Ground Beef Cabbage Soup

6 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ground Beef Cabbage Soup is an easy, one-pot, comforting soup with tender beef, rich tomato, and other veggies. Ready in just a half-hour!

This simple Soup Recipe is similar to Cabbage Soup and Weight Loss Cabbage Soup but with delicious ground beef that makes it more flavorful and hearty.

Ground Beef Cabbage Soup in pot

Sabrina’s Ground Beef Cabbage Soup Recipe

Ground Beef and Cabbage Soup is a great weeknight meal, especially in the fall and winter when you’re craving something comforting and warming. On top of keeping you warm, this Beef and Cabbage Soup recipe is also budget-friendly and easy to make. Once you’ve browned the beef and onion, you just have to let the ingredients simmer together on the stovetop for about 20 minutes. I’ve also included Slow Cooker and Instant Pot versions of this delicious soup too!

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Ground Beef: The 85/15 ground beef gives the soup the flavor of beef without making it too greasy. If you prefer, ground turkey or chicken can lighten things up.
  • 1 Yellow Onion, chopped: I’m using yellow onion, but you can use red onion or white onion if that’s what you have available.
  • 8-ounce Tomato Sauce: The tomato sauce adds a savory, tangy flavor and can be replaced with a quarter cup of tomato paste with an extra quarter cup of water if needed.
  • 4 cups Beef Broth: I like beef broth because it adds more of that rich beefy flavor to the soup.
  • 4 cups Cabbage, cut into 1-inch chunks: I am using regular green cabbage, which is traditional, but you could try Napa cabbage. I would not use red or purple cabbage.
  • 2 Carrots, sliced: Fresh carrots are great to add to this soup. They add color, nutrition and that delicious sweet carrot flavor.
  • 2 stalks Celery, sliced: Celery is a classic aromatic base for soups. It adds a sweet earthy flavor similar to anise or fennel, just not as strong.
  • 14 ounces Diced Tomatoes, undrained: Keep the juice from the can. If needed, whole canned tomatoes chopped up work too—just keep the juices!

How to Make

Time needed: 30 minutes.

  1. Heat the Pot

    Add a little oil to a large pot or Dutch oven over high heat, warming until it shimmers.

  2. Cook Beef and Onion

    Add the ground beef and chopped onion, season with salt and pepper. Break up the meat as it cooks until the beef is browned and onions soften, about 6–8 minutes.

  3. Add Liquids and Vegetables

    Stir in the tomato sauce, beef broth, cabbage, carrots, celery, and diced tomatoes with their juices. Mix well.

  4. Bring to Boil, Then Simmer

    Let the mixture come to a full boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Serve

    Taste and adjust seasoning if needed, then ladle into bowls while hot and enjoy.

Recipe Card

Ground Beef Cabbage Soup

Ground Beef Cabbage Soup is an easy, one-pot, comforting soup with tender beef, rich tomato broth and veggies. Ready in just a half-hour!
Yield 6 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 pound ground beef , (85/15)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 yellow onion , chopped
  • 8 ounces tomato sauce
  • 4 cups beef broth
  • 4 cups cabbage , cut into 1 inch chunks
  • 2 carrots , sliced
  • 2 stalks celery , sliced
  • 14 ounces diced tomatoes , do not drain

Instructions

  • Add the oil to a large pot or Dutch oven on high heat.
  • Add ground beef, onion, salt, and pepper, breaking it apart as you cook it until browned, about 6-8 minutes.
  • Add in the tomato sauce, beef broth, cabbage, carrots, celery, and diced tomatoes then stir well.
  • Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes until cabbage and carrots are tender.

Nutrition

Calories: 245kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 18g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 1640mg | Potassium: 756mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 3746IU | Vitamin C: 29mg | Calcium: 84mg | Iron: 3mg

Chef’s Note: A Healthy Soup!

I love that Beef and Cabbage Soup is both wonderfully comforting and pretty healthy, full of nutritious veggies, plus protein from the beef. It is similar to my Stuffed Cabbage Roll Soup with a few swaps. Instead of the rice normally in cabbage roll soup, I bulked it up with more veggies, adding carrots and celery. This keeps the soup gluten-free and low-carb, while still being filling and hearty. It’s one of my favorite soups to keep in my fall menu rotation because it is cozy and warm, fuels us for our busy schedule, but is still light and healthy to balance all the rest of our more indulgent holiday meals.

Can This Be Made Ahead?

Absolutely, this soup’s even better the next day! Make it ahead, let it cool, and store it in the fridge. The flavors meld in the fridge overnight, making leftovers fantastic. Just reheat gently on the stove or microwave until hot.

