One Pot Hamburger Cabbage Soup
Hearty and extremely delicious, this one pot hamburger cabbage soup is easy to make and always a huge hit! Simple ingredients for a family favorite soup everyone loves!
I’m going to start out this recipe with an admission – I don’t love cabbage soup – which is sort of a funny thing to say at the start of a recipe for cabbage soup.
I like sautéed cabbage, and I LOVE fresh shredded cabbage on tacos and in salads – but the cabbage soups I’ve had (excluding some I’ve had in Ireland and Poland which were amazing) didn’t really leave me with warm and fuzzy feelings.
If I’m honest, most of the cabbage soups I’ve had are overly bitter and a bit thin – not something I crave on the regular.
But guys.
This soup.
It is so incredibly good – it’s made me a believer! Rich, full of flavor, and not the least bit bitter. And while I don’t usually put beans in non-chili soups, the addition of kidney beans make this soupd texture fantastic – not too thick, not too thin.
This cabbage soup has tons of meaty flavor, and the cabbage cooks down with the meat for a rich buttery taste, without the bitterness cabbage can sometimes have.
It is so easy and simple – seriously anybody can make this soup!
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Tips to Perfect Hamburger Cabbage Soup
Pro tip: cooking the meat, celery, and cabbage before adding stock helps give the cabbage a buttery, rich flavor and take away bitterness. While the rest of the soup can be made in a slow cooker, I strongly suggest pre-browning the meat and cooking the celery and cabbage in the same pan as the meat, until lightly browned and very soft.
This is an extra step, sure, but the difference it makes on the flavor is what makes this soup so special and crave-able. Take a few extra minutes to pre-brown your cabbage and don’t rush it – it really is worth the payoff!
Other One Pot and Comforting Recipes You’ll Love:
The following easy, delicious one pot soups are comfort food classics your family is sure to love! Click to watch the videos, then follow the links to the printable recipes for each!
One Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
One Pot Spicy Black Bean Soup
The Best French Onion Soup Ever
Slow Cooker Creamy Sausage and Broccoli Cheese Soup
Creamy Hamburger Hashbrown Soup
One Pot Hamburger and Cabbage Soup Recipe
To see me make this recipe, click my video below:
- 1 lb beef ground
- 2 Celery rinsed well and diced
- 1/2 cabbage diced
- 1 8 oz tomatoes Can and diced, do not drain
- 1 8 oz kidney beans
- 8 oz beef stock or beer
- 4 cups water
- 2 tbsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp celtic sea salt
- 2 tsp pepper
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In a large dutch oven, brown ground beef and cook into crumbles (about 8 minutes).
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Add diced celery and cabbage, cook until soft (about 10 minutes), stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
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Add salt and pepper.
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Add diced tomatoes (with the liquid from the can- don't drain it off!) and kidney beans (go ahead and drain these off).
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Stir to incorporate.
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Add garlic and paprika, mix.
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Add beer or stock and water, stir.
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Let simmer on low until soup has thickened and turned a darker red, 1 hour (or 4 hours on low in a slow cooker).
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Serve immediately, soup tastes even better the next day!
Christian says
Ooooops… Just realized I posted in probably the wrong spot… I apologize for that!!! AMAZING recipe!!! Absolutely WONDERFUL!!!! Thank you again!!!
Ray says
Your recipe calls for 8 oz can of beans and 8 oz can of diced tomatoes. I only see 14.5 oz cans and 28 oz cans of those items at the store. So I should reduce to 8 oz of each per recipe??
Courtney ODell says
Ray, I’d just go ahead and add them in as-is – my recipe card widget got a little messed up and changed some of my amounts. Use a regular can size for now, as I am sure that one got messed up and I haven’t had a chance to review it yet!
Lisa says
Made this and left off the beans to reduce carbs. Don’t have an instant pot so I did in my Dutch oven. Delicious and I will make again!
Courtney ODell says
Lisa, that’s awesome! We’ve started a low carb diet too, I need to try it without!
Randy Jorgensen says
Could you please tell me what you mean by browning the cabage. Thanks!
Courtney ODell says
Hi Randy – the cabbage will get browned when cooked, which means its sugars are caramelizing and it will have a lovely, rich, buttery and slightly sweet flavor. You’ll see the cabbage get noticeably darker in color, as well as shrink a bit in size!
