Stuffed Cabbage Soup (Cabbage Roll Soup, One Pot, 27g Protein)

Stuffed cabbage soup is cabbage rolls you eat with a spoon: ground beef, soft ribbons of cabbage, carrots and rice in a tangy tomato broth with a little brown sugar, bay leaf and paprika, finished with fresh dill and a swirl of sour cream. One pot, 50 minutes, and it tastes like it took all afternoon.

My family calls stuffed cabbage golumpki, and I love it, but I make it maybe twice a year because of the rolling. This soup is the version I actually make on a Tuesday. I tested it until the rice was plump but not bloated and the broth had that sweet-sour balance, and it now sits in my fall soup rotation next to my zuppa toscana and slow cooker minestrone.

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Why this stuffed cabbage soup tastes like real cabbage rolls.

• Sweet, sour and smoky in the broth. A tablespoon of brown sugar, a splash of vinegar, smoked paprika and two bay leaves are what make the tomato broth taste like the sauce stuffed cabbage bakes in. Taste it before the rice goes in and nudge the sugar or vinegar until it is right for you.
• The rice cooks in the soup, so it tastes like the filling. Raw long-grain rice simmered in the broth soaks up the beef and tomato the way it does inside a cabbage roll. It also thickens the soup slightly, so it is hearty, not thin. Same idea as the pasta cooked right in my lasagna soup.
• Twenty-seven grams of protein in a bowl of vegetables. A pound and a half of lean beef across six big bowls, plus a whole head of cabbage and a pile of carrots, makes a filling dinner that is lighter than it tastes. Check it against your targets with the protein calculator.

Here's what you'll need.

Lean ground beef, a yellow onion, garlic, half a large head of green cabbage, carrots, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of tomato sauce, beef broth, brown sugar, smoked paprika, bay leaves, apple cider vinegar, long-grain white rice, and fresh dill and sour cream to finish.

Here's how it all comes together.

STEP 1 — BROWN THE BEEF AND ONION

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium-high. Add the ground beef and onion and cook, breaking the beef into small crumbles, for 7 to 8 minutes until browned and the onion is soft. Stir in the garlic for the last minute, and spoon off any fat if you used a fattier blend.

STEP 2 — ADD THE CABBAGE AND CARROT

Add the chopped cabbage and shredded carrot with ½ teaspoon of the salt and stir for 3 to 4 minutes, until the cabbage starts to wilt and shrink. Giving the cabbage a few minutes in the pot before the liquid goes in takes off the raw edge and brings out its sweetness.

STEP 3 — POUR IN TOMATOES AND BROTH

Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juice, the tomato sauce and the beef broth, and stir everything together. Scrape the bottom of the pot as you stir, since the browned bits from the beef are flavor.

STEP 4 — SEASON SWEET AND SOUR

Add the brown sugar, smoked paprika, bay leaves, apple cider vinegar, the remaining salt and the pepper. Bring the soup to a boil, then taste it: it should be tangy, a little sweet and savory, like the sauce on stuffed cabbage. Add another teaspoon of sugar or vinegar if it needs it.

STEP 5 — ADD THE UNCOOKED RICE

Stir in the rinsed uncooked rice, reduce the heat to a steady simmer, partly cover the pot and cook for 18 to 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes so the rice does not settle and stick on the bottom.

STEP 6 — SIMMER UNTIL TENDER, THEN ADD DILL

The soup is ready when the rice is plump and tender and the cabbage is silky. Fish out the bay leaves, stir in half the dill and taste for salt. Ladle into bowls and top with the rest of the dill and a spoon of sour cream.

If you love a pot of soup that tastes like it simmered all day, this is the book full of them, most of them hands-off in the slow cooker, the Ultimate Slow Cooker Mediterranean Diet Cookbook.

Things I learned while testing this recipe.

• Add the rice last and do not walk away. Rice on the bottom of a soup pot scorches easily. Stir every five minutes while it cooks, and if you are making it ahead, cook the rice separately and add it to each bowl so it does not keep drinking the broth.
• Taste before the rice goes in. The sweet-sour balance is personal: my mother likes it sweeter, my husband likes it sharper. Adjust the sugar and vinegar while the broth is hot and before the rice dulls the flavors.
• Chop the cabbage into bite-size squares. Long shreds hang off the spoon. I cut the cabbage in 1-inch pieces so every spoonful gets beef, cabbage and rice together, which is the whole point of stuffed cabbage.
• Dill and sour cream are not optional. I made it without once and it was fine; with them, it tasted like my grandmother made it. A squeeze of lemon at the end brightens it if you have no dill.

Why cabbage roll soup beats the rolled version on a weeknight.

• Fifty minutes, one pot, no rolling. No blanching whole leaves, no rolling, no baking dish. The same ingredients in one pot, and most of the time is the rice simmering on its own.
• Twenty-seven grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber a bowl. Lean beef, a whole head of cabbage and carrots make a big, filling bowl for under 400 calories. It is the soup I make when I want comfort food that does not feel heavy.
• Cheap, big-batch and freezer friendly. A head of cabbage costs almost nothing, the recipe makes six large bowls, and it freezes beautifully without the rice, so I portion it for lunches all week.

Here's what I'd serve with this.

• Cottage cheese flatbread — toasted and torn into the soup instead of bread.
• Mediterranean chickpea salad — bright and crunchy next to a warm, tangy soup.
• Roasted cauliflower — crispy, golden and easy while the soup simmers.
• Air fryer Brussels sprouts — a side with some char for a soup night.
• Greek yogurt banana bread — an easy, not-too-sweet slice for dessert.

Just in case you have leftovers.

Storing: Cool the stuffed cabbage soup and refrigerate in covered containers for up to 4 days. The rice keeps absorbing broth, so it will be thicker the next day. To freeze, cool completely and freeze for up to 3 months; for the best texture, freeze it before adding the rice and cook fresh rice when you reheat.

Reheating: Reheat on the stove over medium, adding ½ to 1 cup broth or water to loosen it, until steaming. In the microwave, heat a covered bowl for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring halfway. From frozen, thaw overnight in the fridge first.

More easy comfort food recipes...

Zuppa toscana Slow cooker minestrone soup Taco soup Slow cooker beef stew

If you like your cabbage rolls lazy, my stuffed pepper casserole does the same thing for stuffed peppers. And today's other new recipe is my unstuffed cabbage rolls, the skillet version of this soup with 33g protein, ready in 35 minutes.

More cozy soups that practically make themselves.

The Ultimate Slow Cooker Mediterranean Diet Cookbook is full of soups and stews like this one, vegetable-heavy, protein-rich and simmered low and slow while you get on with your day.

Get the cookbook on Amazon

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