Instant Pot Jewish Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Jewish Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, Holishkes a traditional Jewish (Instant Pot) cabbage rolls beef rice dish simmered in tomato sauce.

Jewish Style Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage, also called Holishkes, has been a staple of Eastern European Jews since the 14th Century. Ashkenazi Jews everywhere have their own special recipes and traditions and we sure eat a lot of Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage during Sukkot and other Jewish holidays. As you can imagine, I developed a huge appreciation, a super real love for my Grandma Rose’s Jewish Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage Rolls.

 

But the work to make stuffed cabbage! Oy vey!!! This would take her most of the day. So, rather than simmering cabbage rolls for several hours on the stove or in the oven, I converted Grandma Rose’s incredible Jewish Sweet and Sour Cabbage recipe for cooking under pressure. Wowza, using an Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker to make stuffed cabbage takes only about 30-45 minutes to get it on the table! Completely awesome, delicious and easy, so WELCOME Instant Pot Cabbage Rolls!

Pro Tip: When figuring actual time to get dinner on the table, don’t forget to take into account timing for the Instant Pot to come up to pressure and then down (in addition to actual cook time).

Ingredients for Instant Pot Stuffed Cabbage (Jewish Style)

• Cabbage
• Ground Beef or Ground Turkey
• Rice
• Tomato Juice, Tomato Sauce and Crushed (or Pureed) Tomatoes
• Brown Sugar or Sugar Substitute
• Sour Salt, Freshly Squeezed Lemons or True Lemon
• Onion and Garlic

Low Carb Jewish Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage

• Use raw riced cauliflower in place of rice.
• Use a brown sugar substitute in place of brown sugar

For a super quick version of Sweet and Sour Cabbage, make my delicious Instant Pot Low Carb UNSTUFFED Cabbage Rolls recipe! They can be made low carb or with rice!

 

Prepare the Cabbage

• We start with the softening of the cabbage in the Instant Pot, so make sure you have a Stainless Steel Trivet.
• Using a sharp paring knife is best for removing the core of the cabbage. A little more than an inch down and about the same difference around.
• The core can be removed before or after pressure cooking.

Pro Tip: The cabbage for Instant Pot Stuffed Cabbage Rolls can be prepped the day before, as well as the meat and tomato sauce mixture.

 

How Many Cabbage Rolls Does this Make?

• Depending on the size of your cabbage leaves, 14-18 cabbage leaves will be enough to use up all the meat filling, so 14-18 Instant Pot Stuffed Cabbage Rolls!

For a fantastic cabbage side dish is my Low Carb Instant Pot Buttered Cabbage. There is a video there too, so you can follow along.

How to Prepare Cabbage Leaves for Stuffing

• Ever so gently, remove each Cabbage Leaf, until you get down to the white center.
• Take a sharp paring knife and shave off the thick vein at the very bottom of each cabbage leaf, being careful not to poke through the cabbage leaves.

You just need a tiny bit of the vein removed, which will make rolling up the Cabbage, much easier.

 

For me, weight measurements are easier and I only have to dirty one bowl, but feel free to measure the ingredients however you like.

Trick to Good Onion Flavor

• To get some good onion flavor without chunks of onion, use a Microplane Artisan Course Grater and grate up about 1/3 of an onion. The rest of the onion(s) will be sliced and used between the cabbage roll layers.

Using the pressure cooker to make this Instant Pot Jewish Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage, is seriously a game changer. The Instant Pot Cabbage Rolls self baste and no slaving over a hot stove. Your cabbage rolls can be tucked away inside your pressure cooker, in the corner and can be cooking during the four questions or while your guests are enjoying appetizers.

 

Best Rice for Jewish Sweet & Sour Stuffed Cabbage

• Really, there is not a “best” rice. Use your favorite, as long as it is not quick cooking rice like Minute Rice.
• Back then, we didn’t know from rice, but I like nice long grains popping out of my cabbage rolls. We use Long Grain Jasmine Rice.

