Hearty and extremely delicious, this one pot hamburger cabbage soup recipe is easy to make and always a huge hit! Simple ingredients for a family favorite soup everyone loves!
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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 this soup? So good.
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 soup's 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!
This soup can also be made in the slow cooker for an easy soup you can place in the crockpot and come home to after a long day - or can be made in big batches to be frozen as individual serving meals.
This is an incredibly versatile soup too - you can swap out the beans or vegetables if you don't love them and try out other flavors you love to make your own delicious hamburger soup recipe that you'll cherish for years and years.
I hope you love this hearty soup as much as I do!
Tips to Perfect Hamburger Cabbage Soup
Let vegetables brown
Cooking the meat, celery, and cabbage before adding stock helps give the cabbage a buttery, rich flavor and take away bitterness.
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!
How To Freeze Hamburger Cabbage Soup
If you'd like to make a big batch of this soup and save some for later - or you can't finish all of this recipe, this soup can easily be frozen for later using some simple and easy tips and tricks:
-Place soup in ziploc bags that hold roughly the serving you'd like to reheat. If you can only eat about 1-2 cups of soup at a time, don't put all of your soup in a huge gallon bag, since you'll have to thaw and re-freeze some soup.
-Portioning out soup in smaller bags isn't just convenient for managing your portion, it also helps prevent freezer burn and helps to thaw evenly.
-Freeze soup by laying plastic bags flat in your refrigerator so it doesn't bunch up into a big "ball" shape - the soup will thaw more evenly if first frozen to lay flat, making it a longer and thinner shape.
-Let soup thaw naturally in the refrigerator overnight.
-Reheat soup by placing in a pot on the stove and bringing to a quick boil, remove and serve when piping hot.
Slow Cooker Hamburger Cabbage Soup
To make this deliciously easy cabbage soup in the slow cooker, I suggest browning all of the vegetables and the meat, and then tossing it in the slow cooker to cook. This will give your soup SO much more flavor and a better texture.
While it is an extra step to pre-brown vegetables and meat when tossing this soup in the slow cooker, it is totally worth the flavor that you get.
This can also be made in an Instant Pot, by browning everything then sealing and cooking about 5 minutes with a natural release.
Other One Pot Recipes You'll Love:
The following easy, delicious one pot recipes are comfort food classics your family is sure to love!
Click to follow the links to the printable recipes for each easy one pot dinner!
Spicy Sausage Vegetable Soup Recipe
Easy One Pot Cheeseburger Soup Recipe
Recipe FAQ's
This recipe was designed to taste great with or without the beans - we often skip them when trying for lower carb meals, and it still tastes fantastic.
Of course! This recipe doesn't call for fresh garlic because it's an old family recipe and powder was often easier. For fresh, add 2-4 cloves garlic, minced, then cooked and softened to fragrant when cooking cabbage for soup.
Yes! This soup is super adaptable - you can add other vegetables or meat to this soup.
If you love this One Pot Hamburger and Cabbage Soup Recipe as much as I do, please write a five star review, and be sure to help me share on facebook and Pinterest!
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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!
Ingredients
- 1 lb beef, ground
- 2 Celery, rinsed well and diced
- ½ cabbage, diced
- 1 8 oz tomatoes, Can and diced, do not drain
- 1 8 oz kidney beans
- 4 oz beef stock
- 4oz dark beer (or your favorite beer)
- 4 cups water
- 2 tablespoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 2 teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven, brown ground beef and cook into crumbles (about 8 minutes).
- Add diced celery and cabbage, cook until soft (about 10 minutes), stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
- Add salt and pepper.
- Add diced tomatoes (with the liquid from the can- don't drain it off!) and kidney beans (go ahead and drain these off).
- Stir to incorporate.
- Add garlic and paprika, mix.
- Add beer or stock and water, stir.
- Let simmer on low until soup has thickened and turned a darker red, 1 hour (or 4 hours on low in a slow cooker).
- Serve immediately, soup tastes even better the next day!
Nutrition Information
Yield
8Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 219Total Fat 10gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 50mgSodium 680mgCarbohydrates 11gFiber 3gSugar 1gProtein 19g
Nutrition is automatically calculated by Nutritionix - please verify all nutrition information independently and consult with a doctor or nutritionist for any and all medical and diet advice.
Lotus Food Gallery
Amazing recipe. Absolutely wonderful.Thank for sharing keep it up dear...
Christian
Ooooops... Just realized I posted in probably the wrong spot... I apologize for that!!! AMAZING recipe!!! Absolutely WONDERFUL!!!! Thank you again!!!
Ray
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
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
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
Lisa, that's awesome! We've started a low carb diet too, I need to try it without!
Theresa E Beard
Im eating the cabbage soup now.It is so good and hearty..I added black beans and hamburger and ground turkey.Yum
Randy Jorgensen
Could you please tell me what you mean by browning the cabage. Thanks!
Courtney ODell
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
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
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
I need sub for beans can not have then maybe add carrots and sweet peppers
Courtney ODell
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
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
Do I drain the grease off the meat before adding the cabbage and celery?
Courtney ODell
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
Winter is here and everyone is searching for soup recipes. I love soup please share corn soup recipe as well.
Barbara
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.