Rachel says
Hi the recipe sounds amazing but I don’t have kidney beans? Do you have a suggestion for a different kind of beans?
Courtney ODell says
Rachel – I love the hearty, earthy flavor of kidney beans – it’s not a perfect swap, but I’d try a navy bean or hearty white bean!
Donna says
I need sub for beans can not have then maybe add carrots and sweet peppers
Courtney ODell says
Donna, you can sub out carrots, peppers – anything that is lower in starch. One tip though, the beans to break down and give out their starches to thicken this dish, so you might want to add some cream to it if it is too thin. Remove it from heat and then stir in the cream, whisk it vigorously, and then return to heat and bring to a boil to get more thickness without starch.
Teri says
Yum! Making this for the second time now. I added some carrots and onion. I am not a fan of beans of any kind so I have left these out. The aroma is amazing, I can’t wait for dinner! Thanks for your recipe.
Betty says
Do I drain the grease off the meat before adding the cabbage and celery?
Courtney ODell says
Betty,
I only drain it off if there is a ton – a little is great to cook the veggies in without adding any other oil!
pakistani recipes says
Winter is here and everyone is searching for soup recipes. I love soup please share corn soup recipe as well.
Barbara says
Loved it !! Did add onions, my personal preference. Please don’t let people like Laura upset you. Some people are just never happy. I thought the font was plain and easily readable. Thanks for taking the time to post this. I doubled the recipe so I could take it to work.
Loretta says
Hi making this for dinner tonight and there is no celtic salt where i live . What do you recommend that i use in place of the celtic salt and how much .
Thanks
Courtney ODell says
You can use regular salt or kosher salt – I do find celtic sea salt tastes saltier, without the extra sodium, but table salt works fine!
Linda says
I didn’t have any trouble reading your recipe. Can’t wait to try!
Linda says
I didn’t find your recipe hard to read at all. Can’t wait to try!
LAURA says
TERRIBLE FONT- NOIT ONLY IT IS NOT BLACK, IT IS UNREADABLE!! SO SMALL AND LIGHT GREY. YOU HAVE NO CONSIDERATION FOR YOUR FOLLOWERS, BECAUSE IT IS ALL ABOUT YOU, YOU AND YOU, WHO CARE ABOUT THE READERS?
NOT WANTING TO FOLLOW YOU LIKE THIS.
Courtney ODell says
Hi Laura,
So sorry to hear that – I am trying to fix some format issues on my site and definetely want to consider your feedback. Is it the regular post font, or the recipe card font that is worst – the recipe card does show up in a smaller font because its meant to be printed – but I can try to make it bigger. The post font is something I have my developer fixing.
Christian says
Wow!!! I did some tweaking as anyone would but, I LOVED your SUPER EASY recipe!!! My Mom was German and made some out of this World cabbage dishes… Before she expired I didn’t get the chance to get her recipe that resembled yours alot… I had been craving it and found yours… All I can say is WOW WOW WOW!!!! Brought me back and soooooooooo good!!! Thank you so much for putting this out here!!! Keep up the Fantastic work and recipes!!! Super Wonderful!!!! Thank you!!!
Janis Webb says
Hello…I want to make your recipe right away…..but in the ingredients, are the amounts for kidney beans and tomatoes for 18 oz.
Or for 1- 8 oz cans? Thank you so much for posting ?
Courtney ODell says
Hey Janis!
I just looked at the recipe, and wow does the font look hard to tell. I need to figure that formatting out! It is one 8 oz can.
Cathy Carter says
Getting ready to make this. Is the 2 Tbsp of garlic powder the right amount? Seems like alot.
Courtney ODell says
I like things very garlic-y – you can always adjust if you like less!
Julie says
This is amazing soup!!! I make when I have guests and they always want the recipe. My husband gets all excited when I say I’m making this soup. And it extremely simple. ??
I do add onions and green peppers, because I add onions to everything, and in my opinion it makes the soup just that much better.
Courtney ODell says
I am so glad you love it Julie! It is one of my favorites. And the additions sound AMAZING!!!
Maha Khan / sooperchef.pk says
Wow This Is great recipe.I love Your Way of making Recipe.I am going to make this recipe for my family now.
JessB says
This is simmering on the stove right now. Thanks for the recipe.
2pots2cook says
Love it ! Great spoon eating, warm, healthy dinner ! Thank you !