• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Culinary Cool

Cooking Up Something Delicious

  • Home
  • Start Here!
  • Recipes
  • Bucket List
  • Contact
Home » Soups, Salads & Sandwiches » Cabbage Roll Soup

Cabbage Roll Soup

Published on December 8, 2022 by Nicole Last Modified on December 8, 2022 / 1 Comment

Pin
Share
Tweet
Cabbage Roll Soup

Cabbage rolls are my favourite comfort food, but they take forever to make. This cabbage roll soup has all the flavours and comfort of cabbage rolls, but it’s ready in 1 hour! It’s great for a weeknight meal, makes great leftovers and will crush your comfort food craving.

This post is sponsored by Minute Rice Canada. As always, all opinions are my own.

I love cabbage rolls more than the average person. But they take so much time and effort to make. Enter, Cabbage Roll Soup. Everything goes into the pot and simmers away for an hour, then, dinner is served.

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Bowl of cabbage roll soup on a plate with slices of baguette. Minute Rice single serve packaging in the top right corner.

They go by many names – cabbage rolls, stuffed cabbage, halupki, golumpki. Whatever you call them, they’re all very similar and all very delicious. My Baba’s cabbage rolls are legendary. I know everyone says that their grandma made the best ones, but my Baba’s are truly the best. The ingredients are so simple but the process is long. It’s likely to take you the whole day to make them, so don’t plan on eating them on the same day. Because the process takes so long, we only ever have cabbage rolls for the holidays. Quite frankly, a few times a year just isn’t enough. That’s where this comforting cabbage roll soup comes into play. It has all the same flavours, ingredients and nostalgia as the rolled version, but it’s ready to eat in an hour.

Lets Talk Ingredients

Cabbage roll soup is made with simple, wholesome ingredients. The key players in this soup are green cabbage, ground beef and tomatoes. It’s amazing how much flavour you get from a handful of basic ingredients.

  • Green Cabbage: I use fresh, green cabbage for this recipe. I look for a small to medium sized head of cabbage without any damaged leaves on the outside. Chances are you won’t need the whole head, so make some coleslaw with the leftovers.
  • Lean Ground Beef: Most stuffed cabbage recipes use ground beef or pork in the filling. It’s what’s going to make this soup hearty and filling.
  • Tomato: This recipe calls for passata, which is simply uncooked, pureed tomatoes. If you prefer, you can use a jarred tomato sauce, instead. Tomato sauce will have a thicker consistency compared to passata, but will still work great.
  • Minute Rice: Using Ready to Serve Whole Grain Brown Rice does two things. 1. It ensure the rice is perfectly cooked no matter what. No mushy or hard rice here. 2. It allows you to add it to your bowl instead of all into the soup. This will help with leftovers. I hate when rice and pasta soak up all the liquid in leftover soup. This way, you add as much or as little as you want, each time you eat it.

Top down shot of a bowl of cabbage rolls soup, sitting on a plate. Four slices of baguette nestled against the bowl. Small round dish in background with three pats of butter.

How to make Cabbage Roll Soup

Folks, there’s really not much to it! Start by browning the beef with the onions, then add in the garlic, cabbage and tomato paste. Add everything else except for the rice. Let it simmer for 45-60 minutes. You want the cabbage to have softened and sweetened and in my experience, it’s best to let it go for the full hour. Once the cabbage is perfect, add in the pre-cooked rice (either all to the pot, or portioned out into individual bowls) and serve! The benefit to adding the pre-cooked rice at the end, is that you know it’s cooked perfectly (no soggy rice or hard rice, here!).

Close up of the bowl of cabbage roll soup to show rice, tomatoes and cabbage. Sprinkle of parsley onto. Minute Rice packaging in the top right corner.

With the cold, winter months upon us, comfort food is always on the brain. Cabbage Roll Soup is full of hearty, good-for-you ingredients and it’s super simple to make. This soup goes great with some garlic bread, buttered baguette, or just on it’s own. It’s a great weeknight meal and makes for even better leftovers the next day.

