Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Soup

Unstuffed cabbage roll soup has all the great flavors of traditional cabbage rolls, without all the fuss.  It’s hearty, beefy, and full of veggies.

Cabbage rolls.  They’re pretty tasty.  But, if you’ve ever tried to make them, then you know they can be quite tedious.  They’re cabbage leaves stuffed with a flavorful beef and rice filling; smothered in a sweet and tangy tomato sauce; and baked until tender.

This recipe has all those flavors in easy to make form.  Soup!

This soup has a rich, sweet, and tangy tomato based broth.  It’s loaded with vegetables.  And, it’s hearty from beef and rice.

It’s a perfect healthy cold weather meal.  A huge 2 cup serving has less than 250 calories, but you’d never guess that.

This recipe makes a lot of soup.  And, that’s a good thing because this soup makes great leftovers.  The hubs and I had it for dinner one night, then made several lunches out of it.

As the rice sits it will keep absorbing more of the broth.  So, the leftovers will be thick like a stew.  I loved it.  But, if you prefer a thinner soup consistency, you may want to add a little more broth or tomato sauce to thin it out a bit.

Check out the step by step recipe video for Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Soup below.

Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Soup Recipe

4.98 from 80 votes

Unstuffed cabbage roll soup has all the great flavors of traditional cabbage rolls, without all the fuss.  It's hearty, beefy, and full of veggies.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Video

Servings 6 (2 cup) servings

Calories 242 kcal

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Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• 1 lb. extra lean ground beef I used 96% lean
• 1 medium yellow onion chopped
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 5 cups chopped green cabbage about half of a medium sized head
• 4 cups 32 oz. low-sodium beef broth
• 3 cups tomato sauce (24 oz.)
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup uncooked white or brown long grain rice
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 3 tbsp. packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice

Instructions

• In a large soup pot, add the beef and place over medium-high heat. Break it apart with a wooden spoon. Add the onion. Cook about 8 minutes until the beef is brown, stirring occasionally.
• Add the garlic. Stir and cook 1 minute.
• Add the cabbage, beef broth, tomato sauce, carrots, rice, bay leaves, brown sugar, salt, oregano, and pepper.
• Bring to a boil. Then, reduce the heat to simmer and cover the pot. Cook until rice is tender (25 minutes for white rice and 45 minutes for brown rice).
• Remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice. Let the soup rest uncovered for 10 minutes to thicken up before serving. Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Notes

Nutrition information based on using brown rice.

Nutrition

Serving: 2cups | Calories: 242kcal | Carbohydrates: 34.4g | Protein: 19.8g | Fat: 3.5g | Saturated Fat: 1.4g | Fiber: 5.4g

Course Dinner, Entree, Main Course, Soup

Keyword beef and cabbage soup, beef and rice soup, cabbage roll soup, healthy soup recipe

Cuisine American

Author Amanda Finks

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Check out all of my great ground beef recipes.