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This four-ingredient Slow Cooker cabbage and potato boil is pure comfort with almost no effort — tender Potatoes, silky cabbage, and a savory buttery broth, all ready by dinnertime. I make it on repeat through the colder months and it never gets old.

Why You’ll Love It

Only four ingredients — Cabbage, potatoes, broth, and butter. That’s it. No hunting for specialty items, no long grocery list, no stress.

Completely hands-off — You load the Slow Cooker in the morning and walk away. By dinnertime, supper is ready and the kitchen smells incredible.
Incredibly budget-friendly — This meal costs next to nothing to put together, and it feeds four people easily. A small head of cabbage and a bag of little gold potatoes go a long way.
The broth is the whole point — Once the butter melts down and the vegetables release their flavor into the liquid, you end up with this light, savory broth that you want to dip bread into. It’s unexpected and completely worth it.

Leftovers actually improve — The potatoes absorb more of the broth overnight, and the whole thing tastes even better reheated the next day with a splash of extra liquid.

Ingredient Notes

For the cabbage, you want a small, firm head of green cabbage — somewhere around two to two and a half pounds is just right for a standard Slow Cooker. I’ve used both older heads and younger ones, and honestly the difference is subtle. The older, denser heads give you a stronger cabbage flavor and hold their shape a little better through the long cook. If you find a young, pale green head that’s practically featherlight, expect something milder and almost sweet once it softens. Either works fine.

The potatoes matter more than you’d think. I specifically call for small gold potatoes — the ones that are about the size of a golf ball, maybe a little bigger — because they cook evenly and don’t fall apart. Russets are a disaster in this recipe, I’ll tell you that. I made the mistake once, a long time ago, of using large baking potatoes cut into chunks and they turned to mush before the cabbage was even tender. Stick with the small gold ones, leave them whole, and they hold together beautifully.

The broth can be vegetable or Chicken — whichever you have. If you have a good homemade chicken or ham stock in the freezer, use that and you won’t believe how much depth it adds. Store-bought low-sodium broth is fine, though. I use it most of the time and the meal is still really good. The key is low-sodium so you can control the salt yourself at the table.

Butter. Don’t skip it, don’t reduce it. Three tablespoons sounds like a lot dotted over the top of some vegetables, but it’s what makes the broth taste like something more than just boiled cabbage water. It melts down slowly and infuses everything. That said, if you want to do a Depression-era swap, rendered bacon fat in place of the butter is incredibly good and changes the whole character of the dish in the best way.

Ingredients

1 small head green cabbage (about 2 to 2½ pounds), cored and cut into 6–8 large wedges

1½ pounds small gold potatoes, scrubbed and left whole
4 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
3 tablespoons salted butter, cut into pieces
Salt and black pepper to taste (optional — the broth and butter carry a lot already)

Instructions

Start by prepping the cabbage. Pull off any sad, wilted outer leaves. Cut it into 6 to 8 big wedges, keeping that little bit of core attached so the wedges hold together during the cook — if you cut it off, the wedges fall into shreds and you lose something. Scrub your potatoes well and leave them whole. Trim off any bad spots but don’t peel them.

Layer the potatoes on the bottom of a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Just spread them out in a single layer — they need to be on the bottom or they won’t cook evenly. Nestle the cabbage wedges on top of and around the potatoes. It’ll look like a lot, but it cooks down significantly. Don’t pack it in too tight, though, or the steam won’t circulate.

Pour the broth over everything. It won’t cover the vegetables and that’s totally fine — this isn’t a soup, it’s more of a steam-and-simmer situation. Dot the butter pieces over the top of the cabbage. You want them spread around so they melt evenly as things heat up.

If you want to add a little salt and pepper at this point, go ahead — just go light. I usually do a small pinch of each, then adjust at the end. The broth does a lot of the seasoning work.

Put the lid on and cook on LOW for 7 to 9 hours, or on HIGH for 4 to 5 hours. The potatoes should be completely tender when you poke them with a fork — not just yielding, but genuinely soft all the way through. The cabbage should look silky and translucent, especially around the edges. If either of those things isn’t happening yet, give it another 30 minutes.

Taste the broth before you serve. This is the moment where you decide if it needs anything — a little more salt, a crack of black pepper, maybe a splash of cider vinegar if you want some brightness. Lift the cabbage wedges out carefully with a wide spoon; they’re soft enough that they’ll want to fall apart if you’re rough with them. Spoon the potatoes alongside and ladle plenty of the hot broth over each bowl. Don’t be stingy with the broth. That’s the whole meal.

Variations & Substitutions

If you want to swap the butter for bacon fat, go for it — use the same amount and the broth takes on a smoky, almost meaty quality that turns this into something different and maybe even better. A knob of salt pork works the same way. Some people add a smoked sausage cut into rounds nestled around the vegetables, which obviously takes it out of the four-ingredient territory but is delicious if you’re feeding hungry people who want more substance.

For a slightly thicker broth, cut half of the potatoes in half and leave the rest whole. The cut sides release more starch as they cook and thicken the liquid just a bit — not dramatically, but enough to notice. If you only have large baking potatoes on hand and don’t feel like going to the store, cut them into big chunks, roughly the same size as a whole small potato would be, and keep a close eye on texture toward the end of the cook time.

Storage & Reheating

Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for three to four days — store everything together in the broth so nothing dries out. Reheat on the stovetop over medium-low heat with a splash of extra broth or water to loosen things up, since the potatoes will have absorbed a lot of the liquid overnight. I don’t recommend microwaving the cabbage wedges if you can help it; they get a little rubbery. The stovetop is worth the extra five minutes. This doesn’t freeze particularly well — the potatoes get grainy and the cabbage goes limp in a weird way — so plan to eat it within the week.

A Few Last Things

Serve this with bread if you have it — a crusty heel, a pan of cornbread, whatever you’ve got. The broth is the kind of thing you want to mop up. A plate of sliced fresh tomatoes or a quick cucumber salad adds a little crunch and brightness next to all that softness. If you put a little dish of coarse salt, black pepper, and cider vinegar on the table and let people season their own bowls, that goes a long way — it’s one of those meals where the seasoning feels very personal.

I almost forgot — this holds beautifully on the WARM setting for an extra hour or two without anything falling apart. Which means if dinner gets delayed, you don’t have to stress about it. That alone might be the best thing I can say about it.