How to Store

  • Store: Once the soup is cooked, enjoy it hot. Don’t leave Ground Beef and Cabbage Soup at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Once the soup has cooled, seal it in an airtight container and store it in the fridge. If properly stored this Beef and Cabbage Soup recipe will keep well in the fridge for 3-4 days.
  • Freeze: This is also a great recipe to make a double batch of and freeze some for a few months later. You can keep Beef and Cabbage Soup in the freezer for 2-3 months. Keep it in a freezer bag or other airtight container. When you’re ready to reheat the soup, let it thaw in the fridge overnight. Then reheat it in a Dutch oven or other large pot on the stovetop over medium-high heat.

Alternative Cooking Methods

Slow Cooker Ground Beef Cabbage Soup

  1. Add oil to a large skillet over high heat. Then toss in the ground beef, salt, pepper, and chopped onion.
  2. Brown the beef on all sides while breaking it apart.
  3. Once browned, add the beef and onion to the crock pot.
  4. Chop the cabbage, carrots, and celery.
  5. Pour the beef broth, tomato sauce, cabbage, carrots, celery, and diced tomatoes into the crock pot.
  6. Stir all the ingredients together in the slow cooker.
  7. Cook the soup on high for 4 hours until the carrots are cooked through and tender.

Instant Pot Ground Beef Cabbage Soup

  1. Set your instant pot to sauté mode and add some olive oil to the bottom of the pot.
  2. Add the ground beef, salt, pepper, and chopped onion to the instant pot and sauté on all sides until browned.
  3. Pour the beef broth, tomato sauce, cabbage, carrots, celery, and diced tomatoes into the instant pot with the beef.
  4. Seal the instant pot and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.
  5. Quick-release the pressure from the instant pot and serve.

Frequent Questions

What if I don’t have beef broth?

Vegetable broth or chicken broth will do in a pinch, though the flavor will be less beefy. Add a splash of soy sauce for depth if using vegetable broth.

How should I cut the cabbage?

I like to aim for roughly 1-inch chunks. That way, they are large enough to hold texture while simmering yet small enough to fit nicely on a spoon.

Do I drain the beef after browning?

I only drain if using higher-fat ground beef to avoid greasy broth, but lean beef doesn’t usually need it.

What if I don’t have tomato sauce?

Substitute with V8, leftover pasta sauce, or even crushed tomatoes. Each will give a slightly different flavor!

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Variations

  • Ground Meat: If you don’t want to use beef you can swap it out for ground turkey or ground chicken. I would use 2 tablespoons of oil if you are using a leaner ground meat to add more flavor.
  • Chuck Roast: Instead of ground beef, try adding chuck roast to this soup. Cut the beef into bite-sized pieces and brown them well on all sides for 2-3 minutes each side. You may need to increase the cooking time by about 10 minutes to full cook the beef and make it more tender.
  • Corned Beef: Make Leftover Corned beef and Cabbage soup for St. Patrick’s Day! Instead of the ground beef, use shredded cooked Corned Beef. Cook the onions in 2 tbsp of oil until softened, then add the cooked beef shreds and follow the rest of the recipe as usual.
  • Rice: Stir in 2-3 cups of cooked rice, either white rice or brown rice, during the last few minutes of cooking.
  • Seasonings: This simple Ground Beef and Cabbage Soup is great to experiment with different flavors and seasonings. Add herbs and spices like bay leaf, oregano, thyme, curry powder, cumin, or Italian seasoning. Use fire-roasted tomatoes for a smoky flavor. Add minced garlic to your aromatics, stirring it in after the onions are softened and cooking for 30 seconds before finishing the recipe as usual.

More Healthy and Delicious Soups

1 image pin of pot of Ground Beef Cabbage Soup

Photos used in previous versions of this post.

Ground Beef Cabbage Soup
Ground Beef Cabbage Soup serving in ladle
Ground Beef Cabbage Soup in pot

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. Time to make clean out the refrigerator soup, which included ground chuck, pintos, stewed cabbage, onions and pasta. As it simmered, I checked online recipes to discover a magic ingredient or two to add. Imagine my surprise when I found I had not invented something this morning, but saw where ‘great minds think alike!’ So very good!

    1. Serving sizes become an issue because people will have ingredients of different sizes. Packaged products are weighed and measured at the time of creation which makes their measurements accurate. The only way to accurately know the measurements of meals is to weigh and divide.

  2. I don’t understand how people are rating this recipe that they totally change. I am sure it is delicious as the cook wrote it.

  3. Made the hamburger cabbage soup today with a slight twist I put the holy trinity in and kabosa with the hamburger, seasoned and followed the recipe ..it’s wonderful thanks for the recipe

  4. I made this soup a couple of weeks ago and the whole family, grandsons included, LOVED it. I’m makimg it again tonight but doubling the recipe. I also added a little more broth and cooked it longer to get the carrots a little softer for my husband who is having extensive dental work done and soup is the easiest thing for him to eat.