Looking for more Comfort Food?

  • Turos Teszta (A Hungarian Pasta Dish)
  • Instant Pot Turkey and Rice Meatballs
  • French Onion Soup Bites
  • Thai Coconut Curry Meatballs
Top down shot of a bowl of cabbage rolls soup, sitting on a plate. Four slices of baguette nestled against the bowl. Small round dish in background with three pats of butter.

Cabbage Roll Soup

Print Pin Rate
Course: Soup
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cabbage, Rice, Tomato
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Servings: 6 Servings
Calories: 231kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 1 cup chopped yellow onion
  • 3 large cloves of garlic minced
  • 3 cups chopped green cabbage
  • 2 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 1/2 cups beef broth
  • 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
  • 1 1/2 cups passata pureed tomatoes
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 Tbsp Worcestershire
  • 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning herb blend
  • 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 2 125g each Minute Rice Ready to Serve Whole Grain Brown Rice about 2 cups cooked rice

Instructions

  • In a soup pot over medium heat, add beef and onions. Cook until beef has browned. Drain excess fat.
  • Add garlic, cabbage, and tomato paste. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
  • Add in beef broth, diced tomatoes, passata, sugar, Worcestershire, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low.
  • Simmer the soup for 45-60 minutes, or until the cabbage has softened and sweetened. Adjust seasoning to taste.
  • Prepare Minute Rice Ready to Serve Whole Grain Brown Rice according to package directions.
  • Add rice to the soup, stir to combine.
  • Serve Immediately.

Nutrition

Calories: 231kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 47mg | Sodium: 831mg | Potassium: 917mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 611IU | Vitamin C: 30mg | Calcium: 81mg | Iron: 5mg

Nutritional calculation was provided by WP Recipe Maker and is an estimation only. For special diets or medical issues please use your preferred calculator

Notes

  • You can also use long grain white rice in place of the Minute Rice. You'll want about 2 cups of cooked rice. 
  • If you want to cook the rice in the soup as it simmers, use 1 cup long grain white rice (uncooked), and you'll also need to increase the amount of beef stock, or water, by about 2 cups.
Did you make this recipe?Mention @culinarycool or tag #culinarycool!
Pin
Share
Tweet

Filed Under: Soups, Salads & Sandwiches

Previous Post: « Orange Creamsicle French Soda
Next Post: Apple Fritter Monkey Bread »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Wonderful cook

    January 3, 2023 at 2:09 am

    This looks delicious! I love soups that are full of flavor like this one! I’ll have to try the recipe soon!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

meetnicole

I'm Nicole, a cookbook addict, cooking school instructor, travel junkie, and lover of all things sweet.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates and to hear what's going on with Culinary Cool!

Popular Recipes

Stack of four thick slices of banana bread on a white plate. Plate is sitting on a pink napkin.

Spelt Banana Bread

Baked Apple Fritter Monkey bread on a white cake stand with vanilla been glaze drizzled on top.

Apple Fritter Monkey Bread

cinnamon roll covered with cream cheese icing sitting on a round plate. In the background the remaining 9 cinnamon buns sit on a cutting board.

Slow Cooker Cinnamon Rolls

Poppy seed roll, cut into several slices

Ukrainian Poppy Seed Roll

twelve muffins inside a muffin tin with glass of orange juice in the background

Turkey Bacon Breakfast Muffins

muffin tin with 12 muffins sitting in the cups

Morning Glory Bran Muffins

Certified Yummly Recipes on Yummly.com my foodgawker gallery

Archives

Categories

Footer

Let’s get Social

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

About Me

mmWelcome to my kitchen!

I'm Nicole, a cookbook obsessed food photographer and blogger.
I believe there's a chef in every one of us, and my goal is to create approachable recipes that anyone can make.

Read more about Nicole...

Copyright © 2023 Culinary Cool