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This Slow Cooker cabbage and potatoes is comfort food in its simplest form — just four ingredients, almost no prep, and a buttery broth that makes the whole Kitchen smell incredible. Toss everything in, walk away, and come back to a meal that’s tender, savory, and ready to eat. It’s the kind of recipe that proves you don’t need much to make something really satisfying.
Why You’ll Love It
Just 4 ingredients— cabbage, potatoes, onion, and butter, nothing fancy required
Budget-friendly — feeds a crowd for just a few dollars
Hands-off cooking— the Slow Cooker does all the work while you do something else
Rich, buttery broth — practically begs for a slice of crusty bread
Reheats beautifully— leftovers might be even better the next day
Ingredient Notes
The cabbage — get a green one that feels heavy for its size, not one of those sad, loose ones that’s mostly air. I usually grab whatever’s about two pounds, give or take, I don’t actually weigh it most of the time. Potatoes, I prefer yellow ones, Yukon golds if the store has them, because they hold their shape better than a russet, which tends to fall apart into something closer to mashed potatoes by hour six. Though honestly, a few falling apart isn’t the worst thing either — that’s part of what thickens up the broth.
Butter — real butter, not margarine, my mother would have had something to say about margarine in this dish, and I happen to agree with her on that one even though we disagree about plenty else. I always reach for Land O’Lakes, mostly out of habit at this point. Salted or unsalted doesn’t matter enormously here since you’re seasoning it yourself anyway.
Ingredients
– 1 small head green cabbage, maybe 2 to 2½ pounds, cored and cut into thick wedges (keep that core mostly attached or it falls apart on you)
– 2 pounds yellow potatoes, scrubbed, cut into big chunks — about 1½ inches, though I eyeball this every single time
– 1 large yellow onion, sliced thick
– 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces (sometimes I do a little more, don’t tell my cardiologist)
– 2 teaspoons kosher salt, or really to taste, I almost always end up adding more at the end
– 1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground if you’ve got it, pre-ground if you’re like me on a Tuesday
– 3 cups water
Instructions
Pull off any of the cabbage’s outer leaves that look beat up or bruised — there’s almost always one or two. Cut it into about six to eight wedges, trying to leave a little of the core in each piece so they don’t just collapse into shreds in the pot. Cut your potatoes into those big chunks, peeling them if you’re feeling ambitious that day, though I usually don’t bother. Slice your onion into thick rounds or half-moons, whichever you’ve got the patience for.
Potatoes go in the bottom of the Slow Cooker first, spread out evenly — I use a big oval one, six or seven quarts, because I’m usually doubling this for my crowd whether I plan to or not. Scatter the onion over that. Then the cabbage wedges go on top, kind of nestled in there together, snug but not smashed.
Sprinkle your salt and pepper over everything — go a little heavier than feels natural, the potatoes soak up a lot of it — and then dot the butter around on top, pushing a few pieces down between the wedges so it doesn’t all just sit there melting into a puddle on the cabbage. Pour your water in around the edges, gentle, so you’re not rinsing all that seasoning right off. It should come up maybe a third to halfway on the vegetables — they’ll let off their own water as they go, so don’t panic if it looks a little shallow at first. I always think it looks like not enough liquid and it always somehow is.
Lid on, low for six to seven hours, or high for three and a half to four if you’re in a hurry, which honestly half the time I am. You’ll know it’s done when a fork goes into the potatoes without a fight and the cabbage has gone soft and almost glassy-looking but hasn’t totally fallen apart. Taste the broth before you serve — it usually needs a little more salt than you think, I don’t know why I’m always surprised by that.
Variations
My sister-in-law throws a smoked ham hock in with hers, which I’ll admit makes a broth that tastes like something out of an old farmhouse kitchen, deep and a little smoky — it’s not really a four-ingredient dish anymore once you do that, but nobody’s checking. My oldest son, when he makes this for himself now that he’s got his own apartment and his own questionable Slow Cooker, stirs in caraway seeds, which I think tastes a little too much like rye bread for my liking, but he swears by it. I tried adding a bay leaf once and honestly couldn’t tell the difference, so I stopped bothering.
If you want it thicker, more like a stew, you can mash some of the potatoes right into the broth with the back of a spoon before serving. My daughter likes a splash of apple cider vinegar stirred in at the table — brightens it up, she says, and she’s probably right, though I tend to forget I own apple cider vinegar until she reminds me.
Storage and Reheating
It keeps in the fridge about four or five days, though ours rarely makes it past two. I usually just reheat it in a pot on the stove with a splash more water since the broth tends to thicken up overnight in the fridge — sometimes I forget about it on the counter for a stretch longer than I should and then second-guess myself about whether it’s still good, which, lesson learned, just refrigerate it properly the first time. Leftovers next to a couple of fried eggs the next morning might honestly be better than the dinner itself, not that I’d say that to my mother.