Instant Pot Cabbage Rolls

My husband loves cabbage rolls.  He came into the kitchen, and he said, "Ooooh!  Cabbage rolls! You know who makes the BEST cabbage rolls?"  Me: *side eye* "You better watch it."  He responded, "Andy's mom's cabbage rolls were the BEST!  I ought to give her $50 to make a big batch for us.  They're SOOO GOOOOOOD!"  Fast forward to after dinner...He ate those words, quite literally, because THESE were the best cabbage rolls...even according to my hubs.  Now, I can't say I've ever seen a "beautiful" cabbage roll, but they do TASTE amazing.  Next time, maybe before digging in, I should stage my food.... Nom. Nom.

Instant Pot Cabbage Rolls - by Dawn in an 8 qt. Instant Pot
1 lb ground turkey (or pork)
1 lb ground beef (80/20 or 70/30, but not super lean)
2 lg egg
1 C uncooked white rice
Garlic, minced
2 T butter (or oil)
2 C shredded carrots (food processor or wet chop in blender...if you've not seen this, just wait!)
1 large onion, minced (or wet chopped)
1 C chicken stock
2 large onions, sliced
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 C sour cream
Salt & Pepper
2 heads of cabbage
Sour Cream for garnish
Dill


Cabbage:
The cabbage needs to be "softened" one way or another.  There are several ways to do this.  I have found that if you cut the core out of the head(s) of cabbage and put it in the freezer for 24 hours, and then allowing it to defrost, it creates soft leaves that aren't mushy and completely disintegrating.  Then, you also need to cut the hard center "vein" out of each leaf as you take the cabbage apart leaf by leaf.

I've *heard* that you can cut the core out and place the head of cabbage in your Instant Pot with 1 cup of water for 3 minutes on manual high pressure.  I tried this...once..., but my outer leaves were literally falling apart and the inside leaves weren't steamed/cooked.  So while I lurve my IP, I didn't love it for softening the cabbage.  You can also soften them old-school style by putting the cabbage head(s) in boiling water.  You'll still need to cut that hard "vein" from the center of each leaf so that you can roll your cabbage rolls. 

Wet chop?  Well...confession here...I do not own a food processor.  I had one, and it broke the first time I used it, and I have never replaced it.  I've got crazy cool attachments for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer and this awesome blender that has the Ice AutoPulse function, and I've got old school kitchen tools that get me through just fine.  I *have* found that while my KitchenAid attachments work great for grating cheese, they do NOT work as well with carrots.  
(That's quite the carrot cake story - that involved plastic shreds from my attachment to be dumped into my cake batter and noticed *just* before I put them in the oven.  I could have died!  My sweet husband (knowing how frustrated I was) offered to run to the store to just pick up some shredded carrots along with a few other items on our list.  He returned WITHOUT the carrots, so he proceeded to hand-grate all of the carrots I needed for the cake, because quite frankly, I was OVER the cake.)

So, fast-forward to now, and I'm a busy mom, and although I think you keep more of the onion and carrot flavor by doing them all by hand, I'm not going to lie and say I do it that way all of the time.  Throw the carrots and onions in the blender and cover with water.  Use the "Ice Auto-Pulse" function until they are sufficiently "grated."  Strain the water, and you have "grated" vegetables.  Seriously, SO easy!

  Add olive oil to the inner pot of your Instant Pot and saute your strained carrots and onions.  I recommend cooking these until they are caramelized to really add some tremendous flavor.

Add your crushed/diced tomatoes, sour cream, salt, pepper, and dill to the vegetables and heat through.  

Meanwhile, place your meats, eggs, uncooked rice, garlic, and salt & pepper in a bowl.

Add 2 cups of the veggie sauce to the meat and mix well to combine.  Set remainder of veggie sauce aside.

Pour 1 C Chicken Stock into the empty inner pot of the IP.  Place the "cores" or "veins" from the leaves along the bottom of the pot to prevent scorching the bottoms of the rolls.

Place  ~1/3 Cup of meat/rice/veggie mixture into a softened cabbage leaf and roll tucking the ends in as you do to create a little package.  Place the rolls on top of the cabbage in the pot.  Once the bottom is filled, pour 1/2 of the remaining veggie mixture over the cabbage rolls.  Repeat with remaining meat and cabbage leaves, followed by the veggie mixture. Top it all off with sliced onions.

Be sure the valve is set to seal, and turn your Instant Pot on to Manual High Pressure for 15 minutes and do a natural release when it is finished.  (Alternatively, you can do 18 minutes and quick release with very similar results.) 

Instant Pot Cabbage Rolls - by Dawn in an 8 qt. Instant Pot
(Click for printable recipe)

1 lb ground turkey (or pork)
1 lb ground beef (80/20 or 70/30, but not super lean)
2 lg egg
1 C uncooked white rice
Garlic, minced
2 T butter (or oil)
2 C shredded carrots (food processor or wet chop in blender...if you've not seen this, just wait!)
1 large onion, minced (or wet chopped)
1 C chicken stock
2 large onions, sliced
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 C sour cream
Salt & Pepper
2 heads of cabbage
Sour Cream for garnish
Dill


Remove core and soften cabbage (Instant Pot, freeze & defrost, or boil.)

Grate carrots & onions (wet chop or use food processor.)

Add olive oil to the inner pot of your Instant Pot and saute strained carrots and onions.  Cook until caramelized.

Meanwhile, remove center "vein" from each leaf. 

Add crushed/diced tomatoes, sour cream, salt, pepper, and dill to the vegetables and heat through.  

Meanwhile, place meats, eggs, uncooked rice, garlic, and salt & pepper in a bowl.

Add 2 cups of the veggie sauce to the meat and mix well to combine.  Set remainder of veggie sauce aside.

Pour 1 C Chicken Stock into the empty inner pot of the IP.  Place the "cores" or "veins" from the leaves along the bottom of the pot to prevent scorching the bottoms of the rolls.

Place  ~1/3 Cup of meat/rice/veggie mixture into a softened cabbage leaf and roll.  Place the rolls on top of the cabbage in the pot.  Once the bottom is filled, pour 1/2 of the remaining veggie mixture over the cabbage rolls.  

Repeat with remaining meat and cabbage leaves, followed by the veggie mixture. Top it all off with sliced onions.

Be sure the valve is set to seal, and turn your Instant Pot on to Manual High Pressure for 15 minutes and do a natural release when it is finished.  (Alternatively, you can do 18 minutes and quick release with very similar results.)