Stuffed cabbage soup is the cozy comfort food that shows up like a casserole in a bowl - hearty, tangy, beefy, and blessedly easy on a weeknight.
This is everything you love about classic stuffed cabbage rolls-tender cabbage, savory beef, rich tomato broth-without wrestling a single leaf. It's a quick, one-pot dinner that warms you up, fills you up, and doesn't ask for much in return.
Table of Contents
🗝️ Why you'll fall hard for this stuffed cabbage soup
- One-pot, weeknight-friendly, and gloriously low-stress
- Budget-friendly ingredients that stretch into a full family dinner
- Meal-prep dream: reheats beautifully and freezes like a champ
Need the quick-and-dirty version without scrolling like you're chasing the end of the internet? This stuffed cabbage roll soup kitchen cheat sheet has the tips, storage, variations, faqs, and more all laid out so you can keep the pot bubbling and your sanity intact. Print it, pin it, or tape it to a cabinet like a tiny culina
📖 Recipe
Stuffed Cabbage Roll Soup
Print Pin Recipe Rate RecipeIngredients
- 1 tablespoon oil, olive or vegetable, whatever's handy
- 1 pound ground beef
- 14 ounce bag coleslaw mix, yes, the shortcut bag - cabbage + carrots all done for you or 14 ounces shredded cabbage
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 14 ounces beef stock
- 14 ounces V-8 juice
- 28- ounce can crushed tomatoes with puree
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or cider vinegar in a pinch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup long-grain rice, uncooked
- Fresh parsley, for garnish
- Sour cream, for serving
Instructions
- Heat oil in a big soup pot over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and cook until browned and crumbly, about 5-7 minutes. Drain if needed.
- Stir in coleslaw mix and onion. Cook for 4-5 minutes until slightly softened.
- Add broth, tomatoes, water, brown sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Stir well and bring to a boil.
- Stir in the rice. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 40-45 minutes, until rice is tender and the soup is rich and thickened.
- Taste and adjust seasoning (add more salt, pepper, or lemon if you like it tangy).
- Ladle into bowls, top each with a generous dollop of sour cream, and sprinkle with parsley.
Slow Cooker
- Brown the beef.
- Toss everything except rice into the slow cooker for 6-7 hours.
- Cook rice and add 15 minutes or so before serving.
Notes
- Use cole slaw mix. It's pre-shredded cabbage without the emotional damage of chopping a whole head yourself.
- Don't overcook the rice. It'll drink the broth like gossip at a church potluck. Add more liquid if things get thick.
- Freeze without the rice. Unless you enjoy thawing cabbage-flavored concrete. Add fresh rice when reheating.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
This recipe has been tested several times. If you choose to use other ingredients, or change the technique in some way, the results may not be the same.
Love this recipe?
Subscribe to the free membership group and never miss another recipe!
Easy cabbage soup ingredients
These aren't fancy ingredients. These are "I'm tired, everyone's loud, and dinner better come together fast" ingredients. Straightforward, affordable, and ready to transform into a stuffed cabbage soup that tastes like your pronouns are organized and responsible.
- A bag of cole slaw mix because chopping cabbage is for people with time on their hands
- Onion, preferably the one without the green stalks growing out of it
- Parsley, torn with the passion of a woman reclaiming her Tuesday
- V-8 juice, the chaotic neutral hero of this recipe
- A sharp splash of lemon juice to keep things honest
- White rice to thicken the whole situation and make it hearty enough for farm hands
- Ground beef, the backbone of every "I refuse to give up" dinner
- A glug of oil so everything slides around like a car on an icy road
- Brown sugar for that sweet little whisper of trouble
- Water, because we are making soup, not a casserole - this time
- Crushed tomatoes to bring the drama
- Beef stock for depth, flavor, and emotional support
- Sour cream for swirling, soothing, and flexing
- Salt and pepper because even chaos needs boundaries
🔪 How to make stuffed cabbage soup
This part's easy. Just follow the steps like you're wrangling dinner into submission. No fancy tricks, no culinary gymnastics - just honest, soul-warming chaos management that turns simple ingredients into the kind of stuffed cabbage soup that hushes a whole household. Let's get that pot purring.
- Toss that ground beef, chopped onion, and cabbage mix into your biggest pot - the one that makes you feel like you're running a tiny, slightly chaotic diner.
- Keep stirring. You're looking for tender cabbage, glowy onions, and a pot that smells like your grandma just whispered a blessing over it.
- Now dump in the crushed tomatoes, scoop of brown sugar, lemon juice, water, salt, and stock. Stir it all together until it looks like cozy comfort in the making.
- Pour in the rice, give it one last encouraging stir, then let it simmer away. It'll thicken, deepen, and turn into the kind of soup that could fix a bad attitude, a broken heart, or at least a cold Tuesday.
👩🍳 FAQs: everything you're probably about to ask
Have other questions? Be sure to download the free stuffed cabbage soup kitchen cheat sheet or ask me in the comments!
Absolutely. Stuffed cabbage soup gets better after a nap in the fridge. Make it 1-2 days ahead and reheat gently on the stove. You may need to add more V-8 juice or water since the rice will soak up a lot of the liquid. Or, cook the rice separately and add it to the soup just before serving.
Yes, but freeze it without the rice or it'll soak up every drop of liquid and turn into tragic tomato porridge. Make the soup, cool it, freeze it, and add cooked rice when you reheat and serve. Your future self will thank you.
Sure can. Turkey will be lighter, pork will be richer, and beef is that dependable friend who always shows up on time.
📚 Soup's on! More easy soup recipes you'll love
If this stuffed cabbage soup has you feeling warm, cherished, and slightly smug about your life choices, don't stop now - keep the streak going. My stuffed pepper soup is hearty, tangy, and basically stuffed cabbage soup's extroverted cousin who talks too loud at family gatherings.
And listen… if you want a soup with a little Southern chaos baked right in, my cabbage, black-eyed pea, and sausage soup is the one. It tastes like New Year's luck and porch gossip.
Or, if you're done with life and need the slow cooker to pump you up, this old fashioned beef and barley soup steps up. Rich, comforting, does all the work - you just show up with a spoon. Each one's its own little attitude, and they're all waiting for you like a spicy buffet of cozy chaos.
🍽️ Perfect pairings: what to serve with
If you're serving this stuffed cabbage soup without something carby on the side, that's a crime in at least three Southern counties. Pair it with my soft garlic breadsticks if you want that tender, pull-apart situation that makes people close their eyes and whisper "Lord." Or go full dramatic with my French onion garlic bread - melty, toasty chaos that could probably stand in for your therapist. And if you're feeling a little moody and want to mix cultures, the Guinness Irish soda bread brings a dark, malty swagger that soaks up soup like it was born for it.
If you love this recipe please comment below and give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Denise says
This worked exactly as written, thanks!