Brown Rice Option

• If using raw brown rice, add the raw rice to the Pressure Cooker cooking pot in with the water when you par cook the cabbage. After pressure is released, pour out the water and brown rice from the Instant Pot through a strainer basket.
• Rinse the par cooked brown rice with cool water and then add to meat mixture. The par boiling of the brown rice before adding to the meat mixture will render perfectly cooked brown rice.

 

Combine the ingredients well. Use your hands, it is fun. 🙂  This recipe is a great family recipe, as everyone can help.

Ground beef is mostly used for Instant Pot Cabbage Rolls. It was also very traditional for Jewish Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage. However, in the past 40 or so years, ground turkey has become quite popular to use in place of ground beef.

Can Turkey Be Used in Cabbage Rolls?

• Yes and it is fantastic. I use it often. 
• To “beef” up the flavor, add a Tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce! It adds quite a bit of flavor to ground turkey.

Ground turkey is paler and less course than ground beef, as you can see in the above photo. Beef will have a red/pink color and the texture is more course. It is also softer, wetter and mushier than ground beef.

 

If using canned whole peeled tomatoes, rather than pureed tomatoes, use a Vitamix, Instant Pot Ace 60 Blender or Large Food Processor to mix up the sweet and sour sauce. As we want a little texture from the diced tomatoes, only pulse/process them for a second or two.

Make Sweet and Sour Sauce

• Before mixing up the sweet and sour sauce for the cabbage rolls, set aside one cup of the pure tomato juice. It will be used once we start to assemble the cabbage rolls into the Instant Pot. 
• For the sour part of the sweet and sour, Sour Salt adds a really nice flavor. If you do not have Sour Salt (although I do suggest buying Geffen Sour Salt or Leiber’s Sour Salt, as it is a great sour enhancer to have for adding a really nice sour flavor to recipes.
• Make sure to hand mix in the pureed or diced tomatoes after mixing in the other sauce ingredients.

A bit of Sour Salt will enhance the sourness of my Country Sourdough Bread Old World Style recipe. It is also nice to use to make homemade buttermilk for my Simply Delicious Buttermilk Banana Bread recipe. Sour Salt is nice to use in my Creamy Grapes Salad, as a drop of sour brings out the sweetness in the cheesecake sauce).

Pro Tip: Sour Salt OR True Lemon Crystals) OR freshly squeezed lemons can be used for the sour portion. All three of them add a proper sour taste. If you do not want a sweet sauce, just leave out the sugar and add more sour salt or lemon if you like.

 

Clear off a space on your counter for your work station and get ready to make the cabbage rolls!

You will need the meat and rice, mixture and the separated cabbage leaves. If you are comfortable using your hands, use your hands. I know my Grandma did. But, me being a bit OCD, I use my Cookie Dough Scoop to scoop out the meat evenly.

 

The photos above will show you how to make the Instant Pot Jewish Sweet and Sour Cabbage.

How to Roll Cabbage for Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

• Take one cabbage Leaf and place it vein side down, with the base closest to you.
• Add a large scoop of the meat mixture to the base of the cabbage leaf. Fold in the sides and then roll up the cabbage leaf, folding in the sides as you go. If there is excess cabbage on the sides, tuck the excess into the sides.

 

Assembling the cabbage rolls and chopped onions and unused cabbage gives the rolls room to properly cook.

Ready to assemble?

 

As we all know, tomato products tend to scorch and burn easily. Don’t you hate getting that dreaded burn notice? With my easy trick, we will make a buffer, so that nothing will burn or scorch. The onions and cabbage release so much water that the pot will easily come to pressure without any worry.

Trick to Prevent Instant Pot Burn Notice

• Buffer the bottom!
• Place a big handful of the cabbage and the sliced onions into the bottom of the Pressure Cooker, so that the bottom is covered.
• Pour the Tomato Juice that was set aside over the Sliced Onions and Cabbage.

