Weight Loss Cabbage Soup is an easy vegetable soup that’s great for healthy eating, but still flavorful and filling. Made in only 20 minutes!
This incredibly simple Soup Recipe is even healthier and easier than Classic Cabbage Soup and is also delicious and enjoyable, just like Vegetable Soup and Classic Chicken Noodle Soup. There’s a reason that soups are said to warm your soul.
Weight Loss Cabbage Soup is also known as Diet Soup, Wonder Soup, or GM Diet Wonder Soup. This Cabbage Soup is the central part of an eating plan that has been around for years enjoying unlimited Cabbage Soup throughout. (Note: we are not advocating to be nutrition professionals OR advocating that you follow a specific diet. We just wanted to offer the recipe and give you its background).
There are other cabbage soup diet recipes used for quick weight loss, but Wonder Soup makes a great starting point for healthy eating because it’s low in calories, nutrient-dense, fat-free, and sugar-free.
Hearing all that, you might be starting to picture an awfully bland soup, but luckily the flavorful ingredients like cabbage, garlic, tomatoes, basil, and oregano give this broth-based Cabbage Soup an excellent taste while remaining low-calorie. This is a delicious soup that you can enjoy for an easy healthy meal once in a while. If you just have Cabbage Soup as a regular dinner, you can make some Soft Rolls to go along with it for a comforting meal.
How to Make Weight Loss Cabbage Soup
One of the best things about soups is how easy they are to make and how amazing they are for a healthy diet. The process is literally just chop up all the veggies and add them to the seasoned soup base in your Dutch Oven.
- Step One – Chop: Take your head of cabbage, cut in half. This will give you about 4 cups of shredded cabbage. Save the other half for another meal, unless you’re meal prepping. Chop all the other vegetables into
- Step Two – Cook: Add all of your ingredients to your soup pot and cook until the carrots are tender. Violà! Your healthy cabbage soup is ready to eat!
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Frequently Asked Questions
If you’re counting your caloric intake, your calories per day is very important. Thankfully, this is a low calorie meal with only about 60 calories per serving (one cup).
There are a lot of ways you can change up the recipe. To make it more filling, try adding in some meat like chicken, turkey, or beef. It may not be as low in calories, but it will still be healthy and delicious. If you’re starting with raw meat, you’ll want to sauté it for a few minutes ahead of time to get it browned. If you don’t want to add meat, but still want to make the recipe more filling you could cook in some lentils and brown rice with your Cabbage Soup.
You can exchange the vegetable broth in the recipe for chicken broth or beef broth if you prefer. You can also use low-sodium broth if you’re trying to reduce sodium.
You can use either, or a mix of both! This recipe uses green cabbage.
There are lots of vegetable and spice/herb add-ins you can put in the soup if you’d like to change up the taste. Try adding some bell peppers, green beans, green peppers, or seasonings like red pepper flakes, paprika, and Italian seasoning.
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Key Ingredients in Weight Loss Cabbage Soup
The greatest thing about a homemade cabbage soup diet is the sheer amount of vegetables in this soup. The ingredients are simple, easy to prep, and delicious to eat. You can add so many things to your healthy cabbage soup. But let’s look at what this recipe calls for.
- Soup Base: We’re using a vegetable broth as the base. You can easily find pre-made veggie broths in your local grocery store.
- Vegetables: Choose fresh and ripe vegetables when buying them. Bonus points if you can source them from your local farmer’s market!
- Cabbage: Yes, cabbage is a vegetable, but it’s the foundational veggie in our healthy cabbage soup. It’s a wonder vegetable that’s been cooked for thousands of years. It is an excellent source of vital nutrients and may be good for your blood pressure. There are two main types of cabbage: red or purple, and white or green. You can also use Savoy cabbage which is characterized by its crimped leaves, as compared to the smoother leaves of other cultivars. It truly makes this soup a Wonder Soup!
Alternative Cooking Methods for Weight Loss Cabbage Soup
No matter your soup pot used for cooking this healthy cabbage soup recipe will make it super easy to make. Just be sure to add plenty of water or broth of choice.
