Stuffed Cabbage Soup
This post may contain affiliate links, read our disclosure policy.
Stuffed Cabbage Soup is everything you love about traditional stuffed cabbage rolls, in a cozy, spoonable bowl that comes together in about an hour. All the flavor, none of the tedious rolling and stuffing.
Save this recipe!
Save this recipe! Enter your email below and we’ll shoot it straight to ya!
I consent to receive email from this site 💌
Stuffed Cabbage Soup
Stuffed Cabbage Soup
Click the button above to save this recipe!
The story behind this one is simple. I wanted stuffed cabbage for dinner, ran to the market, bought every ingredient, and then, after a full day of work and a grocery run, could not bring myself to roll a single cabbage leaf. So I chopped everything, threw it in a pot, and this easy soup was born. It has been in our regular rotation ever since.
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
It is hearty enough for a full dinner, freezer friendly, and flexible. You can make it on the stovetop, in the slow cooker, or in the Instant Pot, and it works just as well with ground beef, ground turkey, or a mix. Scroll down for my tips on rice, substitutions, and storage so your leftovers taste just as good as night one.
Stuffed Cabbage Soup Ingredients
- Sweet yellow onion
- Garlic cloves, minced (do you have a garlic press? you should.)
- Seasoned salt
- Cooked ground beef
- Diced tomatoes (canned)
- Plain tomato sauce (canned)
- Worcestershire sauce
- Chicken stock (here’s how to make chicken stock)
- Cabbage, chopped
- Quick cooking white rice
How do you make stuffed cabbage soup?
⭐ First, in a large stock pot brown ground beef.
⭐ Next, saute onion, garlic, and seasoned salt. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and stock. Bring back to a simmer.
⭐ Then, stir in cabbage and cook until cabbage is wilted and softened.
⭐ Finally, stir in rice and cover until rice is ready. Stir in remaining chicken stock, as needed until desired consistency is reached.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
This soup is forgiving, so use what you have and adjust to your taste.
- Ground beef: Ground turkey or ground chicken both work well for a lighter bowl. For a richer, more savory soup, swap in half Italian sausage.
- Rice: Quick cooking white rice keeps things fast. Brown rice works too but needs to be cooked separately since it takes much longer. For a low carb version, stir in riced cauliflower at the end instead, and simmer just until tender.
- Cabbage: A standard head of green cabbage is perfect here. Savoy cabbage is a little more tender and also lovely if that is what you have.
- Tomatoes: Fire roasted diced tomatoes add a nice smoky depth if you want to dress it up.
- Stock: Chicken stock keeps it light. Beef stock makes it heartier and more traditional. Vegetable stock works if you are keeping it meatless.
- Seasoning: Taste before serving. A splash more Worcestershire or a pinch more seasoned salt at the end brings everything together.
Storage, Freezing, and Reheating
The one thing to know about this soup: rice keeps drinking up broth as it sits. If you are planning on leftovers, cook the rice separately and add a scoop to each bowl as you serve. Your soup stays brothy on day two and three instead of turning into a thick casserole.
- Refrigerator: Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Add a splash of stock when reheating to loosen it back up.
- Freezer: Freeze for up to 3 months, but freeze it before adding the rice. Otherwise the rice absorbs all the liquid and you will have very little broth left after thawing.
- Reheating: Warm gently on the stovetop over medium low, or microwave individual bowls. Stir in a little extra stock or water until it reaches the consistency you like, then add your rice.
More soup recipes to love!
- Chicken Puttanesca Soup
- Slow Cooker Chicken Salsa Soup
- Creamy Tomato and Blue Cheese Soup
- Soup made with Italian Sausage
- Spicy Cheeseburger and Potato Soup
- Cabbage and Ground Beef Soup Recipe
- See all our easy recipes for soup!
More awesome cabbage recipes
- Oven roasted cabbage steaks
- Unstuffed Egg Rolls
- Cabbage beef soup
- Corned beef and cabbage
- Cabbage curry stew
- Make sure to check our entire collection of cabbage recipes!
