Easy Corned Beef and Cabbage is a healthy and hearty dinner option for St. Patrick’s Day. To save time, corned beef is cooked in an Instant Pot (or slow cooker) and served with boiled fresh cabbage, carrots, pearl onions and baby potatoes finished with parsley garlic butter and creamy horseradish and mustard dipping sauce.
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New England Boiled Dinner
Corned Beef and Cabbage, also known as Irish boiled dinner, or New England boiled dinner is a very simple rustic dish that’s our family’s favorite meal for St. Patty’s Day. In the past, I used to make it in a crock pot or on the stove top. The slow cooker method produces beautifully tender meat but I don’t love that the vegetables come out rather soggy and way too salty so throughout the years I developed a new way to prepare our boiled dinner that combines the slow cooker/instant pot and stove top cooking.
Lately, Instant Pot is my favorite way to make the beef because it cuts the cooking time to only 90 minutes and the result is beautifully pink, tender, melt-in-your-mouth brisket.
Ingredient notes
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Corned Beef: get good quality corned beef brisket. Most grocery stores carry corned beef around St. Patrick’s Day. The brisket is brined and cured which is what gives the meat its pink color and salty flavor.
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Cabbage: get a bright green head of cabbage that looks fresh. The fresher the cabbage, the better it will taste boiled.
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Carrots: you can peel and cut regular carrots, but to save time I like to use baby cut carrots for this recipe.
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Pearl onions: you can use fresh or frozen pear onions. Frozen will save you the time it takes to peel the skins off.
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Potatoes: any kind of small potatoes will work – fingerling, baby red or white. I use a pre-washed mix of baby white and red potatoes.
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Horseradish & Mustard: to make the Creamy Horseradish Mustard Sauce. Prepared horseradish from a jar will work but you can also grate your own. For mustard, I recommend whole grain or stone ground brown mustard.
How to make corned beef and cabbage in an instant pot
- Step 1: Cook the meat. Peel and slice a medium onion and place on the bottom of your Instant Pot or slow cooker. If you have a metal rack that comes with the Instant Pot, insert it and place the brisket on it – that will make it easier to take the meat out later.
- Step 2: Now it’s time to add the contents of the spice packet the meat comes with plus an extra bay leaf, pour in some water and set to high pressure for 90 minutes. If using a slow cooker, cook on high for 6 hours.
- Step 3: Cook the vegetables. While the meat is in the Instant Pot, prep and cook your veggies. Boil some water in a large pot or a dutch oven and add kosher salt, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, peppercorns and a bay leaf. You can use a spice bag if you don’t want to end up with whole spices in the cooked veggies, though my family doesn’t care. Cook the vegetables in stages, starting with potatoes and carrots, and adding cabbage wedges and onions later.
Tip: The nice thing about cooking the vegetables on the stove separately is that it is easier to control the saltiness of the dish and making sure that the veggies are not overcooked and soggy at the end.
- Step 4: Make the Mustard Horseradish Cream. In a small bowl mix plain yogurt, horseradish and mustard. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
- Step 5: Shred or cut the meat and prepare garlic parsley butter. Once the Instant Pot’s pressure is released, you can take the brisket out. Traditionally, corned beef brisket is sliced against the grain but my family also liked it shredded into long strings. To make the butter sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan, add minced garlic, a little bit of reserved meat cooking liquid. Reduce and add fresh parsley leaves.
How to serve Irish boiled dinner
My favorite way to present the Irish Boiled Dinner is to arrange everything on a large platter and serve it family style. I drizzle the vegetables with garlic parsley butter sauce and place the horseradish mustard dipping sauce in a small bowl or ramekin near the meat. It takes some time effort to shred the meat, separate all the vegetables and arrange on a platter but I believe that celebrations and holidays deserve extra effort to make everything look pretty and appetizing.
What to do with leftovers
If you do have leftovers, you can store them in airtight containers for easy meal prep lunch. Just heat it up in the microwave for 2 minutes or so until heated through when ready to eat.
Another great option is to turn the leftover brisket into corned beef hash for an easy breakfast or dinner. Just chop the beef small, sauté in a skillet with some chopped up onions and bell peppers, add cubed pre-cooked potatoes or sweet potatoes and kale, cook for a couple minutes and serve with poached or over easy eggs on top. SO GOOD! If we ever had any corned beef left over, I would definitely make this for breakfast the day after St. Patty’s Day.
Variations and special diets
Corned Beef and Cabbage is a simple and hearty meal made with whole foods. It is not exactly a low-cal or low-carb dinner, which is fine by me because in my opinion, holidays deserve some level of indulgence. However, there are ways to lighten up this traditional Irish-American dinner.
- For a low-carb version, skip the potatoes all together and add more cabbage. You can also swap cauliflower or parsnips for potatoes.
