Jamaican Steamed Cabbage Recipe + Video

Learn how to make Jamaican steamed cabbage with this tasty and easy recipe. This dish is made with carrots and bell peppers and is perfectly vegan, vegetarian, and low carb. It makes for a great side dish and is absolutely quick to make.

Jump to:

• Reasons to love
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔪 Step by Step Instructions
• Instant Pot Method
• Refrigeration and Freezing
• 📖Variations
• 💭Useful Tips
• Serving Suggestions
• 📖 Recipe

In the Caribbean, steamed cabbage is normally served as a side dish to accompany dishes such as saltfish, Jamaican rice, and peas, or pumpkin rice. It is also the perfect dish to serve to guests during parties, summer grills, or potlucks as it goes well with just about anything!!

I first had Jamaican steamed cabbage as a student in London, served alongside grilled jerk chicken and well, it was love at first bite. It goes without saying that after my first taste, I knew I had to learn how to make it at home. It has since then, become a staple in our home. Another favorite of ours is this Jamaican cabbage salad (or slaw).

Reasons to love

There are so many reasons to love this Jamaican steamed cabbage recipe. I am not going to mention them all, so here are just a few of them.

• Absolutely delicious: say goodbye to bland cabbage as this dish bursts with flavor.
• Quick: making Jamaican steamed cabbage doesn’t need much time to cook. The whole process including preparation will take between 20 and 30 minutes. It may even take a shorter period of time, depending on the type of cabbage you are using or if you prefer your vegetables crunchy.
• Budget-friendly: cabbage is mostly an affordable vegetable. It is also readily available in most supermarkets and farmer's markets.
• Experience: a good reason to try out something new!! Sometimes we tend to get stuck making the same recipes over and over again. While most of these normally taste great, you will be amazed at how easy-to-make some international cuisines are. This dish also uses normal pantry staples.
• Special diet-friendly: this recipe is vegan, vegetarian, keto, low carb, whole 30, and paleo-friendly. It is also made without cream, making it perfectly dairy-free.
• Healthy: the good news is that a serving of this cabbage has only about 164 calories and only 10 grams net carbs, making it a great side dish for those on a low-calorie and low-carb diet. Eating cabbage has also been proven to provide many health benefits. It is loaded with fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, and other useful vitamins and minerals.

🥘 Ingredients

Here is an overview of the ingredients you will need to make Jamaican steamed cabbage. The ingredient list may seem like much, but these can all easily be grabbed from your local supermarket. The exact measurements are included in the printable recipe card, near the bottom of this page.

• fresh cabbage - the best types of cabbage to use are the white and green kind, as these have their leaves tightly packed together. Other hard cabbage types such as cannonball cabbage also work great.
• onion - feel free to use red or yellow onion.
• scallions (also known as green or spring onion) - these are in my opinion, a must-have. They add another dimension of taste to the dish, and I do not advise leaving them out.
• garlic - While I only used three cloves because of my kids, feel free to use more or less, depending on your taste.
• red bell pepper - cut julienne style.
• yellow bell pepper - the peppers are good to enhance the color as well as the taste.
• thyme
• carrot - the carrot adds natural sweetness to the dish.
• salt
• extra virgin olive oil - or any cooking oil of your choice. You can also use regular unsalted butter. Just be careful if on special diets such as the keto or paleo diets, as you will have to select a suitable diet-friendly cooking oil in this case.
• scotch bonnet pepper - this is a common kitchen ingredient in Caribbean cooking and almost never misses in most dishes. Feel free to omit this if you are not accustomed to eating spicy food.
• water or vegetable stock - If you decide to use vegetable stock instead of water, then by all means check that it is low on sodium.

🔪 Step by Step Instructions

1. Start by preparing all your ingredients and wash the vegetables. Slice the cabbage, scallions (or spring onion), carrot, bell pepper, and onions. Use a pestle and mortar to crush the garlic (or simply slice the cloves finely).