- Slow Cooker: This is a great slow cooker meal. Add all the ingredients, cover with the lid, and let it cook for 4 hours. If it cooks too long it might get too soggy. This is especially useful if you add roast beef or chicken to your soup.
- Dutch Oven: This is the method used in this recipe. It’s a great stovetop stock pot.
- Pressure Cooker: This one is quick and easy. Just add all the ingredients to the pot. Pressure cook on high for 3 minutes. Press the natural release valve and serve when ready!
Meal Prepping Weight Loss Cabbage Soup
If you’re on a cabbage soup diet and meal prepping this soup for the whole week, it’s a great idea to get the soup prepped in advance. The last thing you want is to have to chop up all the vegetables then wait for the soup to heat up when you’re already hungry. Make all your batches of cabbage soup in one go and just reheat them when ready.
- Prep Extra: Start by cutting up all your vegetables. This recipe will be enough for several servings, but you may want to double up if you’re eating it for the whole week.
- Store Extra: You can combine the full recipe right way, or divide the ingredients into serving-sized containers to store in the fridge. Then you can just add broth and heat up one serving at a time.
- Cool First: If you make all the soup right away, then let it cool to room temperature and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. You can heat each serving in the microwave or on the stovetop for a few minutes.
Variations on Weight Loss Cabbage Soup
There’s a lot you can do with this healthy soup recipe. Adapt to your favorite style!
- Vegan (Pure Veg): This recipe defaults to being a pure vegan recipe as it is made from 100% plants.
- Vegetarian (Veg): You can make it a creamy soup by adding a cup of milk or half and half to your cooking pot.
- Pescatarian (Non-veg): White fish would go really nicely with this recipe, like cod or halibut. Give the fish a good pan sear in olive oil before adding it to the soup.
- Meatarian (Non-veg): You can add chicken, pork, or even lamb to the soup. Steak would be amazing too. If you really want to step it up, cook pork sausage or chorizo with the meat to add a ton of flavor!
How to Serve Weight Loss Cabbage Soup
- Serve the soup in a bowl with a side of baked potato with butter. The flavor will go good with the garlic cloves in the soup.
- Top the soup with freshly chopped green onion and a sprinkling of fresh parsley or cilantro (fresh coriander) for a vibrant pop of color.
- To give it a little kick, cook with a tablespoon of red pepper flakes.
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How to Store Weight Loss Cabbage Soup
- Serve: You can keep this Cabbage Soup recipe at room temperature for 2 hours before you’ll want to store it. Keep a lid on it when not being served.
- Store: To store Wonder Soup, let it cool to room temperature then put it in an airtight container. This recipe can keep well in the fridge for up to a week.
- Freeze: You can also store Wonder Soup in the freezer. It will store well for up to 3 months.
Ingredients
- 8 cups vegetable broth
- 1 yellow onion , chopped
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 4 cups cabbage , cut into 1 inch chunks
- 3 carrots , sliced
- 3 stalks celery , sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 28 ounces diced tomatoes , do not drain
Instructions
- Add the vegetable broth, onion, garlic, cabbage, carrots, celery, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, 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.
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Why would you promote healthy, diet cabbage soup…then suggest a side of a buttered potatoes?? Kind of counter productive!!
I can see why you would think that. The potato suggested is baked and the amount of butter is left to you. Butter is allowed on many weight loss diets.
My advice to people who are worried about sodium, in place of the broth use water! It’s calorie free and you just spice it up more to your liking.
I’ve made this multiple times now. I do purée the soup, and add a bit of heavy cream. That doesn’t add too many calories per serving, makes a big difference in texture, and puréeing it made it so my kids would eat it. Very yummy!
To purée the soup do you leave any vegetables like pieces or purée it completely
Forgot to click the star rating! There we go
What is the serving size
That depends on the size of the vegetables. The best way is to weigh it out to divide. I know that’s less than helpful but with things like cabbage even the leaves coming apart vs staying nested will vary the serving sizes tremendously.
This sounds really good but my husband has kidney disease and the sodium
is and potassium are both really high. With all the tomatoes, I would like a count on the phosphorus also. Any ideas how to reduce these the sodium, potassium, and phosphorus.
