Cabbage Soup with Ground Beef
Cabbage soup simmered with ground beef, carrots, celery, and a rich tomato broth. This one-pot dinner feeds six in under an hour.
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Cabbage soup is what I make when the fridge needs clearing out and dinner still has to happen, and this version turns it into a real meal with a pound of browned ground beef, carrots and celery, and a tomato broth that tastes like it sat on the stove all afternoon. It’s one pot, about 55 minutes start to finish, and it makes enough for six bowls with leftovers for lunch.
The beef is doing more than adding protein. Browning it leaves a layer of stuck-on brown bits on the bottom of the pot, and every one of them dissolves into the broth the moment the tomatoes go in. That’s where most of the flavor comes from, so give the meat its full five or six minutes and let it get some color before you start stirring in vegetables.
The one thing to watch is the cabbage. Twenty to twenty-five minutes of simmering gets it tender while it still has a little bite. Go much past that and it slumps into something soft and gray. Set a timer, fish out a piece, and pull the pot off the heat when the cabbage gives easily but still looks like cabbage.
Why You’ll Love This Cabbage Soup Recipe
- One pot, start to finish. The beef browns, the vegetables soften, and the soup simmers all in the same Dutch oven, so there’s one thing to wash.
- Cheap enough to make on a whim. A head of cabbage, a pound of ground beef, and two cans of tomatoes feed six people for a few dollars a bowl.
- It gets better overnight. The tomato broth mellows in the fridge and day-two bowls taste rounder than day one, which is rare for a soup with cabbage in it.
- Freezer stock you’ll actually eat. Portioned into quart containers it holds for three months and reheats into a full dinner on a night you have nothing left.
Cabbage Soup Ingredients
Use plain green cabbage, the dense pale head, not savoy or red. Savoy is too tender for a long simmer and falls apart, and red cabbage bleeds and turns the whole pot a dull purple-gray. And don’t skip the tablespoon of brown sugar. Canned tomatoes carry a sharp edge that never quite cooks out, and the sugar rounds it off without making the soup taste sweet.
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef (85/15)
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 2 celery ribs, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 cups chopped green cabbage (about half a large head)
- 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes with their juice
- 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
- 4 cups beef broth
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Recipe Variations
- Swap the ground beef for ground turkey to lighten it up. Turkey is poultry, so cook it to an internal temperature of 165°F rather than 160°F, and add an extra tablespoon of oil since it’s much leaner.
- Leave the meat out entirely and use vegetable broth for a meatless pot. Add a rinsed 15-ounce can of white beans in the last 10 minutes so the bowls still have something substantial in them.
- Stir in a cup of cooked long grain white rice at the very end for a cabbage roll version. Cook the rice separately and add it to individual bowls, since rice left sitting in the pot swells and drinks up all the broth.
How to Make Cabbage Soup
- Brown the beef: Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook for 5-6 minutes, breaking it into small pieces, until no pink remains and it reaches an internal temperature of 160°F. Pour off any fat beyond about a tablespoon.
- Soften the vegetables: Add the onion, carrots, and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until the onion turns translucent and the celery softens at the edges. Stir in the garlic and cook 30 seconds more, just until it smells sweet.
- Wilt the cabbage: Add the chopped cabbage and cook for 3-4 minutes, tossing it through the beef and vegetables, until it collapses enough to fit comfortably in the pot.
- Build the broth: Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juice, the tomato sauce, and the beef broth. Add the brown sugar, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, salt, and pepper, and scrape the bottom of the pot to lift the browned bits. Bring it to a boil.
- Simmer: Cover, drop the heat to low, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the cabbage is tender with a little bite left and the carrots slide off a fork. Stir once or twice along the way.
- Finish and taste: Fish out the bay leaves, stir in the parsley, and taste for salt. Canned tomatoes and broth vary a lot in saltiness, so this last taste matters more than the measured teaspoon does.
Recipe FAQs
How Do I Keep Cabbage Soup from Tasting Bland?
Three things fix it. Brown the beef properly instead of steaming it gray, use the whole tablespoon of brown sugar to soften the canned tomato edge, and salt it again at the end after tasting. Under-salting is the usual culprit.
