Cabbage Roll Soup has all the cozy, savory flavor of classic cabbage rolls without any rolling! Beef and pork, tender cabbage, and rice simmer together in a rich tomato broth for an easy, hearty one-pot meal.
Serve with crusty no-knead bread or homemade fluffy dinner rolls to soak up every drop.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights: Cabbage Roll Soup
- What Is It: It’s a cozy, deconstructed version of classic stuffed cabbage rolls, with ground meat, cabbage, rice, and tomatoes simmered together in one easy pot.
- Shortcut: Chopped cabbage skips the boiling, separating, stuffing, and rolling required for traditional cabbage rolls.
- Consistency: This soup is thick and hearty, with an almost stew-like texture. Add extra broth if you prefer a thinner consistency.
Total Time: 50 Mins Servings: 8 Cooking Method: Stovetop
- Total Time:
- 50 mins
- Serves:
- 8 servings
- Rating:
- 4.9/5
Ingredient Notes
- Meat: Lean ground beef adds plenty of savory flavor without making the broth greasy. Ground pork adds richness and classic cabbage roll flavor, but you can use additional beef or ground turkey if preferred.
- Long Grain White Rice: Add the rice uncooked so it absorbs the seasoned broth as it simmers. Brown rice takes longer to cook and requires additional liquid.
- Green Cabbage: A firm head of green cabbage holds its texture well as the soup simmers. Chop it into bite-sized pieces, or use bagged chopped cabbage as a shortcut. Savoy cabbage also works but softens more quickly.
- Diced Tomatoes: Keep the juices because they become part of the tomato broth.
- Beef Broth: Beef broth adds rich, savory flavor and complements the ground meat. Chicken or vegetable broth can be used instead.
How to Make Cabbage Roll Soup
- Cook the beef, pork, onion, and garlic. Drain excess fat.
- Add the cabbage and continue cooking (full recipe below).
- Stir in the remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer.
- Remove the bay leaf, adjust the consistency, and season before serving.
Save Some for Later
- Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Freeze in airtight freezer containers for up to 3 months. Leave a little room for expansion. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
- Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave, adding beef broth or water until it reaches the preferred consistency.
Hearty One-Pot Comfort Soups
Did you enjoy this Cabbage Roll Soup Recipe? Leave a comment and rating below.
Cabbage Roll Soup
Cabbage roll soup has tender cabbage, beef, pork, and rice simmered in a savory tomato broth. It has all the cozy flavor of cabbage rolls in an easy one-pot meal.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- ½ pound lean ground pork or additional ground beef
- 1 large onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium head cabbage chopped, core removed, about 8 cups
- 1 (28 ounce) can canned diced tomatoes with juices
- 4 cups beef broth
- 1½ cups vegetable juice such as V8
- ¾ cup long grain white rice uncooked
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 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 ground beef, ground pork, diced onion, and garlic 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, beef broth, V8 or vegetable juice, uncooked rice, tomato paste, 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 to 30 minutes.
- Remove bay leaf and serve.
Video
Notes
- This soup is thick and hearty; if you prefer a thinner soup, add more beef broth or water to reach the desired consistency once the rice is cooked.
- If you don’t have beef broth on hand, you can substitute chicken broth or vegetable broth instead.
- Stretch it even further by adding in some chopped carrots, celery, or potatoes.
- Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Freeze any leftovers in airtight containers for up to 3 months.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 291 | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 55mg | Sodium: 794mg | Potassium: 917mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 795IU | Vitamin C: 67.3mg | Calcium: 113mg | Iron: 3.9mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Soup
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It was GREAT!
Older hands struggle with pulling leaves off cabbage heads to make cabbage rolls. This is a perfect substitute. I made a couple of changes that have received raves. Substitute low sodium tomato soup for paste,increase broth to 8 cups and added 1/4 cup brown sugar. I didn’t have ground pork, so used only ground beef. I also added 1 cup shredded carrots.
Looks and sounds delicious
Made this several times. Good soup. Only changes were I added two pinches of red pepper flake, and added 1/2 stick of butter when I sauté cabbage and add garlic then. If however you cook for a few, it makes a lot. Canning rice never works well. I cooked in crocpot and added rice seperately so i can can it in instapot. Happy new years!
