Easy Cabbage Soup Recipe

This cabbage soup recipe is easy to make and loaded with vegetables, a heaping pile of cabbage, and the perfect blend of spices. I love it so much that I genuinely crave it.

Whenever we want a little reset or a meal that just makes us feel good, this easy cabbage soup is where we turn. It’s packed to the brim with vegetables, quick to make, and tastes incredible.

This recipe is a riff on our popular vegetable soup, but with even more cabbage and a slightly richer broth. It’s genuinely delicious, whether you’re looking for a healthy soup recipe or not.

Key Ingredients

• Vegetables: This cabbage soup uses a lot of veggies, but feel free to use what you have on hand. I love onions, carrots, potatoes, and of course, cabbage. You can also customize it with your favorite seasonal vegetables. In summer, add fresh zucchini or corn. In winter, try heartier root vegetables like parsnips or turnips.
• Tomato Paste and Tomatoes: These build a rich, flavorful base for the broth. Tomato paste adds a serious amount of flavor, and if you can find them, canned fire-roasted diced tomatoes bring a subtle smoky flavor to the soup.
• Garlic, Italian Seasoning, and Bay Leaf: These all perfume the soup beautifully. I love fresh garlic and switch between Italian seasoning and Herbs de Provence for this recipe, and both work well.
• Broth: Use whatever broth you enjoy most. Our homemade vegetable broth is wonderful here and keeps the soup vegan or vegetarian. Chicken broth or chicken stock works nicely, too. You can even use bone broth for extra protein.
• Parsley and Parmesan (optional): These are my favorite finishing touches. The chopped parsley adds a fresh pop of color and flavor, and a generous grating of Parmigiano-Reggiano on top is always delicious. Another option is a spoonful of basil pesto!

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Cabbage Soup

Tip 1: Cook the onions and carrots. We want a solid base for this soup, so give the onions and carrots a head start in the soup pot with a bit of olive oil. When the onions are translucent and smell sweet, you can move on to the aromatics. It takes around 6 minutes.

Tip 2: Toast the aromatics. So that our garlic and tomato paste don’t taste raw in the soup, you want to give them some time in the pot with the olive oil. You’ll know they are ready when they are fragrant and the tomato paste turns more of an orange color than bright red.

Tip 3: Make the soup. Now the onions are sweet and the aromatics are toasted, you can pile in everything else: the canned tomatoes, broth, potatoes, and cabbage. It’s going to look like way too much cabbage at first, but it cooks down. Trust me. After 20 minutes of simmering, your delicious homemade cabbage soup will be ready.

Recipe Variations

This soup recipe is really very flexible, so feel free to make it your own. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Change up the vegetables: Use what you have on hand. Swap the potatoes for sweet potatoes, add zucchini in the summer, or try parsnips, turnips, or celery root in the winter. You can also add a handful of chopped kale or spinach during the last few minutes of cooking.
• Add beans: For extra protein and fiber, stir in a can of drained beans. White beans, chickpeas, and kidney beans all work beautifully. Lentils are lovely, too!
• Add protein: Stir in cooked shredded chicken, cooked Italian sausage, browned ground turkey, or diced ham (like in this ham and cabbage soup).
• Make it spicy: Add red pepper flakes, a pinch of cayenne, or add a chopped fresh jalapeño to the garlic and tomato paste in the beginning. A drizzle of hot sauce at the end is excellent, too.
• Swap the cabbage: Green cabbage works best, but you can use Napa cabbage or Savoy cabbage. Red cabbage works in a pinch, but keep in mind it will change the soup’s color.
• Add grains or pasta: Add dried quinoa to the pot with the cabbage. Or, add small pasta shapes (like ditalini) about 5 minutes before it’s done simmering.

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