Name: Easy Cabbage Roll Soup
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Ingredients: 1 tbsp oil; 1 lb ground beef; 1 medium onion, diced; 2 carrots, diced; 1 medium red bell pepper, diced; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp black pepper; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 4 cups diced cabbage; 2 tsp tomato paste; 4 cups beef broth; 1 (14.5 oz) can tomato sauce; 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes; 1 tsp crushed rosemary; 1 tsp thyme; 1 tsp Italian seasoning; 2 tsp parsley; 2 medium bay leaves; 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce; 1/2 cup long grain white rice, uncooked

Half a cup of raw rice goes into this cabbage roll soup, and it cooks right in the tomato broth, soaking up flavor as it goes. That’s how cabbage roll soup gets the taste of stuffed cabbage without a single leaf to blanch or roll.

Ground beef, cabbage, carrots, and two cans of tomatoes share one pot. The rice goes in last.

I hold the rice back until the broth has simmered for 15 minutes. Once it’s had its own 15 minutes, I start tasting a grain at a time.

When it’s tender all the way through, the soup is ready. If it’s thicker than I want, a splash of water fixes it.

Prep: 20 minutes · Cook: about 50 minutes · Total: about 1 hour 10 minutes · Serves: about 6 (an estimate, the recipes I compared don’t give a serving count)

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How long does rice take to cook in cabbage roll soup?

In this cabbage roll soup, the uncooked long grain white rice simmers covered for 15 minutes, then another 5 to 10 minutes after you taste and adjust the seasoning. It’s done when the grains are tender all the way through. The broth simmers 15 minutes before the rice goes in.

What Makes It Work

Browning the beef first, then cooking the onion, carrots, and bell pepper in the same pot for 3 to 4 minutes, builds a savory base before any liquid goes in.
Tess Cooks 4u simmers the broth and seasonings for 15 minutes before adding the rice. I like that order, since the cabbage is already softening by the time the rice joins it.
Half a cup of rice to 1 lb of beef is the ratio both full recipes I compared use. It’s enough to make the soup hearty without turning it into a casserole.

I check the rice by biting a few grains straight off the spoon. If there’s any chalky center left, the lid goes back on.

Reasons to Make This Cabbage Roll Soup

It tastes like stuffed cabbage rolls with none of the rolling.
Everything happens in one soup pot, from browning the beef to the last simmer.
The ingredients are supermarket basics: ground beef, a head of cabbage, carrots, canned tomatoes, and rice.
It’s a full dinner in a bowl on a weeknight.

What You’ll Need

1 tbsp oil
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups diced cabbage
2 tsp tomato paste
4 cups beef broth
1 (14.5 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 tsp crushed rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 tsp parsley
2 medium bay leaves
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup long grain white rice, uncooked

Picking the Right Ingredients

The rice is long grain white, and it goes in raw. It cooks right in the broth, so there’s no second pot to wash.

The recipes I compared don’t give times for brown rice or cauliflower rice, so I’d stick with white for this pot.

Four cups of diced cabbage is the measure here. The sources don’t say how much of a head that is, so I dice from the head until the measuring cup is full and save the rest for another night.

The dried herbs (rosemary, thyme, Italian seasoning, and parsley) come from Tess Cooks 4u’s version. Always Yummy!

keeps it simpler with fresh parsley and a bay leaf, and lets you use ground turkey or chicken instead of the beef.

How I Make It

Brown the beef. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until no pink remains anywhere in the pan and the crumbles look evenly browned.
Cook the vegetables. Add the onion, carrots, bell pepper, salt, and black pepper. Cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes, until the onion starts to soften and turn glossy and the carrots brighten in color.
Add garlic and cabbage. Stir in the garlic and the diced cabbage until everything is mixed through. The cabbage won’t wilt much yet, and that’s fine. It’s ready to move on when the garlic smells fragrant.
Pour in the tomatoes. Stir in the tomato paste, beef broth, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes. Turn the heat up and bring the pot to a simmer, until small bubbles break steadily across the surface.
Season and simmer. Add the rosemary, thyme, Italian seasoning, parsley, bay leaves, and Worcestershire. Stir, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, until the cabbage has started to soften and the broth smells savory and herby.
Cook the rice. Stir in the rice so the grains spread through the pot, then cover and cook for 15 minutes. The cabbage roll soup should be steaming steadily under the lid, with the cabbage noticeably softer.
Taste and finish. Taste the broth and add more salt or pepper if it needs it. Cover and cook another 5 to 10 minutes, until the rice is tender all the way through when you bite a grain.
Thin and serve. If the soup is thicker than you like, stir in a little water until it moves easily off the ladle. Fish out the bay leaves before serving, which is a standard kitchen step rather than one from the recipes.

Good to Know

Don’t add the rice at the start. Giving the broth its 15 minutes first lets the cabbage soften before the rice joins it.
Go by the bite, not the clock. Rice can take the full 10 extra minutes or come in early, and a grain between your teeth tells you which.
Taste after the rice has cooked for a while. The salt starts low at 1/2 tsp, and the broth and canned tomatoes bring their own, so adjust at the end.
I don’t measure the water when I thin it. A splash at a time until it looks right is how I do it.
Brown the beef until no pink remains anywhere in the pan. After that it simmers another half hour or more in the broth, so it’s cooked through long before the soup is done.

How to Store It

Let the soup cool, then pack it into airtight containers and refrigerate. The recipes I compared don’t give a number of days, so plan to eat it soon rather than letting it sit.

None of the sources say whether this soup freezes well. Since rice is in the pot, I wouldn’t promise a freezer result I haven’t seen in a tested recipe.

When you reheat a bowl, warm it on the stove until it’s steaming and taste it once more for salt. If it’s thicker than you like, thin it with a little water or broth the same way you would on the first night.

What Goes With Cabbage Roll Soup

A spoonful of sour cream on top, which Always Yummy! serves it with, cools the tomato broth.
Fresh bread or rolls, for soaking up the broth.
A crisp green salad, for something cold and crunchy next to a hot bowl.
Buttered rye toast, which leans into the stuffed cabbage flavor.

What I Use to Make This

A large soup pot with a lid, roomy enough for 4 cups of broth, two cans of tomatoes, and all the vegetables.
A wooden spoon or meat chopper for breaking up the beef as it browns.
A sharp chef’s knife and a large cutting board for dicing the cabbage.
A ladle, for serving and for checking how the soup pours.

Your Questions, Answered

Do you cook the rice before adding it to cabbage roll soup? No. The rice goes in uncooked and simmers in the soup for 15 minutes, then 5 to 10 more until tender.

Can I make cabbage roll soup with ground turkey? Yes. One of the recipes I compared swaps in ground turkey or chicken for the beef. Cook it the same way, until no pink remains.

Why is my cabbage roll soup so thick? It can come out thicker than you’d like once the rice is cooked. Tess Cooks 4u’s fix is to add water to thin it, a little at a time.

Do I have to use the dried herbs? They come from one recipe, and they give the broth its herby side. The other recipe I compared uses only fresh parsley and a bay leaf, so the soup still works with less.

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