Unstuffed cabbage roll soup has all the great flavors of traditional cabbage rolls, without all the fuss. ย It’s hearty, beefy, and full of veggies.
Cabbage rolls. ย They’re pretty tasty. ย But, if you’ve ever tried to make them, then you know they can be quite tedious. ย 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. ย Soup!
This soup has a rich, sweet, and tangy tomato based broth. ย It’s loaded with vegetables. ย And, it’s hearty from beef and rice.
It’s a perfect healthy cold weather meal. ย A huge 2 cup serving has less than 250 calories, but you’d never guess that.
This recipe makes a lot of soup. ย And, that’s a good thing because this soup makes great leftovers. ย 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. ย So, the leftovers will be thick like a stew. ย I loved it. ย 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.
Has anyone cooked the rice separately and added it at the end? I am thinking the soup wouldnโt get as thick and am afraid it would be too runny. Great recipe, BTW, I have made it several times. But my hubby wants to try serving it over the rice. Thoughts?
I regularly use a little ground rice to thicken soups. Just grind a few tablespoons of rice in a coffee grinder if you want to thicken the soup to serve over rice like a stew. Also adds a nice depth of flavor.
My relatives make stuffed cabbage with ground lamb and ground beef. Can ground lamb be used ?
I made this soup last night for supper. During the Covid 19 quarantine it was hard to find tomato sauce, but did find tomato sauce with Parmesan. While cooking I gave it a taste and thought it needed more tomato taste. I did have a 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes which I added along with the juice. It was awesome. My daughter said it tasted like ravioli sauce. When I make it again, and there will be again, I’ll make sure I have tomato sauce.
Making as I am writing this. This recipe is more like the Real cabbage rolls than any I’ve seen so far… My husband is pure Czech, so I am very familiar with the Stuffed Canbage roll recipes. The only different herb I added was ground fine caraway seed. Makes a big difference as far as flavor goes. And I always add to my cabbage rolls.
How much caraway?
Recipe looks good. I make this soup but donโt use lemon or brown sugar. I used 1 can of beets that I liquify in my blender. Gives a good old world taste to it.
Thatโs a great idea!
The soup was amazing my husband ,couldn’t stop eating it. I did not put in the brown sugar or lemon juice and it was fantastic! Will definitely make this again.
anybody use tomato soup instead? Going to try and substitute as my mom always made piggies with it. Will see how it goes!
Yes my mom did that too! I tried it and it worked well.
Best meal ever! Thank you for this recipe!
Made it as is as to leave a fair comment. It was very nice. The next time I make this I will add sauerkraut and sliced apple to bottom of the pot. Thank you for the recipe, it is delightful!
We actually substituted venison sausage for the ground beef to give it a spicy kick. It was delicious!
This soup tasted amazing!! Very easy to make! Will definitely be going in the recipe book!
Can you use basmatie rice instead of other rice? Thanks
Great recipe! I had a humongous head of cabbage to use up. I am watching my carbs, so I made a few adjustments to suit my diet. I used cauliflower rice in place of rice, omitted the carrots, used Rao’s low carb tomato sauce and Truvia’s brown sugar blend.
Great soup! Fixed it twice so far. It quick and easy and very good! Thanks for a great quick soup
Why do you need lemon juice ?
Maybe the acid balances the sugar? Hubsโs grandma always put a shot of vinegar in the pan with her stuffed cabbage rolls (goลumpki) and she didnโt use sugar or tomato sauce. A lot of vinegar in their Polish-Ukranian kitchen. ๐
Yes , we use vinegar in our stuffed cabbage that Mom used to make
This recipe was delicious, but I have to admit I didn’t follow it precisely. I didn’t have 3 cans of tomato sauce, so I used a can of tomato soup and a can of diced tomatoes. I also wasn’t sure about 3 T of brown sugar, so I only used 1. It was very good and in my opinion did not need more sweetness.
I was afraid of ruining the whole pot, so we sprinkled a little lemon juice in our bowls and it was good.
I love this recipe. It is delicious and so much easier than making cabbage rolls. It makes a wonderful meal on a chilly Fall or Winter day. My 10 year old even packs the leftovers in his Thermos for lunch at school.
This is so good. I am on severely restricted fat diet due to chronic pancreatitis, and am always searching for tasty super low or no fat recipes. This is one of the best. I made it with ground turkey breast and chicken broth to keep the fat even lower.
Simple to make and so much flavour!!
My family really liked this receipe; however, asked me to leave out the sugar next time. Will do. Very easy and quick to make.
Love it!!
Can this be cooked in a slowcooker
Yes
The only 2 in my family that eat unstuffed cabbage roll soup are my youngest son and myself. My son doesn’t like onion so I use onion powder, I’ve never added lemon juice, but I do add a little sugar to cut the acidity, but not as much as this recipe calls for. Interesting how one reviewer used cauliflower rice instead of rice, I may try that sometime. I make an even larger amount than this recipe because we want tons of leftovers.