I have a question. When making cabbage roll ups, what can you do with the remaining leaves after you are done making the roll ups? I plan on making a full pan of roll ups.
Hi Steve, we have some delicious cabbage recipes you could try with the leftover leaves. Like this boiled cabbage recipe, colcannon recipe, or this fried cabbage recipe. You will have to let us know if you decided to try one out!
Love this soup. Thanks for a great recipe!
You’re welcome Audie!
I love this soup. Great recipe. I made 2 changes. I used pork breakfast sausage instead of plain ground pork, and I added a medium sized can of sauerkraut because I felt it needed acid. You could also use some apple cider or red wine vinegar, but I loved the sauerkraut, which I also use when I make cabbage rolls.
That sounds delicious Nancy, thanks for sharing!
This recipe was amazing delicious! I did eliminate the tomatoe paste because we like lots of broth. I dont like pork so I used 2 lbs of hamburger. This recipe is tops in my book. Will definitely be making this over and over. Thank you!
You’re welcome Amyg! It’s a versatile recipe so I’m happy to hear that you tailored it to suit yourself!
Everyone loves cabbage rolls but no one ever wants to make them. Hello cabbage roll soup. I’ve made this soup from this recipe every New Year’s Day for the last few years. Always a crowd-pleaser. I like to add a bit more tomato juice, a teaspoon of fennel seed and some red pepper flake. A great, great soup.
So glad you loved this Bill!
I make cabbage roll soup for my youngest son and myself, we’re the only ones in my family that like it. He and I love it.
I make mine different than this recipe. I use, ground beef, cabbage, onion powder (my son won’t eat onions), tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, a can of tomato soup, parsley, rice, garlic powder, salt and pepper. It’s absolutely delicious! I make it in a huge Farberware pot on top of the stove.
I’m going to make a pot for us really soon.
This recipe sounds great. It is an easy to enjoy recipe. It
I’ve made this but I used a bag of coleslaw. It’s a big timesaver. It’s a delicious soup.
The flavor was great but the cabbage was chewy.. I even simmered it for 20 extra minutes.. I would make it again but I would sauté the cabbage first and add it at the end. It would be good without the cabbage and just add extra rice.
I haven’t try any recipes yet. I planning to make your cabbage roll soup. It looks so…… delicious
Love the recipes
Excellent and mouth watering.
Awesome recipes
WONDERFUL DELICIOUS Filling meal in a soup bowll!! , real cooler weather comfort food !!
Looks good
DELICIOUS!!
What type of pot are you using in the video? None of my pots are deep enough. I made a different version of this once I had to cut back on the cabbage because my pot was too small. I absolutely love cabbage Also do you think I can make this in a pressure cooker
Hi Heidi, The pot in the video came from Costco and is no longer available. The brand is Chantal and it is a Cast Iron Dutch Oven. You can find similar Dutch Ovens here on Amazon. This recipe should work well in a 5qt or larger pot to give adequate room for stirring.
I started in a 6 qt. cast iron Dutch oven making this tonight.
Had to move it to a medium sized stock pot (maybe 9 or 19 qts.)
It was FABULOUS!!
Just grateful I had another pot to transfer it to. :)
I’d recommend a large stock pot for this. I like to make a huge pot, eat it for a few days and then freeze the rest.
Hi Heidi, Regarding the pressure cooker: If it is a stove top model consider using this large pot to cook in when you don’t pressure cook. Regardless, this recipe could be cooked any type. The item that takes the longest to cook is the rice. If you have a preference about how cooked you like cabbage, then cook it in two steps in pressure cooker. After cooking the meat, onions, garlic add all the other ingredients and bring up to pressure and cook for the time recommended for your pot, usually 10 minutes with natural pressure release. If you want the cabbage less soft, then omit the cabbage before cooking the rice. After rice cooks, then rapidly cool/decompress the pot, then add the cabbage, bring up to pressure for a couple of minutes and then rapidly cool/decompress. Honestly, by the time you have babysat the pot, it could all be happily done and you can do something else while it is cooking. Keep it simple for dish like this one.