This cabbage soup recipe is easy to make and loaded with vegetables, a heaping pile of cabbage, and the perfect blend of spices. I love it so much that I genuinely crave it.
Whenever we want a little reset or a meal that just makes us feel good, this easy cabbage soup is where we turn. It’s packed to the brim with vegetables, quick to make, and tastes incredible.
This recipe is a riff on our popular vegetable soup, but with even more cabbage and a slightly richer broth. It’s genuinely delicious, whether you’re looking for a healthy soup recipe or not.
Key Ingredients
- Vegetables: This cabbage soup uses a lot of veggies, but feel free to use what you have on hand. I love onions, carrots, potatoes, and of course, cabbage. You can also customize it with your favorite seasonal vegetables. In summer, add fresh zucchini or corn. In winter, try heartier root vegetables like parsnips or turnips.
- Tomato Paste and Tomatoes: These build a rich, flavorful base for the broth. Tomato paste adds a serious amount of flavor, and if you can find them, canned fire-roasted diced tomatoes bring a subtle smoky flavor to the soup.
- Garlic, Italian Seasoning, and Bay Leaf: These all perfume the soup beautifully. I love fresh garlic and switch between Italian seasoning and Herbs de Provence for this recipe, and both work well.
- Broth: Use whatever broth you enjoy most. Our homemade vegetable broth is wonderful here and keeps the soup vegan or vegetarian. Chicken broth or chicken stock works nicely, too. You can even use bone broth for extra protein.
- Parsley and Parmesan (optional): These are my favorite finishing touches. The chopped parsley adds a fresh pop of color and flavor, and a generous grating of Parmigiano-Reggiano on top is always delicious. Another option is a spoonful of basil pesto!
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Cabbage Soup
Tip 1: Cook the onions and carrots. We want a solid base for this soup, so give the onions and carrots a head start in the soup pot with a bit of olive oil. When the onions are translucent and smell sweet, you can move on to the aromatics. It takes around 6 minutes.
Tip 2: Toast the aromatics. So that our garlic and tomato paste don’t taste raw in the soup, you want to give them some time in the pot with the olive oil. You’ll know they are ready when they are fragrant and the tomato paste turns more of an orange color than bright red.
Tip 3: Make the soup. Now the onions are sweet and the aromatics are toasted, you can pile in everything else: the canned tomatoes, broth, potatoes, and cabbage. It’s going to look like way too much cabbage at first, but it cooks down. Trust me. After 20 minutes of simmering, your delicious homemade cabbage soup will be ready.
Recipe Variations
One of my favorite things about cabbage soup is that its so flexible, which means you can really feel free to make it your own. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Change up the vegetables: Use what you have on hand. Swap the potatoes for sweet potatoes, add zucchini in the summer, or try parsnips, turnips, or celery root in the winter. You can also add a handful of chopped kale or spinach during the last few minutes of cooking.
- Add beans: For extra protein and fiber, stir in a can of drained beans. White beans, chickpeas, and kidney beans all work beautifully. Lentils are lovely, too!
- Add protein: Stir in cooked shredded chicken, cooked Italian sausage, browned ground turkey, or diced ham (like in this ham and cabbage soup).
- Make it spicy: Add red pepper flakes, a pinch of cayenne, or add a chopped fresh jalapeño to the garlic and tomato paste in the beginning. A drizzle of hot sauce at the end is excellent, too.
- Swap the cabbage: Green cabbage works best, but you can use Napa cabbage or Savoy cabbage. Red cabbage works in a pinch, but keep in mind it will change the soup’s color.
- Add grains or pasta: Add dried quinoa to the pot with the cabbage. Or, add small pasta shapes (like ditalini) about 5 minutes before it’s done simmering.
More Cabbage Recipes
- Ham and Cabbage Soup
- Easy Vegetable Soup
- Crunchy Thai Chicken Salad
- Egg Roll in a Bowl
- Steamed Cabbage with Lime Butter
Easy Cabbage Soup
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This healthy cabbage soup recipe is what I make when I want a little reset or just something that makes me feel good. It’s absolutely packed with vegetables, and all that cabbage cooks down into tender, delicious bites.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onion, 1 large
1 ½ cups chopped carrot, 3 to 4 carrots
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 teaspoons minced garlic, 4 cloves
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning or herbs de Provence
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
1 (15-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes with their liquid
8 cups stock or broth, see our veggie broth or chicken stock (1.8L)
2 cups chopped potato, 10 ounces
8 heaped cups chopped cabbage, from 1 medium head
1 bay leaf
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley, for serving, optional
Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving, optional
Directions
1Sauté the vegetables: Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots. Cook, stirring often, until the onions are softened and translucent, about 6 minutes.
2Add aromatics: Stir in the tomato paste, garlic, Italian seasoning, black pepper, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
3Build the soup base: Pour in the canned tomatoes with their juices, along with the stock (or broth). Add the potatoes, cabbage, and bay leaf. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Partially cover with a lid, then reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer.
4Simmer: Cook at a gentle simmer, partially covered, for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes and other vegetables are tender.