  5. I sometimes get really lazy and I don’t want to roll the cabbage leaves around the hamburger so this is a lot easier and it taste about the same I love it

  6. Great Recipe. I wanted to freeze some so I doubled the recipe, which took a little longer to cook. I also added some garlic and Worcestershire sauce when browning the beef, and a little Tabasco and extra salt while simmering the soup. It is a really delicious, and pretty healthy, soup.

  7. Just made this soup today, and it was delicious! Instead of adding tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes, I purred several fresh tomatoes. Also added peas, garlic, and extra seasoning. Yum!

  8. No, I wish!!!! Crazy @#$$ Country! My life would be so much easier… When I am home in Charleston, I am so tempted to add a few boxes, but my weight limit is only 50 lbs per suitcase ($150 for 51 to 70 lbs). I usually have to make my own, but that takes planning and at least 8 hours in the crockpot. I am going to try a Knorr Beef Fond cup, hope it works.

  9. Was very good changed to recipe alittle used a can of diced tomatoes with garlic and chopped celery and a orange pepper

  10. Tried this soup for the first time. Other hamburger soups have always been tasteless. This soup was fantastic. I did not have a small can of tomato sauce so I added most of a large can (14 oz). I also puree my tomatoes because that how I like them. I will definitely make this again.

    1. Do you have access to chicken or vegetable broth? Either of those would work as well. Chicken Broth is a bit more mild and not as savory as beef broth but will retain a meaty taste.

  11. I liked it alot but it definitely needed more seasoning. I added, onion powder, garlic powder, some saracha, and a tad more salt.

  12. Good recipe. However, please adjust the calorie content. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that 1 lbs of ground beef, olive oil and the rest of the ingredients add up to only 168 calories – unless you mean per serving, whose size is not defined, which needs clarification.

    Just letting you know.

    1. Haven’t made it yet. I live alone just wondering how it would freeze since I sure there will be leftovers. Thanks

  13. Great recipe!! I was craving cabbage soup and I had left over ground beef so 5h8s was perfect and tastes SO GOOD. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

  14. I have had cabbage soup before, but i have never made it until i tried your recipe. It will be one of our soups over the three day family Thanksgiving that i host.

  15. Delicious. Sometimes I add chopped garlic sausage or pepperoni. It’s a nice twist to the traditional flavour.

  16. This is so good! I added lots of garlic salt and season salt and black pepper and a bit of lime to my bowl. Great with corn bread. Highly recommend. Also I blended the tomatoes with some chicken bullion so it wouldn’t be chunky.

  17. This soup turned out awesome! I added to it though; I put extra of all the veggies, added 4 cups of water, 1 cup v8 juice, lots of garlic and crushed peppercorn. Really good.

  18. I had been wanting cabbage soup for a while now. I found your recipe and it was delicious! I added a half cup more cabbage, because I just love cabbage.

    1. I always add either some spaghetti or angel hair noodles and depending on my mood the day I make it instead of regular tomatoes I add Rotel. As I’m getting older I can’t hardly eat any of it but the mild. But you can add whichever one you prefer. Mild, original or ? Hot. I just love this stuff and could eat it everyday for the rest of my life. You can also change up the meat in it. Ham, hamburger, ground chicken or turkey. I like my chicken shredded, stew meat. Just never ending the different ways to fix it. I put rotel and spaghetti or Angel hair in them all. I love it with cornbread. My husband used to tell me you don’t have cornbread with soup and called me crazy. Well guess who eats cornbread with it now. Lol….It’s what’s for dinner tonight and just talking about it is making my mouth water plus I’m starving. Everyone have a GREAT EVENING!!! HAPPY EATING!!!

  19. This recipe was delicious! I made the crock pot option, I used the ingredients as written in the recipe, served with mashed potatoes on the side, turned out fabulous!

    1. I read farther back where some people did. I bet it’s good. I put spaghetti or angel hair in mine. That’s what I love about this. You can put whatever you want in it and it’s is going to be GREAT!!!

  20. This soup is awesome! I substituted sweet Italian sausage for the ground beef, which took it to another level, but I left everything else exactly as written. Next time I’ll try it with the ground beef. My husband, who is not a big soup eater, loved it! His only suggestion was to add extra cabbage next time. Thank you so much for a recipe that will appear frequently on our dinner rotation!

  21. We loved this meal!! I made it n the slow cooker, though stove top would be fine too. I made it more like a chili consistency, rather than soup. I added a squirt of ketchup and TBS of Worcestershire Sauce to spice it up a bit. As you suggested, cook the rice on the side. Plenty of leftovers! Thanks

  22. Absolutely delicious! I also add 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1Tbsp Worcestershire, 1 tsp Italian herbs and 1 cup rice…. My husband loves it!