Vegan Cabbage Soup Recipe (Old Fashioned)

Name: Vegan Cabbage Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 small onion, chopped; 2 cloves garlic; ½ cup chopped carrot; 1 tablespoon tomato paste; ½ cup crushed tomatoes; 2 tablespoon green onions; 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped; 4 cups cabbage, shredded; ½ teaspoon black pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ tablespoon lemon juice; 4 cups hot water

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During the colder months of the year, it is always good to have a hearty and healthy soup recipe on hand, and this vegan cabbage soup is just that! It is packed with flavors and makes a perfect meal for everyone including weight-watchers.You can have a big bowl of it even if you are on a diet. It is also an incredibly easy and simple recipe that can be whipped up in about 30 minutes.

If you love vegan soup recipes like this one, you have to try our lentil carrot soup and lentil stew recipe too! These are both loaded with flavors, hearty and low in calories too.

Hands holding a bowl of cabbage soup garnished with parsley and sliced bread and chili flakes in a mini bowl on the background.

We make this old fashioned cabbage soup often during fall and winter months, especially to use up the leftover cabbage after making unstuffed cabbage roll casserole or cabbage stew. We have it for lunch with some crusty cornbread. Also, it is a light yet comforting soup, perfect if you are planning to start the cabbage soup diet too.

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Why We Like This Recipe
About The Ingredients
How To Make
Cooking Variations
How To Freeze
Expert Tips
FAQs
More Soup Recipes
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Why We Like This Recipe

It is one of our favorite vegetable soup recipes for the following reasons:

Contains our favorite Mediterranean flavors like tomatoes, garlic, parsley and lemon.
Low in calories.
Easy and quick to make. Ready in about 30 minutes.
Great way to use up leftover veggies.
Easy to customize. You can easily make additions (grains, meat, more veggies etc) to the recipe.
Perfect for the digestive system and immune system.
Freezer friendly.

Shredded cabbage, chopped carrots, parsley and green onions, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic cloves, onion, spices and lemon all on a grey background.

About The Ingredients

Cabbage: We use white fresh cabbage in the recipe, but green cabbage or red cabbage works fine too. You can also use savoy cabbage, which looks very similar to common cabbages, only they have a ton of veins and have a coarser texture. Stay away from leafy cabbages like Chinese cabbage (or Napa cabbage), wild cabbage, Bok choy, or Choy Sum. These all have specific structures that aren't always interchangeable with common varieties.
Unchangeable ingredients: Tomato paste, tomatoes, garlic, lemon and parsley. These are the ingredients we don't recommend you to change or leave out because they save this vegan cabbage soup from being boring.
Carrots: If you don't want the sweet flavor of carrots in soups, use potatoes instead. It will make the soup even heartier and more filling.
More veggies you can add: If you want to make a loaded vegetarian cabbage soup, add more vegetables like green beans, bell pepper, peas and turnips. You can even add some cooked white beans if you want.
Liquid: We use plain water because the ingredients are already flavorsome when combined together. But you can use a flavorful broth like a homemade vegetable broth to make it even tastier.

How To Make

This is an incredibly simple and old fashioned vegan cabbage soup recipe. With only a few vegetables, some herbs, and spices, you have a healthy and low calorie meal in less than an hour.

First, shred the cabbage: Cut a head of cabbage in half from root to tip (lengthwise). Then place it on its cut side, and starting from the top (not the stem part), finely slice the cabbage repeatedly.

Onions and carrots cooking in a pot and a wooden spoon inside it.

Next, prepare the base: Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and garlic cloves and sauté for about 3 minutes, or until the onions have become translucent.

Then, add the carrots. Cook them for about 5 minutes, or until they start to sweat. The carrots won't be fully cooked after this time, however, it does allow them to release their delicious and sweet flavors before being mixed with the other ingredients.

Onions, carrots, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste cooking in a pot and a wooden spoon inside it.

Now add the tomato paste and tomatoes. Give it a good stir so that all flavors blend well together.

A hand squeezing lemon over the cabbage soup cooking in a pot and a wooden spoon inside the pot.

