Plug in your Instant Pot and select the “sauté” function. If you are prompted to select a time, select 30 minutes so as to give yourself plenty of time to preheat the pot and sauté your vegetables.

Once the pot is hot, add the butter and swirl with a wooden spoon to melt.

Once the butter is melted and starting to sizzle, add in the chopped onion and saute until translucent, approximately 2-4 minutes.

Once the onion is soft, add in the garlic and saute just until fragrant, about 1 minute.

As soon as the garlic has released its scent, add in the chopped cabbage and toss to coat with the buttery onion and garlic mixture. Saute, tossing the mixture frequently, until the cabbage is slightly softened and browned on some of the edges.

Remove the cabbage, onions, and garlic from the Instant Pot into a large bowl. Set aside.

Add the ground beef to the still-hot Instant Pot, using a wooden spoon to break it up into crumbles as it cooks.

Cook until the ground beef is brown and no pink spots remain.

Once the ground beef is cooked, use a spoon to remove any excess grease. Alternatively, you could drain it in a colander and return the drained ground beef to the pot.

Once the grease has been drained or spooned off, add in the undrained can of fire-roasted tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, paprika, dill, and bay leaves. Stir well to combine and scrape the bottom of the pot to remove any browned bits.

Add the cabbage, onion, and garlic back into the Instant Pot and stir it together with the tomato and ground beef mixture. Select the “cancel” button to get out of saute mode.

NOTE: If you want to cook rice with your Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls, you can add it now using the pot-in-pot method. See the notes for instructions*.

Secure the lid on the Instant Pot and set the valve to the “sealing” position.

Set the Instant Pot to manual pressure and cook for 6-7 minutes. Cook for 7 minutes if you like your cabbage very soft, and 6 minutes if you like it tender.

Once the time is up, do a quick pressure release by carefully switching the valve to “venting”.

Once all the pressure has been released and the pin has dropped, carefully open the lid away from your face.

Stir everything together very well, then serve and enjoy!

If you want to serve it with rice, you can stir cooked rice right into the Instant Pot, or serve it individually, spooning the unstuffed cabbage rolls over mounds of hot cooked rice.