Instant Pot Cabbage Roll Soup

Instant Pot Cabbage Roll Soup made with chopped cabbage, ground beef, pork, rice and tomato soup is quick and easy unstuffed halupki.

So many of the Instant Pot recipes I’m making right now are soups and stews — like this Instant Pot cabbage roll soup. It’s definitely cold weather comfort food, and so much easier than traditional stuffed cabbage rolls. If you like cabbage rolls, you’ll love this easy unstuffed cabbage soup!

Growing up, my mom and grandma made traditional Russian/Ukrainian cabbage rolls — halupki or holubki. We even had them for Christmas dinner.  If you’re Polish, you may call them golumpki.

But no matter what you call them, they’re delicious — and definitely time consuming. But unstuffed cabbage rolls let you enjoy the same taste of authentic cabbage rolls without all the work!

Simple Ingredients

If you’ve never had a cabbage roll, it’s simply a mix of ground beef, pork sausage and rice all rolled up in cabbage leaves and cooked in tomato sauce or tomato soup. It’s really simple peasant food, but that’s the absolute best food — in my humble opinion!

Unstuffed cabbage rolls or lazy cabbage rolls use the same ingredients. The big difference is you throw everything in the pot and cook it. Quick and easy!

I should note that just about every village in Eastern Europe has their own version, so when you combine that with different family recipes, no two recipes for cabbage rolls or cabbage roll soup will be alike!

How to Make Cabbage Roll Soup in the Instant Pot

Unstuffed cabbage roll soup is so easy to make in the Instant Pot. First, you brown the ground beef and sausage with some chopped onions. And then, you season the mix with sea salt, pepper and garlic powder.

I sometimes like to add some smoked paprika for a little heat. This is optional, though. It adds warmth to the soup, but you can definitely leave it out.

Next, you add beef broth, rice, chopped cabbage, diced tomatoes and tomato soup. Yes, soup. It’s what my grandma used, and cabbage rolls don’t taste the same without it!

I used jasmine rice in this recipe because it’s what I usually make. You can use your favorite uncooked white rice here.

Pressure cook it, and you have amazing, delicious cabbage roll soup that tastes a lot like grandma used to make! I won’t say exactly, because like I said, everyone’s grandma had a different recipe!

This is a very thick soup — almost like a stew, but my family likes it this way. You can add more liquid if you like thinner soup. Fill up the empty soup can with water, once or twice, and add that in.

For even thinner soup, use a large 32-ounce can of the diced tomatoes. This will give you a normal soup consistency with more tomato flavor.

We like to eat cabbage rolls with mashed potatoes, so I like to serve this soup over Instant Pot mashed potatoes. Not necessary, but oh, so good!

Freeze Leftovers for Later

This makes a lot of food, and we always have leftovers. The soup will keep in the refrigerator for about 4 days.

For longer storage, freeze the leftover cabbage roll soup in a tightly covered freezer safe container or zip top freezer bags. It heats up perfectly well in the microwave or on the stove.

More easy Instant Pot soup recipes

• Instant Pot Kielbasa Cabbage Soup
• Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana
• Instant Pot Broccoli Cheese Soup
• Instant Pot  chicken noodle soup
• Instant Pot hamburger soup
• Instant Pot chicken enchilada soup

Recipe was first published in 2018 and updated in 2020.