2. Set the stove on medium heat. In a medium-sized pot, non-stick wok, or pan, heat cooking oil and fry the onions and garlic. Next add the scallions, carrot, scotch bonnet pepper, and thyme.

3. Add the cabbage, salt, and water or vegetable stock, and allow this to steam for about 10 minutes before adding the julienned peppers. Normally, the peppers are added to the pot together with the cabbage but I find adding them at a later stage gives the dish so much flavor! Steam for a further 5 minutes before serving, if you prefer it crunchier. For a more tender Jamaican steamed cabbage, allow to further steam, for about 10-15 more minutes before serving.
4. Also, the cooking time will depend on how big or small your cabbage is. Smaller heads definitely need less time to cook, so give yourself some room to experiment when it comes to this. Check for salt, add more if needed then serve.

Instant Pot Method

You can also make Jamaican steamed cabbage using the Instant Pot. This is particularly great as the dish then takes approximately 6 minutes to make! Making it great for weeknight dinners.

• Set the Instant Pot to SAUTE and NORMAL temperature. Add olive oil and allow to heat. Fry the onions, scallions or spring onions, thyme, and scotch bonnet pepper until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and allow to saute for about 3 minutes.
• Next, add the cabbage, julienned peppers and carrots, and vegetable stock or water.
• LOCK the lid of the Instant Pot and set the nozzle to SEAL. Set the settings of the Instant Pot to PRESSURE COOK or MANUAL and set the time to 3 minutes on HIGH.
• Once the set cooking time has passed, set the nozzle to vent for pressure QUICK RELEASE.
• Open the lid. Adjust the amount of salt and serve.

Refrigeration and Freezing

• In the fridge - just like most vegetables, Jamaican cabbage can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for 3-5 days. When you are ready to eat it, just warm it up in a suitable container in the microwave.
• Freezing - You can also keep it in the freezer for up to 12 months. To use, thaw it overnight in the fridge and heat it up in the microwave or in a pan.

📖Variations

There is really no limitation on how you can adapt your steamed cabbage. Examples of recipe variations include:

• Corned beef - add corned beef to make extremely tasty Jamaican corned beef and cabbage.
• Paprika - add a tablespoon of smoked paprika for some lovely color and a very mild heat.
• Other protein - feel free to add some protein; saltfish, shrimps, chicken, sausage or fried bacon are a few protein examples that can be used.
• Coconut cream - for a more creamy taste, use one can of coconut milk instead of water.
• Seasoning - enhance the flavor by using all-purpose seasoning.
• Pepper - the scotch bonnet is optional. Feel free to skip it if you prefer. Or if you want the flavor without the heat, throw the pepper in whole and then simply take it out before serving. You can also use other milder peppers.

💭Useful Tips

Here are a few useful tips that will help you make the best Jamaican steamed cabbage ever!

• Type - the best types of cabbage to use are the white and green kind, as these have their leaves tightly packed together. I do not recommend using the soft kind, such as savoy or bok choy.
• Liquid - feel free to add more water or stock, if you need to. In this case, add a quarter of a cup at a time.
• Gloves - scotch bonnet can be dangerous, especially if it lands on your eyes. You can use gloves, if you feel you could forget and rub your eyes, ouch!!
• Cooking in batches - if your pot or pan is not large enough, you can add the cabbage in batches to the pan. Allow wilting before adding the next batch to the same pot. The only problem with using this method is that your cabbage will cook unevenly, in the sense that the batches that went into the pot first tend to be softer, while the later batches tend to be crunchier.
• Cooking time - the time needed to cook this Caribbean cabbage will depend on how crunchy you like it. The traditional way is to however give the cabbage enough time to steam, normally around 20 minutes.

Serving Suggestions

This is a great side dish that can be paired up with many dishes. Serve your Caribbean cabbage with Jamaican Salt Fish, Jerk chicken or Pork, Ackee, and Saltfish, or Jamaican Rice and Peas (gluten-free), just to mention a few. For a low-carb alternative, serve it with cauliflower rice.

📖 Recipe