I’m sorry to hear that Sally, unfortunately I’m not quite sure how to help with the exception of eliminating the ingredients of concern and swapping in different low calorie vegetables.
We love this soup! Even my picky eaters. I make it as written, sometimes I add ground beef or turkey. Definitely in our rotation, even in the summer! Thank you!
I stir-fry all the veg first usually a whole head of garlic and I add chili oil for flavor amongst a whole host of other spices. I also added homemade meatballs and that makes this soup an even bigger winner! I drop all my water weight and bloat quickly. Definitely have to add exercise though if you don’t want to the weight to pop right back on when you starting eating normally again. My thought is one should likely wean themselves off the soup for a few days so the body doesn’t take the new foods as such a slap in the gut. Enjoy!
Why can’t I go straight to the recipe???
You can. Just hit “jump to recipe” up at top.
I fix this soup often and freeze it as a base soup. On days that I can have meat, I add sauerkraut and chopped up sautéed Johnsonville brats. I mix it up with different meats, beans or add different veggies to the base on the day that I am eating it instead of adding at the start. Makes it a different soup every time…
What type of cabbage do you need for this recipe?
I use several kinds of cabbage, also spinach. Collard greens, kale, broccoli slaw, riced cauliflower, zucchini, carrots, celery onion, leeks. Doesn’t matter really what veggies you put in it. The more bulk the better. I also use several seasonings, chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, white pepper, black pepper, cumin, Garamond masala, Marjoram, ground sage, lots of garlic
That’s awesome
Except for the basil and oregano replaced for cumin, this is the recipe for “caldo” –
a traditional Mexican soup. When we were kids my mom and grandmother would make the leaner version in the summer, but make a heartier version in the winter by adding varied proteins such as black beans, chicken, or beef to ward off colds. Great family quality time memories centered around this soup all year long.
Can I make in the crockpot?
Where is all the salt coming from in this recipe
The sodium content is coming from the vegetable broth and canned tomatoes. Use no or low sodium products to substitute. I was concerned about the high level of sodium, too. You can also make your own vegetable broth, too, but it takes a little while to accumulate enough veggie scraps to do it. You can check on how to do it with Pinterest.
Delicious – even without the spices!
Hi! What is the serving size with the cabbage soup?
I made this soup today. It’s wonderful. I added a can of whole tomatoes (broken up) and no meat. I might add a little corned beef next time. My mom used to make this many years ago. Brought back good memories! Thanks for sharing.
There isn’t any serving size. You can eat as much or as little as you want as often as you want. It is about giving you a healthy option that helps you lose weight preventing you from eating less healthy options that make you gain weight. You can also add any other non starchy veggies you want to the soup. You don’t have to stick to what is in the recipe. I add chopped up zucchini at the end after cooking, then freeze the soup. Then when I pull a bag from the freezer, I can heat it up and the zucchini gets soft but not mushy. If you are eating this soup every day for an extended amount of time you need to add a bit of protein of your choice every 3rd or 4th day and make sure you eat some low impact fruits on opposite days from the protein. The best low impact fruits are apples, strawberries and oranges. If choosing fruits other than those three, limit the quantity.
I read where several people asked, “how often to eat this soup and no one has replied.” Do anyone know?
Eat the soup a minimum of three times a day. They’re used to be back an entire diet program that went along with it. For example, day one you would eat a minimum of three times cabbage soup and two bananas and so on and so forth. I would google cabbage soup diet programm
Go here for an explanation of when and how to eat it https://dietarious.com/cabbage-soup-diet-weight-loss/
If you make your own bone broth, you can control the sodium in it.
I made this not for weight loss (though that would be a nice benefit to it for me), but because I have been hungry for cabbage soup. My husband and I also have COVID at the moment. It was delicious, comforting, filling, and the first thing that actually was what I wanted to eat – nothing else was really satisfying. We will be adding this to the soups we make on a regular basis.
A diabetic and I need to lose weight
Tastes good. Trying to lose a size or 5-10 lbs. Will let you know how it goes eating this one meal a day.
What type of cabbage do you need for this recipe?
