Instant Pot Cabbage Soup With Beef (Pressure Cooker)
DESCRIPTION
INGREDIENTS
- 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 pound 90% lean ground beef
- 1 pound chopped green cabbage (about 5 cups)
- 4 cups beef stock
- 1 cup riced cauliflower
- 1/2 cup diced onions
- 1/2 cup diced carrots
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
INSTRUCTIONS
- Select the saute mode on the pressure cooker for medium heat. When the display reads HOT, add olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot. Add ground beef and cook for a few minutes until browned, breaking it apart as it cooks.
- Add onions and carrots. Cook for about 5 minutes to soften, stirring frequently. Turn off the saute mode.
- Add tomatoes (including liquid in the can), cabbage, beef stock, cauliflower, oregano, thyme, and salt. Briefly stir together.
- Secure the lid and seal the vent. Cook at high pressure for 20 minutes, followed by a 15 minute natural release. Manually release remaining pressure.
- Uncover and stir. Serve while hot.
NUTRITION
| Nutrition Facts Per Serving |
| Calories 160 | |
| Total Fat 7g | 11% |
| Saturated Fat 3g | 14% |
| Trans Fat 0g | |
| Cholesterol 38mg | 13% |
| Sodium 1080mg | 45% |
| Potassium 110mg | 3% |
| Total Carb 8g | 3% |
| Dietary Fiber 2g | 7% |
| Sugars 5g | |
| Protein 13g |
I love cabbage, but it can be a pretty tough vegetable — making it an ideal candidate for the pressure cooker. Take Polish cabbage rolls stuffed with ground beef and tomatoes, for instance; those can take hours to bake in the oven until they’re tender.
With the Instant Pot, it only takes 20 minutes at high pressure followed by a 15 minute natural release. You end up with fall-apart cabbage plus a rich and hearty flavor that’s super comforting. This is the kind of soup that you can curl up with on a cold day.
When I had gum surgery last year and could hardly chew, this cabbage soup would’ve been perfect for me. Everything’s so soft and tender that you can practically drink it.
This soup is also great for cleaning leftover vegetables out of your fridge. You can add whatever you like — onions, carrots, and celery are popular choices.
Since I follow a keto diet, I usually add low carb vegetables like riced cauliflower or celery, and keep the carbier vegetables like onions to a minimum. Each serving of soup only comes out to 6g net carbs.
I’m definitely adding this soup to my low carb soup rotation, along with Instant Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup.
If you’ve never cut up a whole cabbage before, watch this short video below from Cookus Interruptus to see how it’s done. She shows the optimal way to carve up cabbage, although for the purposes of this soup, you don’t need to slice it up so finely. Just a rough chop will do.
Quick Tips for making successful Instant Pot cabbage soup:
- The minimum pressure cooker size for this recipe is 6 quarts. I use a 6 quart Instant Pot and the ingredients fit well, and I wouldn’t recommend a smaller size. Larger sizes like 8 quarts will work well.
- Use ground beef that’s 90% lean and 10% fat. If you use meat with a higher fat content, your soup will end up on the greasy side.
- After adding diced tomatoes, use a large wooden utensil to scrape up any brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. These will add extra flavor to your soup.
Great recipe. I def have had to reduce the pressure time waaaay down or all my cabbage is soft and mushy, but otherwise I totally enjoy it!
Are you using already cooked cabbage as opposed to raw?
This is so yummy! I will definitely make this again… just added garlic to it.
Delicious recipe!!
I did add Ginger paste, tumeric, and roasted red peppers. Frozen cauliflower rice was used as well. Added it in at step 3. This soup had so many dimensions of flavor. Definitely one of my top 3 recipes for the IP now!
Making this tomorrow. I have Frozen cauliflower rice. Would I just add it in after? I see the post about reducing broth, but was unsure if I should just add the cauliflower after?
Anna, I would add the frozen cauliflower rice at the same time as the beef stock. That means you’ll be adding it in Step 3 along with several other ingredients (like tomatoes and cabbage). Please let me know how that works out for you.