 

How to Layer Cabbage Rolls and Tomato Sauce

1. Place a Short Legged Trivet into the Pressure Cooker, on top of the Buffer Layer. This will help prevent the Tomato Chunks from falling through to the bottom of the Pressure Cooker cooking pot and will allow the Pressure Cooker to reach pressure, without the worry of burning and scorching.
2. Add in half the Stuffed Cabbage Rolls. Place half the Onion Slices and half the Chopped Cabbage on top. (If you are doubling the recipe and using an 8 Quart or larger Pressure Cooker, you can do three layers and divide everything into three, rather than two.)
3. Pour some of the Sweet and Sour Sauce over the Cabbage Rolls.
4. Add the second layer of Stuffed Cabbage Rolls and the rest of the Sliced Onions and Cabbage.

Pro Tip: There is some room for a tiny third layer in the 6 Quart Pressure Cooker really, but I tend to go less, than more. Plus, there is just two of us. Plus, plus, the rice will puff up and your pot will look more full than when you started!!!

 

Finish the Stuffed Cabbage Layers

• Pour on the rest of your Sweet and Sour Sauce.
• The really thin part of the Sweet and Sour Sauce will fall to the bottom and the thicker part will stay on the top. This way, you won’t get a burn notice on your Instant Pot or pressure cooker!

Some people prefer a sweeter Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage and add some more sweet ingredients. I personally love the crushed ginger snaps!

Sweet Add Ons Options

• Golden Raisins – black raisins can be used too, but I’m not so sure you will enjoy the look. 🙂
• Ginger Snaps
• Crystalized Ginger.

If adding in any of the above, sprinkle them over the last layer in the cooking pot.

 

You will end up with a lot of extra Sweet and Sour Sauce, but don’t worry. It is soooo good. Freeze the Sweet and Sour Sauce in 24 oz Reditainers and then use it as a dipping sauce and/or as a cooking sauce for other recipes like my or Instant Pot Rojo Fiesta Chicken [Pressure Cooker] or use it to top The BEST Instant Pot Meatloaf [Beef or Turkey] recipe! In either case, just sub out the sauce for the left over sweet and sour sauce

Another example, as an alternative to the Sauce used in my Pressure Cooker Friday Night Shabbos Brisket. A Sweet and Sour Brisket is to die for!!!

Instant Pot Jewish Sweet and Sour Cabbage recipe frees up your oven to bake some Yogurt Whey Dutch Oven Crusty Bread or other baked goods and takes up such a small space.

 

With a slotted spoon, remove all the Stuffed Cabbage Rolls and plate. Add a few big spoonfuls of the Sweet and Sour Sauce over the top. Serve as an appetizer to your Passover Dinner or as a Main Course, any time! 

Personal Tidbit: I couldn’t remember my Grandmother’s birth year, so I typed in Rose Adler Selkowitz. Much to my surprise and astonishment, I came across a question asked 20 years ago in a Jewish Group. It talked about my  Grandmother and Grandfather Jack (who died the year before I was born) and family members, including me. The note was signed by my dad, who died in 2005. If that doesn’t take your breath away. I also discovered that my last name was changed from Zelikowitz when my grandfather came through Ellis Island.

More Jewish Recipes to Make:

• Jewish Noodle Kugel (Noodle Pudding)
• Instant Pot Matzo Brei [Jewish French Toast] Passover
• Air Fryer Salmon Croquettes {Jewish Mom Style}
• Air Fryer Chanukkah Latkes [Jewish Potato Pancakes]

Kitchen Equipment and Essentials

• Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
• J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
• Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
• Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
• Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
• Alton Brown Salt Box
• Gravity Electric Salt and Pepper Grinder
• 3.5 Quart Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl
• My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
• Stainless Steel Tall/Short Trivet & Egg Cooker Set
• Microplane Artisan Course Grater
• VitaMix 7500
• Cookie/Meatball Scoop Set
• Bamboo Strainer

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Here is the handy printable recipe:

PIN this Pressure Cooker Jewish Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage Holishkes!