Instant Pot Cabbage Soup

Delicious Instant Pot Cabbage Soup with sliced cabbage, tomatoes, and fresh vegetables in a perfectly seasoned broth. It’s hearty, yet light, and easy to make!

We also love warming up with Instant Pot vegetable soup and Instant Pot borscht.

Instant Pot soup recipes are a nice short cut to simmering soup on the stove. And Instant Pot cabbage soup is high on my list! Everything is done in one pot, so it’s practically hands-off soul warming lunch or dinner that simmers while you are relaxing.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• One pot meal: Everything cooks in one pot, we sauté there too.
• Affordable: It’s filled with everyday staples. Homemade soups are a great way to make a lot of food without blowing your grocery budget. With the soaring grocery prices, this filling soup is perfect!
• On a healthier side: I do not like the word “detox” but this healthy pressure cooker cabbage soup is vegetarian, low carb, can be vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free.
• Flavorful: Sometimes vegetarian and vegan soups can be bland without meat. Not this soup, I use 2 secret flavor boosters.
• Hearty: Like borscht, it’s a stick to your ribs soup recipe that’s wholesome and filling.

Ingredients for Instant Pot Cabbage Soup

This easy Instant Pot cabbage soup recipe comes together with simple ingredients that add tons of flavor.

• Cabbage: We’ll be adding 8 cups of chopped cabbage. I used 1/2 a large head of green cabbage, red cabbage is good too or you can do a bit of both.
• Vegetables: A nourishing combination of red bell pepper, carrots, and celery.
• Onion and garlic: The classic aromatic combo. Freshly minced garlic is best for flavor and I used yellow onion, but white onion works as well.
• Canned tomatoes: Low sodium diced tomatoes add acidity to the broth. Fire roasted tomatoes would be nice but my store rarely carries it.
• Broth: This time I used low sodium vegetable broth. Any store-bought chicken broth or homemade chicken broth or Instant Pot chicken broth would be great.
• Oil: I use generous amount of extra-virgin olive oil to amp up the flavor of the otherwise vegan soup. I don’t recommend to switch it to avocado oil or other mild oil.
• Italian seasoning: One of the best seasoning blends out there! You can make your own or use packaged.
• Paprika: I like to use smoked paprika. You can use regular paprika, I would bump its amount to 1 tablespoon.
• Spices: Salt and pepper.
• Butter: Melting unsalted butter into the broth after cooking creates a smooth texture and blends the flavors together.
• Lemon juice: A splash of fresh lemon juice at the end brightens up the soup.

How to Make Instant Pot Cabbage Soup

Here’s a step-by-step overview of how to make cabbage soup in Instant Pot. It’s mostly hands free and the prep time is only 15 minutes.

There is a full recipe card below.

• Sauté aromatics and peppers: Press Sauté, once your Instant Pot says Hot add olive oil, bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes with an occasional stir. Next, add paprika and Italian seasoning, cook for another minute, then press Cancel.
• Add vegetables and broth: Add cabbage, celery, carrots, diced tomatoes, broth, salt and pepper to the pot and stir if you’d like, you don’t have to.
• Pressure cook: Close the lid, set valve to Sealing and press Pressure Cook on High or Manual for 5 minutes.
• Pressure release: After wait 10 minutes to allow pressure to release naturally, then turn pressure release valve to Venting to release any remaining pressure.

• Season: Stir in butter and lemon juice and let cabbage soup sit for 10-15 minutes so flavors deepen. I left it uncovered while it sat but you can cover it half way. Then adjust any seasonings to taste.
• Serve: Enjoy hot with a slice of bread.

Variations

Instant Pot cabbage soup is a lighter dish but easily made hearty with extra veggies and other add-ins.

• Veggies: Add green beans, zucchini, squash, potatoes, green pepper, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, or corn. Pretty much anything you have on hand.
• Meat: Sauté some ground beef, ground turkey, sausage or ground chicken first and remove to the bowl. Then proceed with the recipe.
• Sauerkraut: This variation makes the soup more tangy. All you need to do is replace 3 cups of fresh cabbage with sauerkraut. This is my favorite sauerkraut but this one looks pretty good too, I like it without wine.
• Greens: Sneak in more vegetables with chopped kale or spinach.
• Tang: Add more lemon juice or 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar.
• Spice: Add heat with red pepper flakes.
• Beans: Cooked cannellini beans or kidney beans will add more substance and protein to the soup. Check out my tutorial how to cook dried beans, make kidney beans in Instant Pot or just use canned beans.
• Grains: Mix in up to 2 cups of previously cooked quinoa, rice or buckwheat.
• Fresh herbs: I kept the soup simple this time but 1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh dill, fresh parsley or basil would be a great addition!

Tips for Best Results

These easy tips help make this vegetarian soup so flavor packed, it’ll be your most made Instant Pot recipe this season.

• Don’t skip sautéing: The natural oils in paprika and dried herbs make seasonings more flavorful.
• Don’t cut cabbage thinly: Chop cabbage into bite-sized pieces or chunks. Thinner shreds will disintegrate under pressure.
• Don’t skip butter at the end: The butter adds a layer of flavor to this vegetarian soup. Use vegan butter to keep soup vegan. Also feel free to add extra virgin olive oil instead, so healthy and good!
• Wait to release pressure: For 10 minutes do Natural Release to avoid soup splattering through the pressure release valve. It is still boiling vigorously inside.
• Let soup rest: After releasing pressure and adding butter let it rest for 15 minutes. It becomes more flavorful as it cools down and even more so next day.

Can I Make It On the Stove?

Sure, you can cook this cabbage soup on the stovetop if you don’t have a pressure cooker. Start by sautéing the bell pepper, onion and garlic in a large pot or Dutch oven, just like in Instant Pot.

Then add celery, carrots, diced tomatoes, broth, salt and pepper and bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15-20 minutes. When done cooking, add seasonings, stir and taste.

Check out my Russian cabbage soup recipe, instructions are very similar.

What to Serve Cabbage Soup with?

Serve the same way you would serve unstuffed cabbage rolls or Instant Pot stuffed peppers, with sour cream or yogurt and rye bread, with fresh dill. It depends on your mood, this time I felt like enjoying it plain.

The next day we reheated leftovers, I cooked store-bought mini chicken wontons separately and added them to each individual bowl of soup. Just to make it more substantial and add variety to our meals.

You could also serve with crusty bread, almond flour cornbread, cornbread muffins, pitas or naan. Or make a healthy tuna melt.

How to Store and Reheat

Store: This tasty soup makes even tastier leftovers. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days.

Freeze: The soup freezes well thanks to the sturdy veggies. Transfer to an airtight container, leaving room for expansion, and freeze for up to 3 months. For meal prep, you can store in single serving portions.

Reheat: Thaw in the fridge overnight or on the counter for 5-6 hours. Then reheat in the microwave or on the stove on medium heat.

FAQs

More Recipes to Try

• Instant Pot cabbage rolls
• Instant Pot lentil soup
• Instant Pot beef stew
• Instant pot potato soup
• Cabbage stir fry
• Braised cabbage and apples