Turned out delicious!! I added Ginger paste, tumeric, and roasted red peppers too.
We made this and love it! We did make some substitutions…
sub: 28 oz Mild Green Enchilada sauce for the tomatoes – just because we love it
sub: leftover Ham just cause we had
sub: bell pepper instead of carrot
added 1 T roasted granulated garlic
and we garnished with slices of raw radishes and a small spoon of sour cream
Thank you so much for sharing this! I did make this in my 4qrt Instant pot, so lessened the ingredients. Good clean eating for cold weather!! Yummy! Love cabbage and it was cooked so well!! Thanks!
Very good recipe that’s easy to make. I made some adjustments based on comments in reviews. I sauteed garlic before I added the beef, then doubled all the spices. I didn’t have any onions on hand so I used onion powder. I also used frozen cauliflower rice. I made it in a Dutch oven instead of the instant pot but it was still delicious. It was a hit with the whole family, including my kids. Will definitely make this again.
I made this today and it’s absolutely delicious!! Thank you
Does this freeze well?
Yes, cabbage soup tends to freeze well. Store the soup in individual portions, cover, and freeze — great for thawing and reheating for quick lunches during the week.
This is a favorite in our house. I load up on the cauliflower and don’t rice it. If I feel we need a nutrition boost I’ll substitute one cup of beef broth with 1 cup beef bone broth. Delicious!!!
Awesome recipe, could have used a bit more flavoring though. I added some parmesan cheese and garlic to it.
I AGREE I ADDED GARLIC SALT AND SOME CHEESE IN THE BOWL. DELICIOUS!
If you are on Weight Watchers (Smart Points only) this recipe comes out to 5 points, but if you eliminate the olive oil and use ground turkey, the points will be less.
I found this recipe needing more seasoning. Next time, I will add some garlic in with the onions and carrots and season more generously with the other spices
I’d like to use regular rice instead of the cauliflower ~ with raw white long grain rice would I need to make any adjustments in cooking time?
Can I use organic ground turkey in place of beef? …will it still come out delicious?
I think that would work well as a substitute. If you give it a try, let me know how it turns out.
Do you think I need to make an adjustment in the amount of broth if I use frozen riced cauliflower? I would add the cauliflower after cooking the soup.
I would reduce to 3 1/2 cups of broth.
I love this soup! I omitted the rice cauliflower , added celery, cilantro and Goya Saxon packets with achiote and it was yummy! I am Puerto Rican so I just added a little of our flavor to it.
I made this tonight but I left out the cauliflower and added a little more of the other veggies, It was delicious! I will definitely be making this again, thank you!!
This was really good! I don’t have an instant pot, but it was perfect made the old fashioned way on top of the stove. I used basil in place of the thyme, which I didn’t have, and served it with some Costco shredded parmesiano reggiano on top. Since I used the frozen cauliflower rice, I added 1/4 cup quinoa to absorb the extra moisture. I’m excited by your website. I had friends over – some are celiac, some diabetic and finding desserts to serve is challenging. I made your keto chocolate cake and keto 4 ingredient ice cream. They seemed to enjoy having a decadent, yet sugar and gluten free treat. Thanks!
Thanks for your feedback, Janet! Your friends are lucky to have you 🙂
How long will this last in the fridge?
I’ve made soup like this in past. I used a small can of sauerkraut and 2 bayleaves add 2 cloves of garlic but no oregano. At tbe time i always used a regular soup pot but the pressure cook pot is quicker. This is holubki style soup
Use bison not beef you will limit grease. Very eastern european. Enjoy!
My wife loves this! Always tells me, do this, do that, I never do anything other than the recipe and she loves it
I make this all the time! We all love it!
Made this today as my dinners for the week! #mealpreplife
Thank you for including the nutrition facts label as many do not!
I also appreciate how easy this recipe is for an Instant Pot newbie.
