This delectable Cabbage Roll Soup takes everything you love about cabbage rolls and puts it into one easy soup. Just think of it as deconstructed cabbage rolls. This hearty, family-friendly soup is flavor-packed and full of wholesome ingredients like ground beef, onions, carrots, garlic, tomatoes, and cabbage. I love to serve it with cornbread or beer bread.
I love everything about cabbage rolls, but I don’t always have the time to make them. Simmering the cabbage leaves, stuffing them, and rolling them takes time. This soup eliminates all of that but still gives you all the flavor of cabbage rolls. Besides, who wouldn’t love a nice warm, hearty bowl of soup? To me, soup is great anytime. It warms the cockles of my heart.
Ingredient Notes with Substitutions
See the complete ingredients on the recipe card below.
- Ground Beef: You can substitute ground turkey, ground pork, or even pork sausage for the ground beef.
- Beef Broth: Substitute vegetable broth or chicken broth.
- Canned Tomatoes: You can find them with the other canned tomatoes at your local grocery store. I love them because they really add a smoky sweetness to this soup.
- Rice: To make this soup low-carb friendly, use cauliflower rice.
How to Make Cabbage Roll Soup
This is a summary; for the full list of ingredients and instructions, see the recipe card below.
- In a Dutch oven or large pot, brown the ground beef and add the onions and carrots halfway through. Cook until onions are soft.
- Reduce heat to low and add the garlic, paprika, oregano, and thyme. Cook for a minute while stirring.
- Add the cabbage, beef broth, tomato sauce, fire-roasted tomatoes, brown sugar, bay leaves, and rice, then bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes or until the rice is tender.
Preparation Tips
- If you know you will save some of the soup for another night’s meal, split the batch before adding the rice. Refrigerate the half without the rice. When you simmer it for another night’s dinner, add the other half of the rice and cook until tender.
- Fire-roasted tomatoes are tomatoes charred over an open flame, then diced and canned.
- Go light on the salt, as the tomatoes and beef broth are already salty.
More Soup Recipes
- Sausage Soup
- Loaded Potato Soup
- Lasagna Soup
- Chicken Barley Soup
- Pasta E Fagioli
- Tuscan White Bean Soup
Cabbage Roll Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 5 cups chopped green cabbage
- 4 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 1 can (15-ounce) tomato sauce
- 1 can (14-ounce) fire-roasted tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup uncooked long-grain white rice
- Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or fresh thyme
Instructions
- Heat vegetable oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Brown the ground beef. When the ground beef is about halfway browned, add the onions and carrots and cook until the onions are soft.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the garlic, paprika, oregano, and thyme. Cook for 1 minute while stirring.
- Add the cabbage, beef broth, tomato sauce, fire-roasted tomatoes, brown sugar, bay leaves, and rice. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 25-30 minutes, or until the rice is tender.
- Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley or thyme.
Notes
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- Freeze this soup for up to 3 months in heavy-duty freezer bags. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. For best results, hold back the uncooked rice. Add it when reheating the soup so the rice doesn’t get mushy.
Nutrition
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Kristi Humenski
If I am going to use cauliflower rice, how much does you recommend?
Beth Pierce
1 cup. Add the cauliflower rice the last 5-7 minutes of simmering.
Kelly
What happened to the original recipe??? It was Italian sausage, chicken broth, NO carrots. Why mess with what was perfect? Do you happen to have the original to share????
Beth Pierce
You can email me at smalltownwoman.com@gmail.com with the name of the recipe.
Catalina
This is definitely my favorite soup. It has all these rich flavors and it’s so delicious!
Tavo
Great soup! it was super tasty and even my kids asked for more!
Beth Pierce
Awesome! So glad that they liked it! Kids can be hard to please!
Gail Montero
Love the many options of which meat to use! With all the herbs added this is such a flavorful soup indeed!