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.
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
Cabbage Roll Soup Recipe
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!
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.