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!
MS. Holly,
I read in the earlier comments people were omitting flour. Was there a previous version you added flour and the one listed has it omitted?
Recipes are frequently retested and updated. It was found that the flour wasn’t necessary to get delicious results in this recipe.
I have a head of red cabbage from the garden, can I use red instead of green for this?
I’ve only tried this recipe with green cabbage.
Seen your question about the red cabbage and was curious of the same…. Have you tried it yet? If so, how was it? I’m curious to know how it tasted with the red cabbage…..
Where can I find that Black Pot that was used for the cabbage soup?
The black pot in the video was purchased at Costco and is no longer available. The brand is Chantal and it is a Cast Iron Dutch Oven.
Do you think barley would sub for the rice okay?
And can it be ground turkey instead of beef and pork?
I’ve used turkey in this recipe several times, it’s delicious! (I sometimes up the Worcestershire sauce with turkey for a little flavor boost). I haven’t tried barley but I think it would be great in this recipe. You may need to adjust the cooking time slightly.
Could sauerkraut be incorporated to this?
I haven’t tried it but I’m sure it would be great. You might like to use low sodium tomatoes/broth as the sauerkraut would add a lot of salt to the recipe.
Fabulous tecipes! Easy and tasty!
What are the calories per serving of this soup? Thank you! Linda Schmitt
Never mind….just seen some earlier posts.
Love the Stuffed Cabbage shortcut idea. YUM!
I would like more recipes
Would this work on the Trim Healthy Mama lists? If not how could we change it to make i work. It sounds wonderful.
I’m not sure what items are on the list so I can’t save for sure.
Sounds like this will be delicious
I would love to have your cabbage roll recipe. It looks so good.
You can find my Cabbage Roll Recipe here.
I followed the video instructions, but when I snapped my fingers, the meat still looked raw. :D
LOL!
I make a cabbage roll soup similar to this but I always find that if I cook the rice with the soup it becomes mush. By the time the cabbage cooks the rice is overdone and I hate mushy rice. So I always cook the rice separate and add at the end.
That’s a good idea. You could also just add the rice later in the cooking process. I do find that some of the starches from the rice help thicken the broth.
This cabbage roll soup looks delicious! Thanks for posting it, and if you have a mailing list I would love to be added! Thanks!
Thank you Keryl! To receive emails with new recipes, you can click here to sign up to receive emails. Look forward to sending you recipes!
What is the calories and nutrition content in a serviing? Can you estimate the calories at least? Thanks! It was good. I enjoyed it.
Saw your earlier post! Got it figured out. Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
That’s ok
Number of servings would be nice in recipe
This recipe has 8 servings.
This is my absolute favorite way to eat cabbage. I love everything about it only thing I do different is double the broth. Which the fact that this is all I changed speaks volumes to the delisiness of this dish!! Thanks for sharing!!
So glad you loved it Jennifer!
The recipe for cabbage rolls looks delicious, I will make it tomorrow and let you know how.I make out…
I love cabbage soup but I don’t think this is the type of recipe I was looking for.
*eyeroll*