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Stuffed Cabbage Soup made with ground beef, rice, cabbage and fresh tomato sauce on your stovetop in just thirty minutes. This hearty rich soup is cozy and perfect for those cold winter nights!
It comes together in 30 minutes so it is easy and idea for a busy day! Serve this soup with a nice Caesar Salad and some Copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls for the perfect healthy meal!
Stuffed Cabbage Soup Recipe
Similar to Stuffed Cabbage Casserole, this soup is an easier and less involved recipe than the classic stuffed cabbage rolls your grandma used to make. But it still has the classic flavor and warm rich goodness. And just like most soups the leftovers, if you have any are even better.
There are lots of ways to adapt the soup to your liking, which I love. Make it yours however you want, just make it! You won’t regret it, this will quickly become a family favorite.
Soup Ingredients
Using pretty much the same ingredients as a cabbage roll, these come together in a pinch!
- Ground Beef: Use lean ground beef for less fat
- Salt and Pepper:Â Add to taste
- Onion: Flavor booster
- Butter: For Sautéing the onions
- Cabbage: half a head cut into wedges
- Canned Chopped Tomatoes: Don’t drain this 8 ounce can
- Canned Crushed Tomatoes:Â Adds more tomato without the chunks
- Beef Broth: Adds liquid with incredible flavor. You can sub out vegetable broth if desired.
- Italian Seasoning: Perfect combination of spices.Sauté
- Rice: Pre-cooked
Making Cabbage Soup
In 30 minutes you can have a hearty dish on the table.
- Crumble: In a large pot over medium heat add the ground beef and cook and crumble. Drain and set aside on a plate.
- Sauté: Cut two Tablespoons butter into the pot and sauté the onions till tender. Remove and set aside with the beef
- Wilt: Place two more Tablespoons of butter in the pot and add the cabbage and cook till tender and wilted. Add the ground beef and onion back to the pan.
- Add:Â Add in the crushed tomatoes, tomatoes, beef stock, Italian seasoning and let simmer for 15-20 min.
- Stir:Â Stir in the Rice right before serving and add salt and pepper to taste.
How to Make Cabbage Soup in the Slow Cooker
- Browning:Â Brown the beef and the cabbage over high heat with the butter like directed.
- Combine Ingredients:Â Add the ingredients (except with one less cup of beef stock and don’t add the rice yet) into the slow cooker and cook on high heat for 2 hours or on low heat for 5 hours.
- Rice:Â Add in the rice just before serving.
Tips and Variations for Stuffed Cabbage Soup
Most people when making this will boil together all the ingredients which would still be a delicious soup, but with just a couple of adjustments it can be an even more amazing soup!
- Browning: Start by browning the beef really well, getting a good deep browning on the meat.
- Cabbage: Remove the beef you add in the cabbage in a couple of batches, browning the cabbage on high heat before adding in the rest of the ingredients.
- Meat:Â This can also be made with ground chicken or turkey to lighten it up. You can also add ground pork to add a bit more spice.
- Bulk:Â In addition to using the cabbage you can also add in cauliflower as well to bulk up the soup.
- Beefier: To make the soup richer you can add in some beef base to the liquids or if you are using beef stock, you can also start with double the stock and cook it down in another saucepan before adding it to your soup. I keep beef base on hand instead of boxes of stock because it’s easier to control the strength of the stock. In this soup I would make it double the strength.
- Veggies: If you want to add more vegetables to the soup you can add in some fresh spinach or green peas. You can also dice carrots and celery and add them in when browning the cabbage.
- Freeze: Before adding the rice, let the soup cool and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge and bring to a low simmer on the stove. Add the rice before serving.
More Stuffed Recipes
Recipes with the word “stuffed” in them means they have double the goodness. Try these two for one dishes today!