Can I Make This in a Slow Cooker?
Yes. Brown the beef and the vegetables on the stove first, then move everything to a slow cooker and cook on low for 5-6 hours or high for 3 hours. The cabbage comes out softer than the stovetop version either way.
How Much Is Half a Head of Cabbage?
About 6 cups chopped, or roughly a pound and a half. A whole medium head runs 2 to 3 pounds, so half of one gets you there. Chop the rest into a slaw so it doesn’t sit in the crisper drawer.
Why Did My Soup Turn out Watery?
Cabbage releases a lot of water as it cooks, so a pot that started out thin gets thinner. Simmer uncovered for the last 10 minutes to concentrate it, or cut the broth back to 3 cups next time.
Can I Use a Different Ground Meat?
Ground turkey and ground chicken both work and should be cooked to 165°F. Ground pork works too at 160°F, and it’s a little richer than beef. Italian sausage with the casings removed is the most flavorful swap of the bunch.
Cooking Tips
- Cut the cabbage into pieces about an inch across. Long shreds tangle around the spoon and slide off, while squares stay put in the bowl and cook at the same rate as the carrots.
- Give the beef a minute or two of stillness in the pot before you start breaking it up. Meat that sits undisturbed browns; meat that gets stirred immediately just releases water and steams.
- Slice the carrots on a diagonal about 1/4 inch thick. Thick coins are still hard when the cabbage is ready, and paper-thin ones dissolve into the broth over 25 minutes and leave you nothing to bite.
Storage and Freezing
To store: Cool and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days. The flavor improves by the second day, though the cabbage keeps softening.
To freeze: Freezes well for up to 3 months in quart containers. Leave an inch of headspace since the soup expands, and expect the cabbage to come out a little softer after thawing.
To reheat: Warm on the stove over medium heat until it steams and reaches 165°F throughout, about 8-10 minutes, or microwave a bowl for 2-3 minutes, stirring halfway.
How to Serve Cabbage Soup
Cabbage soup wants bread next to it, so a crusty baguette, a wedge of cornbread, or a grilled cheese cut into strips for dunking all work. A spoonful of sour cream stirred into each bowl adds a little richness if you want it. It also stretches nicely as a starter before a roast chicken if you’re feeding a crowd.
Loved This Recipe?
Cabbage soup is one of the few dinners that costs almost nothing, cooks in one pot, and still tastes like somebody put in the effort.
Leave a star rating in the comments below, it helps other people find this recipe. Made it? Tag @allwellfed on Instagram, I love seeing this one in other people’s kitchens.
Cabbage Soup with Ground Beef
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground beef 85/15
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 2 carrots sliced
- 2 ribs celery sliced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 6 cups chopped green cabbage about half a large head
- 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes with their juice
- 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
- 4 cups beef broth
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- Brown the beef: Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook for 5-6 minutes, breaking it into small pieces, until no pink remains and it reaches an internal temperature of 160°F. Pour off any fat beyond about a tablespoon.
- Soften the vegetables: Add the onion, carrots, and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until the onion turns translucent and the celery softens at the edges. Stir in the garlic and cook 30 seconds more, just until it smells sweet.
- Wilt the cabbage: Add the chopped cabbage and cook for 3-4 minutes, tossing it through the beef and vegetables, until it collapses enough to fit comfortably in the pot.
- Build the broth: Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juice, the tomato sauce, and the beef broth. Add the brown sugar, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, salt, and pepper, and scrape the bottom of the pot to lift the browned bits. Bring it to a boil.
- Simmer: Cover, drop the heat to low, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the cabbage is tender with a little bite left and the carrots slide off a fork. Stir once or twice along the way.
- Finish and taste: Fish out the bay leaves, stir in the parsley, and taste for salt. Canned tomatoes and broth vary a lot in saltiness, so this last taste matters more than the measured teaspoon does.
Notes
If you made this, leave a star rating down in the comments. It takes about ten seconds, and it’s how other cooks decide whether a recipe is worth trying.