5To finish: Remove the pot from the heat and discard the bay leaf. Stir in the parsley. Taste and adjust with more salt and pepper. Serve with finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, if you like.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Keep leftover cabbage soup in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 4 days. Or, freeze it! Transfer the cooled soup to freezer-safe containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Leave a little room at the top of the container for expansion. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating.
- Salt: Depending on your broth, you may need more salt. I used a low-sodium broth and needed ½ teaspoon, plus a few extra pinches.
- The nutrition facts provided are estimates.
I have so say this was a big hit at my house. Eveyone loved it and it was easy to make. It keeps well for leftovers as well. I did add chicken pasta and zuccini to it and that did add to the soup but I feel it would have been just fine without the additions. My family has asked me to put this on my rotation of meals. That is a real complement as they can be really picky!
Delicious! Simple and easy to customize.
Great base, versatile and delicious! Tried it so far with venison and chicken, both delicious. With red cabbage (all I had) still delicious. No potatoes and bulked the carrots, still delicious. Definitely a core meal/recipe we will continue to explore and serve throughout the fall and winter!
Super easy and fast soup! Great for busy days and we can just throw other vegetables too! The kids love this with sourdough!
Great soup. Used Ina Gartens roasted tomatoes from freezer rather than fire roasted. Added kidney beans at the end Thanks
Good soup! I halved the recipe and added white beans and zesty hot sausage to it. My husband even liked it and he’s not a big fan of cabbage.
Easy and so delicious! Will definitely make again.
Easy, delicious and nutritious! I added a can of geat northern beans for some protein and topped our soup with shredded parmesan cheese. This recipe is easily customizable for vegans and meat eaters.
Love the addition of Great Northern beans! 🙂
Made this today. So Yummmm. Added a handful of yellow lentils in step 3, and then put in Ditalini for last 10 minutes of simmer. Might try orzo next time. Got a loaf of sourdough and BAM– a great dinner. Tk you :-))
I love adding a slice of sourdough for dipping, too! Thank you for coming back and letting us know how the soup turned out.
Loved this soup. Love finding new ways to use cabbage. I’ll definitely make this one again.
I love cabbage and my husband and I loved this soup. I only made half the recipe since there’s just the two of us. The fire-roasted tomatoes made it tasty. Thank you!
We are so happy you and your husband enjoyed your soup! 🙂
So, guys, you did it, again. You designed a soup recipe my non-soup eating husband loved, as well! The only thing I did differently was instead of Parsley, I used Cilantro because that’s what I had on hand, and I didn’t want it to go bad. I loved the slightly sweet flavor punch the cilantro gave the soup. Thank you!
So happy about that, Natalie!
Very healthy soup and it is delicious! Potatoes adds it a different texture. Great soup for cold days or when you want to eat healthy!
This is a good solid vegetable soup that I can see would be a useful recipe on refrigerator clean out days. I made it today as per the instructions but added another tablespoon of tomato paste, a can of drained cannellini beans and at the end., a few tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar. The cooked veggies tend to be sweet and I didn’t want to add a lot of extra salt to counteract that. The balsamic vinegar did the trick. Next time I will saute a 4 oz pkg of pancetta and use that rendered oil to cook the veggies. The pancetta will go nicely with the veg and fire roasted tomatoes. Thank you Joanne and Adam!
Nice recipe , my twist is browned pork country stile ribs bottom of da pot and pureed cans or cans of Stewed tomatos on top try it you will like it !!!!
Had a beautiful head of Amish-grown cabbage just as this recipe hit my email! Smelled so good simmering away with 9″ of snow outside. Had everything on hand, even added some sliced knockwurst for protein. Delicious & plenty to freeze, too! Definitely a new staple in my winter soup catalog. Thanks!
Love the personal touches! This soup is perfect to make on a snowy day 🙂
I loved my mother’s cabbage soup so I tried making cabbage soup on my own for years. The results were never spectacular! The balance of vegetables in this recipe is perfect. It is always a hit and seldom. Are there any leftovers. Way to go, Adam and Joanne!
So happy you enjoyed it!
This sounds absolutely heavenly! I intend to make it soon since I love soups with cabbage. I’ve never been disappointed with your recipes. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise.
You are so welcome. You are going to love this! 🙂
I think your recipes are a plus for me. I really dont like some of the vegetables but if I make your recipes I know I will like them. I need to start eating healthy. I have breast cancer and well I have to try your recipes and I can tell I am going to enjoy them especially with recipes that have chickpeas. Thank you, Brenda Vela
Thank you so much, Brenda. I’m really glad the recipes are helping you enjoy more vegetables and find things that feel good to eat. Chickpeas are one of my favorites too. I’m wishing you strength and healing as you navigate everything right now, and I’m grateful you’re here cooking with us.
Brenda, If you have an estrogen positive cancer you may want to limit your intake take of chickpeas as they can elevate estrogen levels. Prayers for your healing. I am a breast cancer survivor ❤️ I love Joanne’s & Adams recipes!