Instant Pot Grandma Lil’s Stuffed Cabbage (2024)

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Instant Pot Grandma Lil’s Stuffed Cabbage (1)

When certain foods enter our mouths, they are so much more than just the delicious flavors we are tasting – they are also about nostalgia, family and love.

One bite of my beloved Grandma Lil’s old-school, delicate and outrageous stuffed cabbage does that to me every time. So I just KNEW I had to do her and this magnificent meal of hers justice and convert it to theInstant Pot!

Cherish your family and loved ones. Savor the seconds cooking with them and the time you’ve shared. Share their story and spread it onto others so they may leave a mark in this world – no matter how big or how small. It is up to us to carry on the legacy of others. This way they live forever.

From our family to yours, we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Here’s How I Made It!:

Instant Pot Grandma Lil’s Stuffed Cabbage (2)

My mom and I are about to show you how to make her mom’s (my grandma’s) stuffed cabbage. So pull up a chair and a loved one because this one is what family cooking is all about!

Instant Pot Grandma Lil’s Stuffed Cabbage (3)

Let’s start by adding the trivet and some water to our Instant Pot.

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And then laying a head of cabbage on top. Secure the lid and cook on high pressure.

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Meanwhile, boil some water on the stove and cook some rice.

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Now we’ll focus on our meat mixture. We’ll start with some ground chuck beef and an egg….

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..and a little kosher salt.

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Now let’s grate an onion into the meat…

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…grind in some pepper…

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…and add in a little garlic.

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So at this stage it should look like this.

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Once our rice is done cooking, add that to the meat mixture…

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…and mix it up by hand. Nothing as therapeutic as kneading some meat together! Set aside when done.

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Once the cabbage is finished, we’ll remove it from the pot (and clean the inner pot out quickly and return it when done)…

Ingredients

1 large head of cabbage (get one that will fit your Instant Pot), steamed with leaves peeled and remaining core chopped (see Jeff's Tips)
5 medium yellow onions; 1 grated for the meat mixture and 4 chopped into chunks for the sauce mixture
2 pounds ground beef (the less lean, the better)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup either long grain white or brown rice, cooked according to instructions (optional, it’s really just a texture thing)
A few pinches of black pepper
A few pinches of kosher salt
1 teaspoon crushed or minced garlic
2 (46-ounce) cans or bottles of tomato juice (Grandma Lil used Sacramento brand and so do we)
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
3 fresh lemons, squeezed and juiced
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
1 tbsp of Crisco (I don’t know exactly why my grandma added it, but she did, so we do too)

Instructions

Place the head of cabbage, core facing down, on the trivet in yourInstant Potwith 2 cups of water. Hit Manual or Pressure Cook High Pressure for 8-10 minutes (the larger the head, the more time). Quick release, transfer the cabbage to a bowl or plate, let cool and dump out the water from the pot once done. I find this is SO much easier than boiling it and makes the leaves much easier to peel!
While the cabbage is cooking, immediately boil water on the stove to make the rice for the meat filling. Cook according to package (usually about 15-20 minutes).
Make the meat mixture which includes the ground beef, 1 grated onion, the egg, garlic, the rice (make sure it’s cooled down some), and one pinch of salt and pepper (see Jeff's Tips). Mix by hand (it’s fun!)Note:The rice is totally optional if making this for Passover and want to keep kosher for it.
Take the cooled cabbage and carve out a a little circle around hard core on the bottom and remove – only carve about an inch deep into the cabbage. This will make the leaves easier to peel. CAREFULLY peel off each layer of leaves and set on a plate. Be sure to shave down the thick vein which runs down the center and is toward the bottom of each leaf as well. Layer all the leaves on top of each other, shaved vein side down.
With the vein side of each cabbage leaf facing down, take about a meatball sized amount of the meat mixture and place at the bottom (the wider part) of the leaf and then roll it up and tuck in the sides. Repeat this until all the flexible cabbage leaves are used up and set aside on a plate. Make sure you stop when about 3/4 of the cabbage is gone and you are left with the harder, whiter part. When done, depending on the size of your head of cabbage, you can get as many as 18-20 rolls!
Chop the very white and harder remaining part of the cabbage up into thick flakes and also chop the 4 remaining onions and set aside (you may not use all of this but better safe than sorry in case you do).
Make the sweet & sour sauce by mixing together the tomato juice, tomato paste, sugar, lemon juice, pinch of salt and pepper. Taste it! Make sure it’s up to your tastes. If you want more lemon, add more lemon! If you want more salt and/or sugar, add more salt and/or sugar!
With the trivet in the Instant Pot, we are going to assemble our stuffed cabbage and sauce lasagna-style. Start by adding in 1/2 cup of water and then spooning in enough of the sauce so that the bottom of the pot is covered. Add a handful of the chopped onions and chopped cabbage. Then, layer in as many of the stuffed cabbages you can (but don’t squeeze them in there) with the seam of the roll facing down. Pour more sauce over the layer of stuffed cabbage. Now cover with more chopped cabbage and onions and pour more sauce over that. Add another layer of the stuffed cabbage covered with more chopped cabbage and onions and top off with the rest of the sauce and add the Crisco to the top. (Note:Be mindful of your Instant Pot’s brim. We filled our 8qt. to the max line but if you have a smaller pot like the 6qt, you should do this portion in 2 batches).
Secure the lid and hit “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” High Pressure for 18 minutes. Because there is SO much going on in this pot, it is entirely likely it will take a good 35 minutes or so for the screen to switch from “On” to the 18 minutes countdown without the pressure pin popping up yet. It may not even come up until the final 10 or 5 minutes of cooking. THIS IS PERFECTLY NORMAL AND FINE FOR THIS RECIPE. It will cook PERFECTLY!
Allow a 15 minute Natural Release when done and when the display reads “L0:15” or “00:15,” finish with a quick release. All-in-all, you’re looking at about an hour of cooking time.
Using a slotted spoon, carefully transfer the stuffed cabbages to a nice, big serving dish and add the sauce with the chunks of cabbage and onions to it and enjoy!

Jeffrey's Tips

You can also get an extra head of cabbage just to make sure you have enough leaves for rolls.

If you wish to season the meat more, add any or all of the following: 2 teaspoons each of garlic salt and parsley flakes and 1 teaspoon each of garlic powder and onion powder in Step 3 while making the meat mixture.

Due to the size and volume, I used an 8qt Instant Pot instead of a 6qt to make this. You can totally make it in the 6qt, you’ll just need to likely make in two batches instead of one.

With this dish, if the pin doesn’t pop up and it begins to count down before it does, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it – it’s just because there’s a LOT of volume being taken up in the pot. It will still still cook perfectly.

You can totally make and freeze this ahead of time and then defrost and warm up in a pot the day of serving!