Instant Pot Buttered Garlic Cabbage

My whole family loves cabbage. They don’t just like it, they love it. Once when my oldest daughter was young, we went to a restaurant where you can choose 2 or 3 sides from a long list to go with whatever you choose as your entree. My petite 9 year old carefully chose her entree and side dishes and ordered on her own. Waiting for her to finish, the waitress looked at us and asked if she was sure our daughter wanted cabbage. My husband and I were both laughing by this time. We had to explain, that yes, she really meant cabbage. Hilarity ensued. Instant Pot Buttered Garlic Cabbage is pretty similar to the type of cabbage that my daughter ordered that day and is super easy to make.

Side dishes often get short changed around here since my MS diagnosis. If I have made an entree, chances are I don’t have energy left to do much else. For 3-4 months during this past Spring, I was only able to get grocery delivery about every three weeks. Most of Spring here is really just more Winter. I had to order vegetables that would keep, so that I could use them into week two and three of each delivery cycle. This meant we were eating a lot of carrots and cabbage. Most people would feel sad about this. Luckily, not my family, who thinks cabbage is the bomb.

One easy way for me to cook is in my Instant Pot (IP). An IP is just a safer and more modern electric pressure cooker. With this in mind, I wouldn’t cook everything in the IP. However, I do think the IP has its uses and would suggest it as a tool that could shorten cooking times and make cooking less challenging in some instances. The IP excels at almost any recipe that has a moisture rich environment. Examples are, soups, stews, Bolognese sauce and more. It makes short work of this Instant Pot Buttered Garlic Cabbage. I don’t have to sit sideways in my wheelchair to babysit a pot on the stove. Although there are some who may think a stick of butter is too much, I am not one of them.

Print Recipe

Instant Pot Buttered Garlic Cabbage

A buttery and tasty cabbage with a hint of garlic

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Butter, Cabbage

Servings: 6

Equipment

• Instant Pot or other Pressure Cooker
• knife or food processor

Ingredients

• 1 medium head Cabbage either chopped into 2 inch pieces OR sliced thinly in a food processor
• 1/2 cup Butter (1 stick) cut into about 8 pieces
• 3/4 cup Chicken Broth
• 2 teaspoons Garlic Powder (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper (to taste)

Instructions

• Add chicken broth and garlic powder to Instant Pot liner without the trivet.. Mix well until garlic powder is incorporated. Add the butter pieces.
  
• Add the chopped or sliced cabbage.
  
• Close lid, Make sure the valve is set to “Sealing”. Cook on high pressure for 6 minutes. Press Cancel and do a Quick Release and vent. Once all the pressure is released, open the lid.
• Stir  the cabbage. Season with the kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
  

Modifications

I started making this recipe because it was doable and slightly changed the ingredients and directions until it fit my tastes and abilities.

I chose garlic powder instead of fresh garlic when I was creating this recipe because it was easier than mincing fresh garlic and the taste got more easily incorporated throughout the cabbage without biting into little bits. If you don’t want the garlic flavor I have made this recipe without it and it is still delicious.

The hardest part of this recipe for me is cutting the cabbage. Making an initial cut in a giant hard round ball is tricky for me so I have figured out to cut off a side of the cabbage with a knife 2-3 inches in. Once I have done that I place the remainder of the cabbage down on the flat cut side. Once the cabbage is stable, I just cut off slices that will fit in my food processor shoot, or pieces I can cut with a knife. It all depends on the size of the cabbage and if I am able to do a lot of chopping with my hands that day. Either bite sized pieces or thinly sliced cabbage work in this recipe.