- For a paleo/ Whole30/ dairy-free version, omit the butter sauce and the creamy horseradish mustard dipping sauce since it’s made with yogurt. You can serve the boiled dinner with compliant plain horseradish and/or mustard on the side though!
- For a lower calorie version, make sure you trim all the fat off before cooking the meat and forget the butter sauce. Also, portion control is key!
More Instant Pot recipes
Recipe
Easy Corned Beef and Cabbage
Ingredients
Corned Beef
- 4 lbs corned beef brisket all fat trimmed off spice packet reserved
- 1 medium onion peeled and sliced
- 1 bay leaf
Boiled Vegetables
- 1 ½ lbs small potatoes
- 12 oz baby carrots
- 1 head cabbage 1-1 ½ lbs
- 5 oz pearl onions fresh or frozen
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon whole coriander seeds
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoon butter
- 3 tablespoon fresh parsley leaves chopped
- 1 small garlic clove optional
Creamy Horseradish Mustard Sauce
- ½ cup plain whole milk yogurt
- 3 teaspoon grated prepared horseradish from a jar
- 2 teaspoon brown or whole seed mustard
- pinch of salt and pepper
Instructions
- Remove the corned beef from the packaging saving the spice packet, give the meat a quick rinse and pat it dry with paper towels.
- Place the sliced onion on the bottom of an Instant Pot, insert the metal rack on top of the onion and put the meat on the rack. Add the spice packet and 1 bay leaf.
- Add 4 cups of water into the Instant Pot, close the lid and set to high pressure for 1h30mins.
- While the meat is cooking in the pressure cooker, prep the vegetables: peel the pearl onions, half the carrots if they’re thick, and cut cabbage into wedges. Make sure to remove the hard core first.
- Prepare the Horseradish Mustard Sauce: place all ingredients in a small bowl and mix together until smooth. Place in the fridge until ready to serve.
- In a large pot or dutch oven, bring 10 cups of water to a boil. Add the salt. If you have a small spice bag, place the mustard seeds, coriander, pepper corns and bay leaf in the bag and add to the pot. If not, just add the spices to the boiling water directly.
- When the Instant Pot shows that there are 30 minutes left for the meat, place the carrots and potatoes into the boiling water. Boil for 15 minutes and add cabbage and onions. Boil for another 20 minutes. Drain on a colander, discard the bay leaf and peppercorns (if not using a spice bag) and place back in the pot. Cover with a lid to keep the vegetables warm.
- By now, the Instant Pot should be ready to be opened. If not, release the pressure manually. Open the lid and remove the meat. Reserve ¼ cup of cooking liquid to make parsley butter sauce.
- In a small saucepan or skillet melt the butter, add the minced garlic and the reserved beef cooking liquid and cook for a couple minutes to reduce. Turn off the heat and stir in fresh parsley.
- Remove any visible fat from the meat (unless you like it) and shred the meat into long strips using 2 forks.
- Arrange the shredded beef on a platter, surround by potatoes, carrots, cabbage and onions. Pour the parsley butter sauce over the vegetables.
- Serve immediately with creamy horseradish and mustard sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
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Meet the Author
Hi, I'm Agnieszka. I'm a mom of three and recipe developer, writer and photographer behind Wholly Tasteful. I love creating comforting, delicious, family-friendly recipes that you can feel good about.
Tricia says
Bring on paddy's day! This is so much easier in an instant pot.
Kyleigh says
can't wait to make this for st patricks day!
Andrea says
love how easy this is to whip up!
Alexandra says
This is such a tasty recipe.
Jerika says
Wow! this looks so yummy!!! we are having this over the weekend.:) Thanks!
Tammy says
This is delicious. Going to make it for St. Patrick's day too!
Jeannie says
I like the combinations of veggies in the corned beef, balances a good meal.
Freya says
This was so delicious and packed full of flavour!
Nora says
It turned out perfectly! Thanks for the recipe!
Swathi says
Easy corned beef cabbage looks delicious.
Addie says
So hearty and flavorful!
Caitlin says
How do u make it on the stove?
Agnieszka says
Hi Caitlin. To make it on the stove, I boil the meat in a big pot or Dutch oven with the spices from the packet for about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. I still boil the veggies separately, otherwise they get too salty.
April says
I can't imagine why I never thought to cook the veggies separately!!! They always got overdone before the meat was ready. And, again the timing of each addition of vegetables well make it even better. So, this sounds perfect...right down to the mustard horseradish sauce. Thank you.
Pru says
I made this last night for dinner. It was delicious. I don’t have an Instant Pot so I used my slow cooker. The vegetables tasted so much better cooked separately. The creamy horseradish mustard sauce was perfect for the meat!
Agnieszka says
I'm so happy to hear that, Pru! We had it, too.