Satisfy your craving for something cozy, comforting, and delicious with cabbage roll soup.
Cabbage, beef, pork and rice are simmered in a flavorful tomato broth for the ultimate bowl of comfort food.
This easy cabbage roll soup recipe is reminiscent of my grandmother’s cabbage rolls and is the perfect meal for chilly days or cozy nights.
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Growing up with a Polish grandmother, dishes like cabbage rolls, rouladen, and haluski (cabbage and noodles) were staples in our family! Good easy simple comfort food!
- This cabbage roll soup recipe has the same great flavors found in my grandma’s cabbage rolls made into a cozy delicious soup.
- Easy prep, no rolling required!
- This dish uses simple ingredients, most of which you likely have on hand.
- It reheats and freezes well.
This Cabbage Roll Soup recipe was adapted from my favorite cabbage rolls to create a quick and easy meal without all of the work! We just simply add it to the pot and walk away; no rolling required!
How to Make Cabbage Roll Soup
Meat – My grandmother always made cabbage rolls with a mixture of pork ground pork and ground beef, which is what I use in this recipe. You can use just one or the other or substitute ground turkey.
If you’d like, add a few slices of bacon, it adds a delicious smoky flavor.
- Brown the meat.
- Add the cabbage and cook for a few minutes. Add the uncooked rice, broth, tomatoes, and seasonings.
- Simmer until tender.
This makes a nice rich and hearty soup loaded with cabbage, meat & rice which is very thick, almost stew-like. If you’d prefer a more soupy consistency, you can add more broth.
Bread for Dipping and Dunking!
This soup pairs well with any type of bread or dinner rolls for dipping and dunking.
Leftovers
Leftovers will keep for 3 to 4 days in the fridge. The rice may soak up some of the broth so add a bit of water or broth if needed.
You can freeze leftover cabbage roll soup. Place individual servings in freezer bags or in an air-tight container. Freeze bags on a baking sheet and once frozen we stack them in the freezer upright to save space!
More Cabbage Favorites
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 large onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- ½ pound lean ground pork or additional ground beef
- ¾ cup uncooked long grain rice
- 1 medium head cabbage chopped, core removed, about 8 cups
- 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juices
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cups beef broth
- 1 ½ cups vegetable juice such as V8
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot, brown the onion, garlic, pork, and beef over medium-high heat. Drain excess fat.
- Stir in the chopped cabbage and let cook until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.
- Add in the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, beef broth, V8 or vegetable juice, uncooked rice, paprika, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well to combine.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover the pot and let simmer until the rice is fully cooked, approximately 25-30 minutes.
- Remove bay leaf and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Soup
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8elicious soup loaded with fresh vegetables, potatoes and lean beef. It’s all simmered in a tomato broth for the perfect family meal!
I made this tonight and it was amazing, the whole family loved it. I even completely forgot to add the flour until reading reviews just now!
Sounds great, will have to try this week.
We enjoyed this recipe except we felt the thyme was over-powering. I would decrease the amount or omit it totally. We enjoyed it with Franks Red Hot!
I would like to hear from someone who actually made it.
Has anyone actually made it?
I made it today! Delicious.
It is extremely hard to find comments on the results. Not sure why people are so eager to share their altered versions without even texting the original first. But I made this yesterday and it was great. Leftovers are even better!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for sharing your feedback!
I will try this one. It looks so good
I saw this posted on Facebook a couple of days ago, and knew it was a must-try. Well, we just finished dinner… and ohhhhh, my goodness, this is GOOD! Not just sorta good, but *really, really* yummy!! It got rave comments from my hubby, daughter, and her boyfriend too – all 4 of us *loved* it. (The teenagers even held off going to their friend’s house to hang out as planned, so they could stay home to have some!)
I used 1.5# ground beef and 1.5# ground pork (3# total instead of 2#, and I think the half-pork and half-beef mixture also contributed to the flavor!), so I adjusted the rest of the ingredients accordingly, making 1 1/2x the recipe. All 4 of us each had a bowl, and there is still more than half left (enough for dinner tomorrow night as well.) I would say that the recipe as listed would easily be plenty for 6. It’s easy-peasy; the house smells *soo wonderful while it’s cooking; everyone *loves it; and, it is *super filling!!
This recipe is a keeper – I will definitely, definitely be making it over & over! Thank you *so much for sharing it!
Thank you visiting Corina!!
I am so glad your family enjoyed this recipe as much as we did! :)
just wondering where to get ground pork? or would that be plain bulk sausage?
I often ask the butcher in the meat department for ground pork. If it is not on the shelves, they might have it in the back!
We will just love your Cabbage Roll Soup. Thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with Full Plate Thursday and have a great weekend!
Hope to see you again real soon,
Miz Helen
I saw this on Mix It Up Monday and wanted to stop by to say it looks great. Such a comforting bowl of soup!
Found you on the Motivation Monday Link Party. Can’t wait to try this! Pinned and ready to go!
