Unstuffed cabbage roll soup has all the great flavors of traditional cabbage rolls, without all the fuss. It’s hearty, beefy, and full of veggies.
Cabbage rolls. They’re pretty tasty. But, if you’ve ever tried to make them, then you know they can be quite tedious. They’re cabbage leaves stuffed with a flavorful beef and rice filling; smothered in a sweet and tangy tomato sauce; and baked until tender.
This recipe has all those flavors in easy to make form. Soup!
This soup has a rich, sweet, and tangy tomato based broth. It’s loaded with vegetables. And, it’s hearty from beef and rice.
It’s a perfect healthy cold weather meal. A huge 2 cup serving has less than 250 calories, but you’d never guess that.
This recipe makes a lot of soup. And, that’s a good thing because this soup makes great leftovers. The hubs and I had it for dinner one night, then made several lunches out of it.
As the rice sits it will keep absorbing more of the broth. So, the leftovers will be thick like a stew. I loved it. But, if you prefer a thinner soup consistency, you may want to add a little more broth or tomato sauce to thin it out a bit.
Check out the step by step recipe video for Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Soup below.
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Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Soup Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 1 lb. extra lean ground beef I used 96% lean
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 5 cups chopped green cabbage about half of a medium sized head
- 4 cups 32 oz. low-sodium beef broth
- 3 cups tomato sauce (24 oz.)
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1/2 cup uncooked white or brown long grain rice
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 3 tbsp. packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
- 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
Instructions
- In a large soup pot, add the beef and place over medium-high heat. Break it apart with a wooden spoon. Add the onion. Cook about 8 minutes until the beef is brown, stirring occasionally.
- Add the garlic. Stir and cook 1 minute.
- Add the cabbage, beef broth, tomato sauce, carrots, rice, bay leaves, brown sugar, salt, oregano, and pepper.
- Bring to a boil. Then, reduce the heat to simmer and cover the pot. Cook until rice is tender (25 minutes for white rice and 45 minutes for brown rice).
- Remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice. Let the soup rest uncovered for 10 minutes to thicken up before serving. Remove the bay leaves before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Check out all of my great soup recipes and ground beef recipes.
I made this and it was fantastic! I forgot to add the lemon juice though. I will definitely make this again and again. It makes a lot so I will be freezing some of it.
I’d give it a 5 but I think instead of Hamburg I used sweet and hot sausage and it was so much more flavorful. But other than that I love this recipe and will be using it again super good!!!!
Delicious. I added an extra 16 oz can of beef broth.
could u cook this in a crockpot.
So great! Had two very large bowls for supper!
This soup is amazing! I would definitely add the sugar and lemon juice. Gives a lovely and important depth to the flavor and when you think about the servings this gives, it’s less than a teaspoon of sugar – less than 15 calories per serving! If you are used to plainer food, leave it out, but the depth and complexity it brings, I say it is essential! Thank you for such a wonderful recipe! Now a family staple.
EASY AND GREAT RECIPE, WILL DEFINATELY BE MAKING THIS AGAIN. THE ENTIRE FAMILY AND EXCHANGE STUDENT FROM CHINA WERE IMPRESSED HOW TASTEFUL IT WAS
How can I convert this delicious recipe for the crockpot?
I just made this tonight, I’m on a low-calorie diet and have been getting tired of my usual fare. My only regret was not knowing about this sooner! I doubled the recipe to have some for lunch throughout the week. It’s so thick and flavorful. Definitely a keeper!!
AMAZING SOUP! I use morningstar farms or quorn brand burger crumbles. Very good and filling soup. Thanks for sharing the recipe
This is absolutely amazing!!! I add sauerkraut to mine because my great aunt makes her cabbage rolls with it. Adds a lot of flavor and tastes so good!!! Even my picky kids love it!
This is absolutely outstanding! My picky husband won’t eat onions so I used onion powder and the flavor was still great! He even went back for seconds!!!
Stuffed cabbage means paprika. I added 2 tblsp & that is exactly what it needed!
This soup was delivious, but since I am Hungarian, I added 2 tbsp paprika. You cannot have stuffed cabbage without paprika!!!
I am going to try this! Thank you for the tip!
This is a favorite in my house. I do change it up just a bit. I don’t add the brown sugar and instead of adding rice (my husband and daughter don’t like rice), I add orzo noodles. They look like rice so it doesn’t change the recipe.
How long with the soup last in the fridge
I made this and stuck to the recipe. I love it! I will probably add more broth when reheating just to make it more “soupy,” but definitely a keeper!
The soup is a bit sweet for my wife’s taste.
What can I do to “kill” the sweet taste?
Don’t want to have to throw this whole pot of soup away.
I loved it, but will not use but 1 TBSP of brown sugar, when I make it again.
Thanks
Sounds like your wife needs to be more accepting .
You can add some salt to it. Usually salt will balance sweet
Just making it for the first time but that reply made me lol hahah
Me too! I’ve been doing this recipe from my family’s vault, lol, for years! Slovak here!
I didn’t add the brown sugar to mine. The sugar is added to reduce the acid from the tomato sauce. If you get heart burn then you can add a tablespoon but if sauce doesn’t really bother you then you don’t really need to add it
You always add brown surgar to tomato sauces because of gerd and heartburn it does cut the acid I put it in every tomatoe sauce dish you learn how much is good and how much is to much.
Instead of sugar try baking soda. It works just as well to reduce the acid!
Add a little ketchup and mustard to mellow out the sugar.
This is a wonderful recipe .. all the flavor of stuffed cabbage in a fraction of the time. This is going to be my ‘go-to’ (un)stuffed cabbage recipe. LOVED it!!
i used campbells tomato juice instead of the sauce…this is a keeper!