabbage in the oven. You can make sauteed red cabbage on the stove.

• Pressure cooker fried cabbage seen above has gotten raving reviews from a ton of people saying it is just as they remember from their childhood but their Instant Pot makes it cook so quickly.
• If you don’t like it warm though, I’d try red cabbage coleslaw as a side dish. You just whisk the dressing together in a bowl, slice and add the cabbage, toss together and it’s ready to enjoy.
• OR make boiled cabbage with either color, buttered with salt and pepper.

Our unstuffed cabbage casserole is a winner. Use spicy ground sausage to take it over the top and add cheese when served.

Steamed Cabbage Recipes

Now if you use your pressure cooker to make the few of these linked in this post you are essentially steaming this veggie. It is quite crunchy so this method works rather well. You can make it plain with butter or with curry like our Indian cabbage recipe.

With any of these without meat, use an immersion blender after to make Pureed Cabbage Soup with it. You can use any brand you might have at home including an IP of course, Ninja Foodi or Crockpot express. They basically work the same.

• This Instant Pot Mountain Dew stew is a fun one too.
• Plus try this pressure cooker cabbage and noodles with bacon recipe.
• You can make our cabbage and ham in slow cooker or on the stovetop.

The other night we made this Instant Pot corned beef and cabbage using potatoes as trivets (so you could eat those too) and it was so good!! I don’t think I will make it any other way again because it cooked so quickly but came out juicy and FULL of flavor. It’s a must try.

Have leftover meat you want to use up?? I hate wasting too. Throw it into our Haluski recipe made in a slow cooker or stovetop, or in this cabbage stew recipe and voila a second meal is made.

What to Make with Cabbage

Now you don’t have to cook this veggie to make it incredible. You can shred or chop it into small bite size pieces, add things like cucumber and bell pepper and pour on a dressing. Cabbage salad is a bit of a change from coleslaw and a great duo served together.

We love Baked Cabbage Rolls in the Oven, cooked in a slow cooker, pressure cooker and other ways. If you want old fashioned though, in a casserole dish is it.

Below is our popular Instant Pot stuffed cabbage casserole which has the same flavors you love but MUCH easier than stuffed cabbage leaves.

• Have an electric smoker? Try our smoked sausage and cabbage recipe some night!
• We also have this pressure cooker sausage and cabbage recipe that’s yummy. With just a few simple ingredients we have made this as a light lunch or breakfast some days.
• As a simple side dish on the stove, try Fried Cabbage and Bacon

On a colder note (at least I like it quite chilled) you should try our quick sauerkraut recipe with brats. You don’t have to ferment it for a week like others do if you’re in a hurry. We have a way of pickling cabbage too with or without boiling here.

White Cabbage Recipes

Of course you could swap out any of these for a Napa cabbage recipe, purple, white or red someone call it but that is a bit firmer. Slow Cooker Stuffed Cabbage is quite easy to make as it cooks all day. You can keep it warm for quite a while too stirring occasionally as it sits.

• With low saturated fat and calories, lemon garlic cabbage on stove is great
• If you use the air crisp function on your Foodi you can make fried cabbage in air fryer.
• For spicy, give our Jamaican Cabbage Recipe a whirl

Of course some just love it simple with lemon juice, salt and pepper on their leaves. Steam to soften and serve as is for an easy side dish. Our Crockpot stuffed cabbage soup or this Crockpot cabbage and sausage recipe are winners at our house.

On a cooler note if you want to try this brined and cold, you totally can. Try our quick pickled cabbage recipe. It’s great served as a side dish with burgers for sure.

Meat and Cabbage Recipes

You can certainly add precooked meat into any of these. Black Eyed Peas and Cabbage works well with ham hocks or leftovers after the holidays. Adding legumes to dishes makes it heartier for sure and gives it more flavor.

Another idea is to make our cabbage and hamburger recipe we made into a casserole with tomatoes and cheese. Baked together the flavors meld together for a whole dish in one pot.

You can top your pulled pork recipe with some Sweet Peanut Slaw and OH MY it is heavenly.Then try a pot of Hearty Pork & Cabbage Noodles with dinner rolls on the side.