Thanks so much for this recipe!!! Reading as many comments as possible prior to making it. I’m healing over Covid & thought this would be great to continue on my cleanse.
I left the tomatoes out since it gives me heartburn but used red, orange & yellow peppers (the red was suggested in the comments). I used Italian seasoning mix instead of the basil & orgeno. I was heavy with the pepper and also added a few shakes of cayenne pepper.
It’s very good!
I’m looking forward to having this for the majority of my meals the next week or so.
Serving size is a cup conservatively. Recipe includes 8 cups of broth. It serves 8. The addition of yummy veggies should give you well over a cup to two cups per serving.
I made this soup and turned out exactly as the picture and the flavors is amazing . The only thing I substituted is the vegetable broth I used chicken bullion powder but it’s low in calories (5cal per spoonful ) I used two and it gave it a delicious flavor !!
Chicken bullion powder may be low in calories, but it is high in sodium. Try substituting low sodium chicken bullion if possible. I haven’t made this soup, but I would use low sodium vegetable broth.
Easiest and fastest soup I ever made. This recipe is delicious, keeps me full and satisfied.
I made this last night for the 1st time ever. I made just as listed here and it is so good! I just had my first bowl for lunch and will most likely add ground beef after a couple days just to mix it up. I am hoping to loose 5-10 pounds. 1 regular sized portion and fulfilled hunger. Good luck all
Looks good but what is one serving of this recipe?
Making this right now and it smells delicious! Just curious if the nutrition facts stated are for the entire pot of soupo or just per serving. If per serving, how much would that be? Thanks!
Per serving. It’s hard with soups because the amount you simmer and at what exact heat will cause the volume to be more or less. I would say somewhere between 1 1/2 – 2 cups but the best way would be to weigh the volume and/or put it into tupperware. It really just depends on how big each vegetable is and exactly what the heat of your range is at medium heat. Soups are just trickier than most.
What is the calories per serving?
This soup is delicious! I used low sodium chix broth Italian seasoning salad dressing (powder)besides the can of hunts fire roasted tomatoes I used 1/2 cup of raos marinara sauce.
with all respect do not use bone broth its has a lot of sodium its not healthy
If you make your own bone broth, you can control the sodium in it.
Deliciousness ?
I used to have a copy of a diet which gave you the wondersoup to eat all day BUT added different things to eat, each day. I recall bananas was one day’s “other” food but can’t remember them all.
Can anybody help me please?
Many thanks
Look up the cabbage soup diet and it’s going to come with that plan you’re talking about
Did you ever find out what the other foods were
I remember that plan as well. 25-30 years ago. a banana one day, baked potato another. I’ll have to look for it. 7 day diet maybe?
I use to have that diet too ?? it had a list for each day…it was the best diet .and can not find it. It was a 2 week diet.
If anybody has please send or share it.
Thanks,
Colleen
email me on [email protected] and I’ll send you the diet
Day one- All fruits, except for bananas. Day 2- All vegetables. No dry beans, peas, peas, corn. Potatoes are ok. Day 3- Fruits and veggies. No potatoes. Day 4- Bananas and milk. Can eat up to 8 and drink up to 8 glasses of skim milk, with your soup.
Day 5- Beef and tomatoes. Can have 10-12 oz beef and 6 tomatoes. Drink 8 glasses water to wash uric acid from your body.
Day 6- Beef and veggies. No potatoes. Day 7- Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and veggies.
– Drink 8 glasses water
daily-
SOUP RECIPE-
2 lg onion,1 green pepper,1 lg head of cabbage, 4 lg. carrots, 2 zucchini, 2 yellow squash, 1 can string beans (optional), 2 packages onion soup mix and other herb seasonings, 1 lg can tomatoes in puree, and 1/2 lg. can tomato puree.
— I’ve had this recipe for a long time and just came across it today. Think its called the 7 day diet. Hope this helps, and please let me know how it works out for you!
I’m allergic to bananas do you know if I could substitute it
I just saw it online yesterday! It gives you the menu for what to eat and when along with the recipe. Google it, it’ll bring it up. Or ho on Pinterest and type it in.
