Grandma’s Old Fashioned Cabbage Soup

Old fashioned cabbage soup in Instant Pot or on the stovetop is fabulous. Low Carb comfort food in a bowl for St. Patricks Day or year round. If you love easy cabbage recipes this will become one of your favorites.

Chicken Cabbage Soup Recipe

This one has homemade meatballs in it AND chicken breasts. I know, I bet you’re imagining how good this is right now. Both makes it nice and hearty but you could just add both or make it vegetarian without either one. You can choose either way because they’re both delicious.

I have made this green veggie so many ways. You can make a variety of Ninja Foodi cabbage recipes without adding anything else really. BUT if you want other ingredients in the mix it’s not too hard to mix things up. If you don’t have a pressure cooker not to worry, you can make this on your stove too.

Cabbage Soup with Ground Beef

Now let’s talk meat. If you’re looking for a super easy ground beef recipe, this is it. Ground turkey or chicken would typically be a good substitute but I would say they aren’t for this one. Reason being is that we are going to make it into meatballs this time. Without some fat content they will just fall apart. I like to use my easy meatloaf recipe.

Then I just form it into balls of the same size and go with that. 80/20 fat content is best so it doesn’t “unravel”. You’ll want to precook the outsides enough where they’re browned but the insides don’t need to be cooked completely. You could even defrost and just use frozen meatballs instead, that would make it really quick.

Add defrosted or fresh chicken breasts too if you want, or just use one of them. This is actually a great leftover chicken recipe.

Polish Cabbage Soup Recipe

This is very similar to what my husband’s family used to make. Many times they would swap out these meats for kielbasa, spicy or mild. Sliced into 1″ pieces this version is great too and adds a whole different flavor profile. Saute the dials first to really bring out those flavors before adding all other ingredients and WOWie.

Cabbage Soup with Frozen Meatballs

As far as measuring I don’t usually actually measure out everything. If you want to use 3/4 of the head sliced then go for it. Just the more you add the less liquid you will have and it will become more of a casserole than a soup if you know what I mean. This is what you’ll need:

1. Head of cabbage
2. Meatballs homemade or frozen and/or chicken
3. Diced tomatoes, fresh or canned
4. Onion
5. Chicken stock or chicken broth
6. Garlic powder
7. Onion powder
8. Paprika and cumin
9. Chili powder

I mean the seasonings are up to you and you might have a family recipe for it but what we used is listed below. You can certainly add other meats like we did with our Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup, or any leftovers you have.

Instant Pot Cabbage Soup with Ground Beef

We made this as an easy Instant Pot recipe so there is timing and pressure instructions below for that. If you are just using a pot you’ll do kinda’ the same thing except with a regular lid, stirring intermittently. I explain all of that for you below.

• First you will set pressure cooker pot to saute and add olive oil. Make meatballs into equal sizes now, or just add ground beef with a pinch of salt and pepper if you want it loose.
  • Cook until ground beef is no longer pink. Then turn pot off.
• ** If adding chicken use leftover chicken breast shredded, or cut fresh pieces into thin strips so they can cook faster.
• Add all of the listed ingredients into your pot with the cabbage at the very top.
• Close the lid and seal the steam valve. Press your rice button.
  • If you don’t have this button press high pressure for 12 minutes followed by a steam quick release.
• Stir contents and serve with slices of fresh avocado on top, shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

If you want a richer soup with more of a tomato base you can follow our pressure cooker cabbage soup recipe here. It is more of an Italian flavor than this one which is lighter.

Cabbage Soup Recipe

If you want to make this in a slow cooker follow our Crockpot cabbage soup and add the meat. On the stovetop or dutch oven here are the differences. You’ll want to add your meat as stated below with olive oil and brown on all sides still. You could add diced onion and celery together to soften them together.

• Into your large stock pot on medium high heat add all other ingredients with leaves on the top. Season to taste with salt and black pepper too.
  • If you wanted to add potato you could but I would cut them into small bite size pieces so they get done.
• Bring to a boil in your soup pot and cover for 5 minutes.
• Uncover, gently fold contents together and check for tenderness. Once your meat is cooked thru all you are doing is waiting until your veggies are as soft as you’d like them to be, then you’re done.

Serve with shredded parmesan or sliced avocado are my favorite choices. Season with salt to taste and enjoy your simple cabbage recipe.