I find most internet blog recipes more hit than miss, but I keep trying them. So glad I do because occasionally you find something truly awesome! We absolutely LOVED this soup. Normally we freeze leftovers and save them for a another dinner, as there are only 3 of us, but our 10yo asked us not to so he could have it for lunch the next few days. It was a huge hit. We all loved it! I even added a few leftover veggies we needed to use up, like Bell pepper and a few others and it was so good. Definitely going into the rotation. (Also, if ricing cauliflower seems tedious, they sell already riced cauliflower, fresh and frozen. Not sure if using frozen would change the flavor that much, maybe the texture a bit, but not in a bad way, just a different texture.)
Hi Marybeth! Glad to hear that this worked out well for you. Frozen riced cauliflower should be fine for this recipe, but it might exude extra liquid as it cooks (compared to fresh), so I would use less beef stock.
Delicious and so easy to make! Definitely adding to our fall/winter rotation!
Very good
I didn’t put cauliflower I added sausage instead
Good winter soup
Tomorrow I’ll make the chicken Bacon chowder soup
Can I use regular rice instead of the riced cauliflower?
That’s probably fine. Regular rice will absorb liquid, so you might want to add more liquid to compensate. Also, you should check on the cooking time for rice to compare with this recipe’s cooking time, so that the rice doesn’t overcook.
This soup is amazing! Thanks for the recipe!!
I have an 8 quart one that I just got. Can I double the recipe and it still fit or would you recommend only doing 1.5 times the original recipe?
I’m not sure it would fit. 1.5 times would be a safer choice 🙂
What do you mean by natural release? Do you leave it closed for 15 min after it’s done and then release the steam?
After it beeps to indicate it has finished pressure cooking, don’t touch anything and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then use the pressure knob to release steam. I recommend reading your manual to understand your Instant Pot’s basic functions.
Julia, thanks so much for sharing this recipe! We had our first cold snap in LA (Lower Alabama) this weekend and this hit the spot. I added a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic, a whole bag of riced cauliflower medley (birdseye frozen) and more of the listed spices including salt and black pepper. Delicious!
You’re welcome, Linette. Hope you get a chance to make this again soon!
How can this be keto when there’s quite a bit of sugar?
There is no added sugar in the ingredients list, so I’m assuming you’re talking about the Nutrition Facts label. Almost all foods including vegetables have sugar in them. Keto is about restricting carbs, not eliminating them 100%, which would be very hard to do as that would mean you could only eat pure protein, fat, and fiber.
Awesome!
Can I use red cabbage for this?
That should work fine, although I haven’t tried it myself. Make sure it’s finely chopped or shredded.
I love this recipe. I used spicy pork instead of beef and threw in a bag of coleslaw. Husband and family loved it!!!
Can this be made in a slow cooker???
I think so. I haven’t made this in a slow cooker, so I can’t say how it’ll turn out.
Can this soup be frozen? It’s a big batch and I like to be able to divide it and save some for later time.
I haven’t frozen this before, but I think it will freeze well. The texture of the cabbage will be a bit different after freezing/thawing, but it should be fine for a soup like this.
Easy to make, delicious to eat and cabbage just perfect!
I’m so glad you liked this! Once the weather gets colder, I can’t wait to start making this soup again 🙂
I have a 3qrt IP , how will the measurements differ for this recipe?
Halve the recipe’s ingredients, but use the same pressure cooking time.
Made this today. I also cut the thyme in half but made recipe as written except I used brown rice I cooked and stirred it in later. It was delicious…my husband ate two big bowls with French bread.
Very good. Trying to lose some weight so this works very well. Will be making often
I would reduce the thyme to 1/2 teaspoon. Thyme is over powering the dish. It’s all I taste.
I made this with 92% lean ground turkey and chicken broth instead of lean ground beef and beef broth, and it was delicious! I already had the ground turkey and chicken broth, so I decided to give it a try! I’m sure it would be great with the beef, too!
Way easier than stuffing cabbage rolls!