Then, add the herbs, cabbage, and seasoning and lemon juice. Cook for 10 minutes: Once your tomatoes are soft, add the green onions, parsley, shredded cabbage, salt, and pepper and lemon juice. Give it a good stir and allow it to cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

A hand pouring water over the cooking cabbage soup in a pot and a wooden spoon inside it.

Finally, add water and continue cooking: Once the ingredients have been allowed to cook a while, add hot water. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for 15 minutes. Once fully cooked, remove from the heat and serve with fresh parsley.

Cooking Variations

Besides the stove-top method in your regular soup pot, there are other ways to make this simple cabbage soup.

Easy cabbage soup in a pressure cooker or instant pot: Put all the ingredients except parsley in your pressure cooker or instant pot and lock the lid. Cook for 10 minutes on high pressure. Let pressure release naturally. Add in freshly chopped parsley when serving.

Vegan cabbage soup in a crock pot or slow cooker: Put olive oil, onions, garlic, carrots, tomato paste, tomatoes and cabbage in the bottom of a crock pot. Season with salt and spices. Squeeze lemon and pour water over these and give it a stir. Cook it on low for 7 hours or on high for 4 hours. Make sure to stir occasionally. Serve with freshly chopped parsley.

Woman hands with a light grey jumper holding a bowl of cabbage soup and a spoon. Bread slices, another bowl of soup and a knitted scarf on the side.

How To Freeze

After it completely cools down, you can keep the leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. It makes a good quick lunch the next day.

Also, this vegan cabbage soup is a freezer friendly dish. Make it in a large soup pot and save half of the soup to freeze. You can keep it for 2 months in the freezer and prepare it quickly on a cold winter day. To freeze the soup, allow it to cool completely. Then place it in a freezer-safe airtight container or make individual portions in sealed containers. Freeze in a safe area away from any odors and at a stable freezer temperature, around 0°F. Thaw it out and reheat over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Expert Tips

Don't chop the cabbage very thinly. It cooks really fast, so the cabbage pieces melt if they are too thin.
Don't skip the following ingredients: Tomato paste, tomatoes, garlic, lemon and parsley. These take a simple vegetarian cabbage soup recipe to a whole new level. It never tastes bland like a regular detox soup.
Use veg broth if you want even more flavor. But we really don't think it is needed in this recipe.
If you are a fan of tangy flavor in soups, you can add an extra splash of lemon juice over the bowl when eating.
To make a more filling soup, you can add in some legumes like cooked chickpeas or white beans. Go check out our Tuscan white bean soup recipe to get an idea.
If the cabbage head you use is too big and you end up with leftover shredded cabbage, you can use it to make a small batch of quick pickled cabbage, mayo-free coleslaw or even baked cheesy cabbage

Vegetarian cabbage soup with carrots and parsley in a ceramic bowl and a spoon inside it. Bread slices, parsley and a knitted scarf on the side.

FAQs

How long do you boil cabbage for soup?

Cabbage in general isn’t a vegetable that requires hours of cooking. The exact amount of cooking time depends on the thickness of the shredded cabbage. Properly shredded cabbage can cook inside a soup for under 10 minutes.
There are however a lot of people that prefer adding pre-cooked or wilted cabbage into a soup to prevent a crunchy texture.
We don't feel that this is necessary, as soups have to generally cook for about 30 minutes, and cabbage only requires 10 minutes to cook. You can also see from our method, that the cabbage in this cabbage carrot soup has about 25 minutes to cook, which will create a very soft end product.

Can I use red cabbage in this soup?

You can definitely use red cabbage in this soup. You shred red cabbage in exactly the same way you would green or white, and the cooking times are also the same.
You might notice a slight difference in taste, but to many, it won't matter or be noticeable unless compared side-by-side.

Is cabbage healthier raw or cooked?

Technically, cabbage is better raw than cooked, but only because once cooked, it releases some of its water, and with it, the nutrients and minerals.
Having said that, there are several health benefits of cabbage no matter if it is raw or cooked.

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