More ways to cook ground beef
- Wendy’s Chili Copycat Recipe
- Ground Beef Stroganoff with Curry
- Crockpot Slow Cooker Chili
- Easy Italian Sloppy Joes
- Make sure to check out all our easy ground beef recipes!
Get our FREE Easy Casseroles Ebook!
Follow us below!Use #mamalovesfood on Instagram!
How to Make Stuffed Cabbage Soup
Stuffed Cabbage Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 1 cup chopped sweet yellow onion
- 2 medium garlic cloves minced (do you have a garlic press? you should.)
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
- 2 pounds cooked ground beef
- 30 ounces diced tomatoes canned
- 30 ounces plain tomato sauce canned
- ⅓ cup Worcestershire sauce
- 6 cups chicken stock here's how to make your own
- 1 head cabbage chopped
- 3 cups quick cooking white rice (SEE RECIPE NOTES)
Instructions
STOVE TOP
- In a large stock pot brown ground beef (drain excess liquid if desired), then add onion, garlic, and seasoned salt until mixture is aromatic and onions are translucent.
- Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and 4 cups chicken stock. Bring back to a simmer.
- Stir in cabbage and cook on medium/low covered about 20 minutes until cabbage is wilted and softened. Stir in rice and cover until rice is ready.
- Stir in remaining chicken stock, as needed until desired consistency is reached. Enjoy!
INSTANT POT
- In inner pot on saute mode, brown ground beef (drain excess liquid if desired), then add onion, garlic, and seasoned salt until mixture is aromatic and onions are translucent.
- Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, 4 cups chicken stock, and cabbage.
- Cover, set to 'sealing' and cook on manual (high pressure) for 3 minutes. Hit cancel, NPR ten minutes, then release remaining pressure.
- Stir in rice and cover (pot should not be on, rice will cook with residual heat). Allow to sit for 5 - 7 minutes until rice is cooked to your liking.
- Stir in remaining chicken stock, if you wish, until desired consistency is reached, (bring back to a simmer on saute mod) . Enjoy!
SLOW COOKER
- Brown ground beef on stovetop (drain excess liquid if desired). Add all ingredients EXCEPT rice to slow cooker.
- Cover, and cook on high for 4 - 6 hours or low for 8 - 10 hours. Stir in rice and cover. Allow to sit for 5 - 7 minutes until rice is cooked to your liking.
- Stir in remaining stock, if you wish, until desired consistency is reached.
Video
Notes
- This fits best in an 8 quart instant pot. If using a 6 quart you may need to halve the amount of rice.
- As written, this makes a very rice-heavy soup (especially if you're going to leave it to sit for a while). If you prefer it soupier, start with about half the amount of rice and add more as desired, OR cook the rice separately and ladle the soup over your rice to serve.
- Store leftovers in the fridge up to 4 days, or freeze up to 3 months. If freezing, leave the rice out and add it fresh when serving, since rice soaks up the broth as it sits. Reheat gently on the stovetop or in the microwave, adding a splash of stock to loosen as needed.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
Share it with me on Instagram and use the hashtag #mamalovesfood and follow on Pinterest for even more!
Stuffed Cabbage Soup
Click the button above to save this recipe!
If you love soup, try our easy broccoli cheese soup recipe or chow mein soup recipe next!
Tools we love
- Enameled dutch oven – if you watch our live cooking show, you’ll see me using this fantastic dutch oven alllll the time. Doesn’t matter the brand, it’s all about the color. Find the colorful dutch oven you love and I bet you’ll find yourself cooking more!
- White ceramic dishware – I love white dishes because you can tell with a glance whether they’ve been cleaned. With five kids, this is a real thing.
- Ceramic soup bowls – there is literally no such thing as too many bowls. I heart bowls. So much.
- Colorful cotton bandanas (we use them as napkins!) – when my kids were young I decided I’d had enough of paper napkins and paper towels. We were going through such a ridiculous amount and it felt like I was just throwing money directly into the trash. So, I ordered 100 (yes!) bandannas and here we are years and years later still using them! It’s perfect.
