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Cabbage with minced meat in a slow cooker

Cabbage with Ground Meat in a Slow Cooker

Simple, tasty, made from everyday ingredients — a meal the whole family will love! Cabbage with ground meat in a slow cooker is a complete dish, with both the meat and the side built right in. Thanks to the long, slow braise, the cabbage turns out soft, fragrant, and melting, as though it had been cooked in a wood-fired oven.

Snezhana

Recipe author

Cabbage with minced meat in a slow cooker

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Green cabbage

400

Ground meat

200

Onion

Vegetable oil

Bay leaf

Allspice

Ground black pepper

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 19 % 4 g

Fats 52 % 11 g

Carbohydrates 29 % 6 g

135 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you braise cabbage with ground meat in a slow cooker? Gather your ingredients. Use store-bought ground meat or grind your own at home. Any meat or poultry works — I used a mix of beef and pork, which made the dish richer and juicier. For a lighter, lower-calorie version, go with ground chicken. Choose whatever spices you like; I use black pepper, allspice, and bay leaf.
Step 2:

Finely shred the cabbage. I recommend scrunching it with your hands a bit — that softens it and helps it release its juices faster.
Step 3:

Peel and finely chop the onion. Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet and add the onion. Sauté over low heat for a couple of minutes, then add the ground meat and mix it well with the onion. Cook everything together for a few minutes, until the meat changes color, stirring now and then. You can also do this browning right in the slow cooker if yours has a sauté function.
Step 4:

Transfer the meat and onion to the slow cooker bowl, then add the shredded cabbage. Season to taste with salt and ground black pepper; you can also toss in a couple of allspice berries and a bay leaf — they won't overpower the dish, just add a pleasant flavor. This works best with a beef-and-pork mix; if you're using ground chicken, it's better to skip the allspice and bay leaf. Stir the cabbage and meat together.
Step 5:

Pour in water until it comes almost to the top of the cabbage and meat. Cover the slow cooker and set it to the "stew/braise" program for 2 hours. Check on it a couple of times during cooking and give the cabbage a stir. When it beeps, turn off the slow cooker. The dish is ready to serve right away. Enjoy!

Cabbage is one of those affordable, everyday vegetables — and green cabbage is very good for you, holding onto plenty of nutrients even after cooking. It's a favorite among people watching their weight, and rightly so: cooked properly with minimal fat, it really does support a lighter diet. But cabbage also turns easily into a hearty, satisfying, higher-calorie dinner when you add something like ground meat. This kind of dish is great for anyone doing physical work, since the fiber and carbs give the body energy.
Remember that the cooking time and settings here are approximate. Every slow cooker behaves a little differently, and even identical models from the same manufacturer can vary. Before trying a new recipe, read your machine's manual, then practice with dishes you already know before moving on to new ones, adjusting the setting and timing to suit your own appliance.
Every oil is only healthy up to a certain temperature — its smoke point — beyond which it starts to burn and forms harmful compounds. Choose a refined, high-smoke-point oil for frying, and avoid heating delicate unrefined oils.
If you use a ready-made spice blend, always check the label. These mixes often already contain salt, so keep that in mind or you risk over-salting the dish.