Ground Beef and Cabbage Soup is an incredibly simple soup recipe, ideal for those looking for a belly-pleasing meal without much effort!
If you’re new to making soup, this one’s a great introduction, as it only requires 10 basic ingredients and zero fancy tricks.
I have a feeling this Ground Beef and Cabbage Soup is going to be on constant rotation in my household throughout the chilly fall and winter months.
It is all the important things: easy to prepare, filling and nutritious, cozy and delicious!
Once the weather cools off, I find myself craving ginormous bowls of soup, stew, or chili.
Some of my all-time favorites from the blog that I’ve made time and again are my Instant Pot Paleo Pumpkin Chili, Immunity-Boosting Turmeric Chicken Soup and my easy Crock Pot Chicken and Rice Soup.
But here we are, featuring two of my much beloved ingredients: ground beef and cabbage!
If you made my Unstuffed Cabbage Bowls, this ground beef and cabbage soup is pretty similar.
The main difference is we’re going with a soup consistency and using fresh tomatoes for a hearty yet light approach.
This isn’t my first foray into cabbage soup.
There’s just something about cabbage that makes for an incredibly comforting soup or stew even if it’s very low in calories and there isn’t much to it.
It could be the volume it brings to a meal that makes it so enticing and satisfying.
You may remember my Instant Pot Sausage and Cabbage Soup from a few years ago, which I confess I’ve made innumerable times!
My Instant Pot Irish Beef Stew also features the much beloved cabbage and has those tender, hearty chunks of beef and root veggies for the ultimate meal.
But let’s chat about the ingredients for this cabbage soup with hamburger!
Ingredients for Ground Beef and Cabbage Soup:
For this rendition of cabbage soup with ground beef, we’re going with super simple yet high-impact ingredients like onion, garlic, tomatoes and beef, which bring a tremendous amount of flavor.
I use 90/10 beef for this soup, but feel free to go with a fattier cut. The fattier it is, the more flavorful it will be.
Aside from our high-impact ingredients, I use chicken broth, Italian seasoning, sea salt, and carrots to round it all out for an herby, savory dish with a little hint of sweet.
While I go with fresh tomatoes, you can easily swap them for two cans of diced tomatoes if that’s your preference. I just had them on hand from my brother’s garden and they needed to be used 🙂
Recipe Adaptations:
You can easily add more vegetables – celery, potato, broccoli, and cauliflower are all great options.
If you’re a fan of beans, toss in one to two cans of your favorite bean! I think garbanzo beans and kidney beans would be particularly lovely.
And if you’re a bacon lover, you can do as I do in my Transylvanian Stock Pot recipe and cook up 4 to 6 slices of bacon. Use the fat for sautéing the vegetables, then chop the cooked bacon and add it to the soup after it has finished cooking.
Love dried or fresh herbs? Toss them in! I love dried oregano and parsley in soup, but keeping it simple with Italian seasoning works great.
Swap the ground beef for ground Italian sausage for a wildly flavorful approach.
Let’s make a batch!
How to Make Ground Beef Cabbage Soup:
Add the avocado oil to a large thick-bottomed pot (I use a Dutch Oven) and heat to medium-high.
Add the chopped onion, carrots and garlic. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Scoot the vegetables off to one side of the pot and add the ground beef. Allow it to brown for 3 minutes without touching it. Flip and brown for another 2 to 3 minutes. Break up the meat into smaller pieces using a spatula and stir it into the vegetables.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. The cabbage will take up a lot of space at first but will cook down. Cover the pot, and bring to a full boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage has wilted, about 30 minutes.
Taste the soup for flavor and add sea salt to taste.
Serve and enjoy!
One of the benefits of this recipe is it generates a great volume of food! Ideal for meal prepping or for sharing with friends and family.
Let me know what you think! I hope you enjoy this belly-pleaser as much as I do!
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Ground Beef and Cabbage Soup
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp avocado oil
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 3 large carrots chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 lb ground beef
- 4 large ripe tomatoes chopped
- 4 cups chicken broth or beef broth
- 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
- ¼ tsp black pepper to taste
- Sea salt to taste
- 1 large head green cabbage chopped (about 6 – 8 cups)
Instructions
- Add the avocado oil to a large thick-bottomed pot (I use a Dutch oven) and heat to medium-high.
- Add the chopped onion, carrots and garlic. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Scoot the vegetables off to one side of the pot and add the ground beef. Allow it to brown for 3 minutes without touching it. Flip and brown for another 2 to 3 minutes. Break up the meat into smaller pieces using a spatula and stir it into the vegetables.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Stir well, cover, and bring to a full boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage has wilted, about 30 minutes.
- Taste the soup for flavor and add sea salt to taste.
- Serve and enjoy!
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Nutrition
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Made this soup tonight. Added a few things I had in the fridge, few stalks of celery, and some mushrooms. Also doubled the recipe, and I’m so glad I did!! It is absolutely delicious! Going to share some with my neighbors and freeze some too! This is a keeper!
I’m thrilled you like it, Carol! Thanks for the sweet note! xoxo
Made this yesterday, used GF Cumberland Sausages, out of their skin. Excellent soup. Thanks.
I’m so happy you like it, Ester! Thrilled it’s marvelous with sausage! xoxox
Your print button didn’t work. Excited to try, but I had to screenshot.
Thanks for letting me know! Do you have your pop ups blocked? When you press Print, a new tab should pop up, so if you have pop-ups blocked, it won’t come up. Let me know if that helps! 😀 xoxo
This sounds really good but I cannot have tomatoes due to my bladder inflammation. Too acidic. Can you Recommend a substitute?
Hi Ellen,
You could add more veggies if you’d like, such as cauliflower, broccoli, bok choy, etc. The flavor of tomatoes is difficult to replace without using another acidic substance, so I would just go with what you normally enjoy in soup. Hope you love it! xoxox
I was so excited to try one of your recipes and made this soup tonight. It was so warm and tasty. Perfect choice after indulging in Thanksgiving food all weekend. This soup will definitely be on rotation in the coming weeks!
I hear ya, I’ve been craving soup and salad after Thanksgiving too 🙂 So happy you like the recipe! xo
I made half a recipe with 1/2 lb of leftover ground chuck from another recipe. I didn’t have fresh tomatoes. I used a 14.5oz can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained instead. It was excellent and will definitely make it again. This is the first time I have browned the beef this way and really think it makes a big difference in flavor and texture. Thanks so much for a great recipe!
Thanks so much for sharing your changes, JJ! I’m happy you enjoy the soup! xo
I’m making this right now. I added rice, parsley, and celery. Hope it’s good! Thanks for the recipe!
Those sound like marvelous additions! Hope you love the soup, Melisa! xo
Currently making this now – it looks delicious and it was so easy to make !
Aww yaay! I love hearing that, Irene! Thanks so much for sharing your experience!