Wonderful soup. Thank you for the recipe.
This soup is delicious and great for my diet. Is your calorie count for 1 cup of soup and do you need to cover the pot when simmering?
Looking at the nutritional information, can you tell me where the saturated fat and the 7g of sugar come from. If possible, I would like to substitute for something else.
That’s exactly what I was trying to figure out …??
The sugar is coming from the cabbage, carrots, onions and tomatoes.
I don’t like chucks of tomatoes can I use tomatoe sauce in place of the tomatoes
Have you tried the petite diced tomatoes? They’re very small.
You can puree the tomatoes in a food processor or blender! Tomato sauce will change the flavor as well as the nutritional information (esp sodium!!!)
I just made the soup as directed. I need to lose 10 pounds within the next week and a half. Is this do able? How much soup do I eat a day? Im eating 2 cups right now.
The soup is very good.
Absolutely! I’ve eaten it for years to loose quick weight and it has worked. I haven’t had it in a while but I’m needing to get 10 pounds off. So I’m shopping for ingredients now. Good luck.
Has anyone tried this without tomatoes? I’m allergic to them.
It is fine not to use tomatoes. I don’t use tomato in my soup.
Are the 57 calories for a one-cup serving? I didn’t see a serving size!
This soup turned out great. I added ground beef to it and we loved it.
I normally add ground beef or ground Turkey or mix it and it still does the job, for me.
I had this soup years ago after I had my 3rd child. The only difference I want to do is add chicken(2 leg quarters) that I already thawed out. I plan on cooking it before I add to soup. Will that change the nutritional values much? I am removing the skin and bones after I cook it.
Can I make this in my crockpot?
Why does it say 57Kcal? Isn’t that 5700 calories? Thanks!
Omitted oregano & black pepper added lots of lemon Juice and will
Prob add crushed red pepper next day or 2 for a little extra kick.
Also used the low sodium veg broth to keep it less sodium- a bit more bland but love it w lemon & added some frozen pead for a bit more protein
1 kilocalorie equals 1 calorie in nutrition.
NO, no soup has that many calories. it is 57 calories as it is mostly veggies and per serving size.
We call them calories but they’re really kcal. So it’s only 57 in normal speak. Unless you’re a dietetics nerd.
I just wanted to say this was originally posted as a low calorie weight loss soup so all of you that are adding multiple different ingredients to it are not keeping it healthy or diet at all. And anything that’s added cannot be considered the same as the 57 calories in the original recipe. So add the calories and sodium of everything you’ve added to the total and see how diet your recipe really is. Just saying!
It doesn’t say SERVING SIZE!
YAY it’s 57 cals! But for a half a cup or full cup serving???
I would like to know how much to eat a day, and what else to eat (if anything) during the day? Or do u eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner??
It’s been years since I’ve made this that’s why I’ve gained this weight back probably but I used to eat it whenever I felt hungry and one small regular meal a day. I lost over 40 pounds so I’m trying it again.
That’s amazing! Keep at it!!!
So u ate this soup everyday an a small meal how long did it take you to lose the 40 pounds
I really just had a question if this could be made in a crock pot over night? But I really don’t see why it couldn’t so I’m going to try it.
Hi , I haven’t tried it, please let me know how it turned out!
I made mine in the crock pot. It’s fine!
Yes it can be made in a Crock pot
Thanks. It’s really good!
I made this today and used 12 oz jar of medium chunky salsa and 15 oz fire roasted diced tomatoes. I followed the recipe for the rest, but used 2 smaller bay leaves in the simmering part.
Spicy, zesty delicious.
I may just use mild chunky salsa next time and red pepper flakes.
Hi Sabrina, 1130 mg of Sodium seems pretty high for one cup. Is it the vegetable broth that makes it so high? Thanks.
Hi how often should you eat the soup should you eat it twice a day three times a day or once a day?
How often do you eat the cabbage soup?
It’s been years since I’ve made this that’s why I’ve gained this weight back probably but I used to eat it whenever I felt hungry and one small regular meal a day. I lost over 40 pounds so I’m trying it again.
Can I use Savoy cabbage with or without green cabbage?