Cabbage roll soup
All the sweet-and-sour comfort of stuffed cabbage rolls, beef, rice and tender cabbage in tomato broth, with none of the rolling.
- 55 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $2.29 a serving
- 300 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ head green cabbage, about 6 cups chopped
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 1 can diced tomatoes, with the juice
- 2 cans tomato sauce, 8 oz each
- 4 cups beef broth
- ½ cup long-grain white rice
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped (optional)
- ½ cup sour cream (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 300 calories, 20 g protein, 29 g carbs and 12 g fat, and costs about $2.29 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No green cabbage? Red cabbage or coleslaw mix works.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No diced tomatoes? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No tomato sauce? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No beef broth? Bone broth works.
- No long-grain white rice? Jasmine rice or basmati rice works.
- No sour cream? Plain Greek yogurt works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onion, the garlic, and cut the cabbage into bite-size pieces, cutting out the hard .
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Core. Coring means cutting out the hard center of things like apples, peppers or cabbage. That center is tough and woody, so it’s the part you throw away.
How you’ll know: What’s left is all tender flesh, with no hard, pale center.
Cook the beef and onion in a large pot over medium-high heat, breaking up the meat, until no pink remains, 8 to 10 minutes. Spoon off most of the fat.
Medium-high heatTimer: 9 min
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Stir in the garlic and paprika for 30 seconds, then add the cabbage and stir for 3 minutes, until it starts to .
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: It looks like far too much cabbage at first. It cooks down to half.Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, broth, rice, brown sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Turn the heat to low, cover and for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring now and then, until the rice and cabbage are tender.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Low heatTimer: 22 min 30 sec
Taste: it should be a little sweet and a little tangy. Add more sugar or more vinegar until it is.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Splash. A splash is a small, quick pour, about a teaspoon to a tablespoon. It’s there to loosen or brighten a dish, so the exact amount doesn’t matter.
How you’ll know: The dish looks a little looser or tastes a little brighter, not soupy.
Ladle into bowls and top with dill and a spoonful of sour cream.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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