- Nutella Stuffed Skillet Cookie
- Homemade Stuffed Pizza Bites
- Stuffed French Toast
- Stuffed Poblano Peppers
- Taco Stuffed Avocados
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Stuffed Cabbage Soup
Equipment
- Want to make this even easier? Here are a few products that I LOVE:
- Staub Dutch Oven
- The Recipe Critic Measuring Cups
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 4 tablespoons butter divided
- 1/2 head cabbage cut into 8 wedges and sliced thickly
- 1 can chopped tomatoes 8 ounces - not drained
- 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
- 3 cups beef broth
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 2 cups rice cooked
Instructions
- In a large pot over medium high heat add the ground beef and cook and crumble. Drain and set aside on a plate. Add two tablespoons butter and onion and sauté until tender. Remove and set aside with ground beef.
- Add in 2 Tablepoons butter and cabbage and cook until the cabbage is tender and starts to wilt. Add the ground beef and onion back to the pan.
- Add in the crushed tomatoes, beef stock and chopped tomatoes, and italian seasoning and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- Add in rice before serving and salt and pepper to taste.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this last night with ground chicken and cauliflower rice and a bag of frozen veggies (that I cooked in with the cabbage) I had to add a bunch more seasonings because of all that – but the finished product was delicious. All 3 of my kids and my husband enjoyed it! Thanks for a great recipe!
This recipe is so yummy. I have made with both ground turkey as well as extra lean ground beef and both were hits with the family. Only thing I did different was not put the rice in the actual soup but added individually to the bowl so it wouldnt soak up all the juice for the leftovers 🙂
This is yummy. I’m curious about the choice of Italian seasoning. Stuffed cabbage (cabbage rolls) are eastern/central European in origin. We use thyme, maybe dill? I see a lot of versions using Italian seasoning and am wondering if that is because the blend of herbs is such a common USA staple. Anyway, delicious recipe! I’m looking forward to trying more!
Delicious 😋
Made it almost exactly as the recipe stated, but I was out of crushed tomatoes so I substituted stewed tomatoes and I chopped them up. It was very good. My husband, who really isn’t a “soup guy,” said it was good soup – and that is as good as I will ever get. I thought it was yummy. Enough left for lunch and to freeze for another cold winter night.
Thanks Alyssa, this recipe of yours was brilliant. You were absolutely right while it was different from what my grandma made, it tasted almost like what she use to prepare. My family and I totally loved it. I am truly grateful. Happy Holidays
Looking delicious, i would really like to cook it at my home
yum, really nice recipe, thank you haven’t made this before and love ground beef in almost anything, cabbage too!
Awesome
Can you use ground chicken and chicken stock Instead of beef and beef stock
Yes, that will work great!
Do you have to brown the meat n cook cabbage if you intend to use the crock pot
Yes, you will brown the meat if you use a crock pot/slow cooker.
Hi Alyssa, This looks delicious, can’t wait to try it. I do have a question, hopefully you or no one else has mentioned this and I just missed it. But can this be made in a crock pot? And if so what temp and how long would you cook it for? Thanks for any help you can give me and have a wonderful weekend and Labor Day. 🙂
Like the stuff cabbage soup recipe, but wish i could print it. I s there a printable recipe?
Here is the link to print it: https://therecipecritic.com/easyrecipe-print/34376-0/
To make this a low carb soup, I would skip the rice and add cauliflower “rice”. Yum.
Great idea!! I love cauliflower! Hope you enjoy this soup! Thanks so much for following along with me! XOXO
Hello Sabrina, the stuffed cabbage soup in slow cooker sounds great! I look forward to seeing more of your recipes! After 60 years of cooking, making the rolls for most of those years, I am always looking for something new!
Since retiring and my children grown and gone, I am cooking, most of the time for one. So, a soup like this I can put leftovers in freezer for days when I am out, not wanting to cook upon returning. Thank You for sharing!!!raf
Hi! I am so glad that you love my recipes! Thanks so much for following along with me and Alyssa! Great idea on the leftovers! I hope you are able to find a few more recipes that are fun and new to you! Thanks so much!
I have been making cabbage rolls for my family for many years. This recipe is easy and pretty tasty. I will be making it from now on rather than all the prep of rolling up cabbage rolls.
That is awesome!! I love cabbage rolls but you are right, they take a lot of work! I am loving this soup! Thanks for sharing! XOXO