A cozy recipe for Instant Pot cabbage soup with ground beef and tomatoes. Like an unstuffed cabbage roll soup, and the pressure cooker makes it a breeze to cook.
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.
Instant Pot Cabbage Soup With Beef (Pressure Cooker)
A cozy recipe for Instant Pot cabbage soup with ground beef and tomatoes. Like an unstuffed cabbage roll soup, and the pressure cooker makes it a breeze to cook.
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
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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.
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Add onions and carrots. Cook for about 5 minutes to soften, stirring frequently. Turn off the saute mode.
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Add tomatoes (including liquid in the can), cabbage, beef stock, cauliflower, oregano, thyme, and salt. Briefly stir together.
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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.
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Uncover and stir. Serve while hot.
Nutrition Notes
This recipe yields 6 g net carbs per serving (1.5 cups).
| 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 |
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.
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!