- Stainless steel soup ladle – my soup ladle is constantly going missing. Does this happen at other people’s homes?
Recipe FAQS
Does cabbage roll soup freeze well?
Yes, but freeze before adding the rice, otherwise the rice will continue to absorb moisture and you will not have any broth left when it is reheated.
What kind of rice for cabbage roll soup?
We prefer a quick cooking rice.
Should I cook the rice separately for stuffed cabbage soup?
Only if you plan to freeze the soup.
7.6.2026, 8.30.2019, 8.2015
Get Our Free Easy Casseroles ebook!
Recipes in your inbox
(your email will never be sold!)
Let’s Connect!
Tag #mamalovesfood on Instagram!
This looks amazing…. but I have this 'thing' with minute rice. Can I use short grain white rice and just simmer longer?
sorry for the late reply – yes short grain white rice should work fine, but you'll probably need extra liquid. water or broth would work 🙂
what kind of season salt did you use. Thanks
I used Lawry’s brand 🙂
I made this over the weekend and it was DEEEEElicious! Thanks for the recipe!
yay!!! so glad you liked it <3
Hi Mama April
Have you tried Crack slaw? Unlike what the name implies, it is actually cooked with the primary ingredients you used in the soup. Cabbage (mandolined thinly), beef (I use turkey), onions and season i ngs. I prefer Spicy Crack Slaw and have been eating it as part of my Keto way of eating, but anyone would love it!
Hi, I made this stuffed cabbage soup and it was so delicious. Now, that it is getting into our winter season, we eat more soups. I live in Maryland so I will be trying some of your other soups also. The tortilla soup looks delicious also. Have a great day.
Oh, I’m so glad you loved it! One of our favorites as well! <3
Hi I just made this for supper and man was it good. Thank you so much for your recipe.
YAY! <3
Could leftovers be frozen? Wasn’t sure with the rice. It’s super yummy and I normally hate cabbage!
Hi Shauna! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! It’s better frozen without the rice, but still delicious with it. When you thaw, you may need to add additional broth or water as the rice will continue to soak up the liquid. Hope that helps!
I’ll in the process of making this as I write I. Going to use brown rice I hope that will work I can’t have white rice it smells heavenly
brown rice works too! hope you love it! <3
Made this for dinner tonight, it was delicious!!!!
I make this with a sweet and sour sauce, in mixing bowl add 2 cups of brown sugar and about 1\4 cup of vinegar a dash of salt and pepper mix in with tomato sauce pour over the top and add some more brown sugar then bake at 350 till bubble about 30 to 45 minutes i make more of this sauce because my family likes home made bread to dip in the sauce. hope everyone likes this (enjoy)
oh, yum!
Delish! I tweaked it so I could make it in my Cosori pressure cooker. Waited onion, garlic with oil. Added ground beef browning slightly to break it up. Added rest of ingredients using brown rice, cooked on 5 setting for 20 min. Everything cooked to perfection!
yay!!!
to make this as authentically Ashkenazi Russian-Jewish as possible, you should add a bunch of golden raisins. trust me. the sweet-and-sour aspect will take it over the top. other than that, it’s a great recipe. thanks!
Grew up in a Polish community where we ate Cabbage Rolls at special events.
This soup is the next best thing. I added abit of Balsamic White vinegar and 1/4 cup brown sugar, which I had seen
in another recipe.
YUM.
great tip, thank you!
One of my favorite soups.
This is so delicious and hearty! I love this recipe and so does my family of boys! This recipe reminds me of our Polish stuffed cabbage recipe in less time and it makes a lot. I like to to make things that make enough to feed my family with leftovers, especially on busy weeknights. Thank you for sharing!
i’m so glad you love it!!!
April, once again I find myself making this soup on a weekday, and thought I would drop a compliment your way. This is a long time favorite of my husbands, and also my mum. Due to a health condition, she needs to eat foods that are based in a broth, and she LOVES this soup. Bringe her back to her childhood 🙂
you are the sweetest. thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment. i’m so glad your family enjoys the recipe <3