This looks so yummy! Watching my calories. Any idea how many calories per serving as printed? I would probably substitute ground turkey.
I just made this last night (very tasty!) and per my calculations using caloriecount.about.com to create a recipe, its (roughly) 150 calories / cup of soup.
Thank you for sharing Ashley!
This is good but the thyme makes it taste weird. If your not a fan of that spice, leave it out. I also added two cans of tomato soup to give it more flavor!
I wouldn’t use that Thyme spice either but I would use the Thyme herb.
Sounds really good. I’m looking forward to the slow cooker version. Thanks very much.
Just fry up the meat and throw everything in the slow cooker. Add more liquid if required after its done. 4 hours on high or all day on low, you must know the temp of your slowcooker.
Sorry, I meant sweet and sour cabbage soup!
Anna,
Not sure if you would be interested, but I found a recipe for hot and sour cabbage soup. My hubby loved it!.
1 small onion, minced (3 oz)
8 ounces cabbage, about the size of a grapefruit
15 ounces diced tomatoes (petite dice)
5 -6 cups fat free chicken broth or 5 -6 cups vegetable broth
1 (15 ounce) can straw mushrooms, undrained (you can substitute white mushrooms)
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar (see note on substituting)
1 teaspoon hot red chili pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper, to taste (a lot!)
Directions:
1
NOTE: One cup of seasoned rice vinegar is the same as 3/4 cup white rice vinegar plus 1/4 cup sugar plus 2 teaspoons salt. I used this substitution and it was great.
2
Spray a large soup pot with some cooking spray, and heat over medium heat. Add onion, and saute until soft.
3
Meanwhile, quarter your cabbage, remove the core, and shred the cabbage with a large chef’s knife. Add tomatoes, cabbage, undrained mushrooms, and broth to the pot and stir well.
4
Add the soy sauce, vinegar, chili flakes and salt. Bring to a boil, cover, then turn heat down to medium low. Simmer for 20 minutes or until cabbage is the desired tenderness.
5
Grind a lot of fresh black pepper over the top and serve.
How can I turn this into a sweet and sout cabbage soup!
This looks great. I think I will make it for our soup exchange. I’m wondering how well it freezes?
I haven’t tried freezing it before so I’m can’t say for sure. I’d love to hear how it works out for you!
I have froze this soup and it thawed out and rewarmed beautifully.
thanks Sandy I sure makes a lot , I did use the slo cooker , and glad it freezes well thanks
It freezes very well. It taste just like the day you made it. I triple the recipe to put in the freezer. We are big soup eaters in the winter. I hope this helps.
Thank you for sharing Lisa.
This is so good. But the second time I made it I replaced the diced tomatoes with stewed tomatoes and added (a ton of) fennel seed. Omg even better!!!!!! Made double batch, and even added sliced cooked fresh zucchini. The family wants it every week now.
Wow that sounds amazing! Who doesn’t enjoy zucchini? I’m glad your family likes the recipe.
This freezes and reheats wonderfully. Been freezing single sized portions for years.
Can this be made meatless or is there another protein that could be added in place of the pork and beef?
I wonder if you could use lentils or bulgar in place of the ground beef and pork. If you really wanted to stretch it, maybe finely chopped walnuts.
Sounds like a delicious alternative.
i think I will use lentils instead of rice. and ground chicken
Mushrooms?
If you use some veggie crumbles it mimics the ground beef almost perfectly. My family can’t even tell in a recipe like this. I like the Morning Star Farms brand, but lot’s of companies make them and they are all very similar!
You can use ´vegan ground meat´ instead of real ground beef :)
I use ground turkey and whole allspice. :)
How many does this serve, please?
This recipe serves 8.
Can the flour be omitted s I have Celiac Disease. Thanks
I like to use arrow root it us a starch flour by Bob’s Red Mill. A little goes a long way. You can always add more. Domata is a gluten free flour and will work as well. I am also Celiac and I hope this will help you. I have not yet made this soup but have used these in my recipe.
I like to use rice flour. Would that work for people who cannot tolerate gluten?
I have been gluten free a very long time and I always sub corn starch in place of flour in soups and stews and have never had a problem.
I just made it and didn’t add the flour because my hubby is a celiac. Worked great. I also used left over rice and that worked great too.
Thank you for sharing your tips Kallie-Jo!
That is your call.
Did I miss something? I don’t see flour in the recipe for the soup at all. I just made it and I didn’t put any flour in it
The recipe originally had a couple of spoonfuls of flour but after re-testing several times it removed from the recipe.
how many servings does this make?
This recipe serves 8.
A lot. At least 12 large servings
Is this the same as cabbage patch stew? Its looks very similar to a recipe my mother made when were young. Thanks for sharing on Google +. :)
I’ve never had Cabbage Patch Stew but I did look up a few recipes for it. It does seem similar except the Cabbage Patch Stew appears to have beans in it.
Do you use dried thyme or fresh? Thanks!
I used dried thyme.