Stuffed Cabbage Soup

Stuffed Cabbage Soup is hearty, filling, and tastes just like cabbage rolls, made with ground beef, cabbage, and rice in a savory tomato base, ready in under 45 minutes!

We’re all about hearty comfort food on cold winter days, and with cabbage in season we’re making Cabbage SoupCrispy Roasted Cabbage Steaks and Stuffed Cabbage Casserole.

Stuffed Cabbage Soup
STUFFED CABBAGE SOUP

Stuffed Cabbage Soup is the BEST way to keep warm in the winter, made with hearty ground beef, chopped cabbage, and rice in a tomato and beef broth, it tastes just like cabbage rolls! But instead of stuffed, this is more of a deconstructed or unstuffed version that you won’t have to spend time rolling.

This cabbage soup is made in just one pot on the stovetop, and is a great weeknight recipe because it’s ready in a total time of 45 minutes. It’s perfect for when you don’t have time to make a whole pan of regular cabbage rolls. I like to serve this dish with Garlic Bread or Dinner Rolls and butter, and some extra rice on the side.

If you’re looking for more fun recipes with cabbage you may want to try my super popular Crispy Slow Cooker Corned Beef or my Haluski Noodles with bacon!

HOW LONG WILL STUFFED CABBAGE SOUP KEEP?

Stuffed cabbage soup will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 days in an airtight container. Reheat in a saucepan over medium-high heat.

CAN YOU FREEZE CABBAGE SOUP?

Cabbage soup is a great dish for making ahead and freezing for busy nights, so make a double batch next time! When I’m freezing cabbage soup, I undercook the cabbage slightly, to prevent it from overcooking when you reheat the soup.

HOW TO MAKE STUFFED CABBAGE SOUP IN THE SLOW COOKER

  • In a large saucepan, brown ground beef in 2 tablespoons of butter until almost cooked through. Add ground beef along with all other ingredients, except for rice, to the slow cooker.
  • Cook on high for 4 hours, or on low for 8 hours.
  • Stir cooked rice into the slow cooker just before serving. You can also add uncooked rice about an hour (on high) before the time is up. If you’re cooking on low, add uncooked rice 2 hours before the slow cooker time is up.

Stuffed Cabbage Soup

HOW TO MAKE CABBAGE SOUP IN THE INSTANT POT

  • Turn on the sauté function. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and ground beef, stirring until beef is browned. Remove and set aside.
  • Add remaining butter with cabbage and onions, and cook until they start to soften.
  • Add beef and all other ingredients (except for rice) to the instant pot and stir together. Close and seal the lid of your pot and close the pressure valve.
  • Cook on high for 8 minutes, then naturally release.
  • Stir in rice before serving.

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TIPS FOR MAKING STUFFED CABBAGE SOUP

  • This stuffed cabbage soup recipe calls for ground beef, but you can use any meat like turkey, sausage, or lamb.
  • I’m using diced and crushed tomatoes because I like to have pieces of tomato in this soup, but you can use a can of tomato sauce if that’s what you have. Make sure you use a can of plain tomato sauce, not a jar of pasta sauce! And don’t go overboard, or it will become too much like tomato soup.
  • You can add potatoes to cabbage roll soup, even though they are not technically in cabbage rolls. I like to use peeled russet potatoes, or quartered Yukon gold potatoes.
  • You can completely omit the beef and use vegetable broth to make this vegetarian. Or stir in cubed tofu a few minutes before serving.
  • You can top stuffed cabbage with crispy chopped bacon for extra flavor, which also works great for this soup!
  • You can add extra seasoning to this dish for more flavor, like cayenne pepper, minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, or a bay leaf.
  • Instead of ground beef, try using chicken broth and cut up leftover rotisserie chicken!
  • Omit the salt and use low-sodium beef broth for a lower sodium version of this soup. You can also use brown rice as a healthier alternative to white rice.
  • Try adding other ingredients to this soup like white beans, green beans, peppers, or celery.
  • I always make soups and stews in a dutch oven, because the heat distribution of the metal makes the dish taste amazing, but you can technically use a large pot if you don’t have one.
  • Cabbage rolls typically call for rice, but you can make this cabbage soup lower carb by leaving the rice out, or using less.
  • Be careful not to overcook the soup, or the cabbage will get too mushy. You can also undercook it slightly if you want to leave some crunch in the cabbage.
  • I don’t recommend using red cabbage, because the flavor is totally different. Just like cabbage rolls, we want to go with green cabbage.

Stuffed Cabbage Soup

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Stuffed Cabbage Soup

Stuffed Cabbage Soup is hearty, filling, and tastes just like cabbage rolls, made with ground beef, cabbage, and rice in a savory tomato base, ready in under 45 minutes!

Course Dinner
Cuisine American
Keyword stuffed cabbage soup
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 8 servings
Calories 537 kcal
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1 yellow onion chopped
  • 1 head cabbage chopped roughly
  • 14 ounces diced tomatoes
  • 14 ounces crushed tomatoes
  • 3 cups beef broth
  • 3 cups rice cooked

Instructions

  1. Add the ground beef to a large dutch oven with the salt and pepper and brown it really well then remove it from the pot and add in 4 tablespoons of butter, onions and cabbage and cook for 5-6 minutes until they start to caramelize.

  2. Add in the diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, beef broth and the cooked beef and let simmer on low heat for 15 minutes then stir in the cooked rice and cook until its warmed through and serve.

Recipe Notes

Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.

Nutrition Facts
Stuffed Cabbage Soup
Amount Per Serving
Calories 537 Calories from Fat 180
% Daily Value*
Fat 20g31%
Saturated Fat 10g63%
Cholesterol 62mg21%
Sodium 833mg36%
Potassium 733mg21%
Carbohydrates 69g23%
Fiber 5g21%
Sugar 7g8%
Protein 18g36%
Vitamin A 540IU11%
Vitamin C 51.7mg63%
Calcium 118mg12%
Iron 3.5mg19%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

cabbage soup with rice and beef

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. The ingredients call for 6 tablespoons of butter, but the directions only use 4 with the onions and cabbage. Where do you use the other 2 tablespoons??

  2. I’d love to make this, but I only have a very small slow cooker (2qt), and no large pots.
    Do you think halving the recipe would be enough to make it fit my teeny tiny needs? Thanks!

  3. I made this tonight! Had to make a few changes because I used a pot that wasn’t large enough so I used a bit less stock and I also used brown rice but only about 2 cups, maybe less. Everyone really loved it so I’ll make sure I make it with a larger pot next time! Thanks for the recipe!!!

  4. Seriously cannot wait to try this cabbage soup. It’s got all my favorite ingredients. I love that it’s prepared so quickly!

      1. When do you add the 2 tablespoons of butter? 4 for caramelizing the onion and cabbage and nothing about the other two.

        1. Sorry about that, this recipe only require 4 tablespoons of butter. I’ve edited the recipe card to read correctly now. I hope you enjoy!