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Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage can cook in the CrockPot all day and this soup is just a little bit spicy! And if you prefer not to use the slow cooker, check out the link below to make this ground beef and cabbage soup on the stove.

PIN Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup to make it later!

Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage top photo

People are using their slow cookers again, so this week for Friday Favorites I’m reminding you about this tasty Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage. This is a soup recipe you can put in the slow cooker and let it cook all day, then when it’s almost dinner time you add the cabbage and spinach and cook for about another hour while you can put your feet up and relax. And if you chop the cabbage and spinach when the soup goes into the slow cooker, your work will be done!

The original version of the soup had pinto beans, but now I don’t want quite so many carbs so I switched that out for frozen cauliflower rice. Just use the link to that printer-friendly recipe to make the original version if you prefer. That one was also a big hit when I tried it out on some of my friends.

I’m someone who’d always add sour cream to a soup like this, but when I tried it out on some family members most people liked it with Parmesan cheese. I’m an equal opportunity soup garnisher, so take your choice on that. Hope you enjoy, and happy weekend everyone!

What ingredients do you need?

(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

Make Slow Cooker Soup Ground Beef Soup without chopping cabbage:

If you want to make this soup even easier to prepare, just substitute 3 cups packaged coleslaw mix for the cabbage. I might give the coleslaw a couple of quick chops; your choice on that.

Is this Slow Cooker Soup Ground Beef Soup very spicy?

I threw in a good pinch of red pepper flakes to make this a bit spicy when I added the vegetables at the end, but if you’re making it for kids or don’t like spicy food you can always leave that out.

How low in carbs is this Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup?

This tasty and easy soup only has about 6.7 net carbs per serving!

How to make ground beef cabbage soup on the stove:

Check out the Ground Beef Vegetable Soup that’s a stove-top version of this recipe; that makes a big pot of soup so you can stash some in the freezer if you’d like.

Want more tasty low-carb soup recipes?

Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage process shots collage

How to Make Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage:

(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

  1. Heat a little olive oil in a large heavy frying pan and brown the ground beef well.
  2. Chop up the celery and onion. (If you’re going to cook it all day, do all this the night before and store in individual containers in the fridge.)
  3. Put the ground beef, chopped onion, chopped celery, garlic, canned tomatoes and water you rinse the can with, beef stock, vegetable stock, dried parsley, dried thyme, and Spike Seasoning (affiliate link) into the slow cooker.
  4. Cook about 4-5 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.
  5. After the soup had cooked that long, I tasted it and added a tiny bit of salt and some fresh ground black pepper. I also added a generous pinch of dried red pepper, totally optional, but good.
  6. Thinly slice and chop the cabbage and chop spinach into fairly thin pieces so they don’t take too long to cook. (Or do this the night before if you’re prepping ahead to cook the soup all day.)
  7. Stir in the vegetables and the frozen cauliflower rice, turn the slow cooker to high if you were cooking on low, and let cook about 1 hour longer, or until the cabbage and cauliflower rice is cooked.
  8. Then stir in 2 tablespoons of sherry vinegar (or use another vinegar if you don’t have that.) 
  9. Serve hot with sour cream or Parmesan cheese to add at the table.

Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage close-up photo

Want more low-carb recipes for the slow cooker?

Weekend Food Prep:

This Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup recipe has been added to a category called Weekend Food Prep  to help you find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!

Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage square thumbnail photo
Yield: 8 servings

Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 hours
Total Time 10 hours 15 minutes

This Slow Cooker Ground Beef and Bean Soup with Cabbage can cook in the CrockPot all day while you’re at work!

Ingredients

  • 2 tsp. olive oil
  • 1 lb. lean ground beef
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1/2 cup chopped celery
  • 1 T crushed garlic (or more)
  • 1 14.5 oz. can petite dice tomatoes with juice
  • rinse the can of tomatoes with 1/2 can of water
  • 4 cups homemade beef stock (see notes)
  • 1 14 oz. can vegetable broth
  • 1 T dried parsley
  • 1 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
  • 2 tsp. Spike Seasoning (see notes)
  • salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 cup frozen cauliflower rice (or a little more)
  • 3 cups very thinly sliced and chopped green cabbage
  • 2 cups chopped spinach
  • pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 2 T sherry vinegar (or use any mild vinegar that you like)

Instructions

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy frying pan and cook ground beef until it’s well-browned, breaking apart with the turner as you cook.
  2. Chop the onion and celery.
  3. Put the ground beef, chopped onion, chopped celery, crushed garlic, canned tomatoes and water you rinse the cans with, beef stock, vegetable broth, dried parsley, dried thyme and Spike Seasoning into the slow cooker and cook about 4-5 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.
  4. While soup cooks, thinly slice the cabbage and chop the spinach. Take cauliflower rice out of the freezer, measure 1 1/2 cups, and let it thaw on the counter for an hour or so if possible. 
  5. After soup has cooked 4 hours on high or 8-9 hours on low, add the cauliflower rice, cabbage, and spinach, turn the slow cooker to high if needed, and cook about 1 hour more, or until the cabbage and cauliflower rice is done. (Add the pinch of red pepper now if you're using it.)
  6. Taste soup and add salt and fresh-ground black pepper as desired.  (I added a tiny bit of each.)
  7. Stir in the sherry vinegar or other vinegar (start with 2 T and taste to see if you want to add more.)  Serve hot, with sour cream or grated Parmesan cheese to add at the table.
  8. This freezes well.  Let thaw in the refrigerator overnight and then heat in the microwave or in a small pan on the stove.

Notes

I used a Crock-Pot 5-Quart Smart-Pot Slow Cooker (affiliate link) for this recipe.

If you don't have homemade beef stock use 2 cans beef broth and a little water. Use any all-purpose seasoning blend if you don't have Spike Seasoning (affiliate link).

If making this to cook all day, you might want to brown the ground beef, chop onions, chop celery, crush garlic, slice and chop cabbage, and chop the spinach the night before to make it easy to put the soup together in the morning.  Store these prepped ingredients in containers in the fridge, not in the slow cooker crock.

This recipe was created by Kalyn with inspiration from a soup recipe in Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. 

Nutrition Information

Yield

8

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 198Total Fat 8.6gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4.3gCholesterol 50mgSodium 1150mgCarbohydrates 10gFiber 3.3gSugar 4gProtein 21g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.

Did you make this recipe?

Did you make this recipe? Please leave a star rating (under the PRINT button in the recipe) or share a photo of your results on Instagram! THANKS!

© Kalyn Denny
Category: Slow Cooker
Square image of Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup shown in two serving bowls with Parmesan.

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage would be great for low-carb or Keto diets. If the soup is made with lean ground beef, it will work for any phase of the original South Beach Diet.

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Slow Cooker Recipes or Soup Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This slow cooker soup recipe with ground beef and cabbage was first posted in 2012. It was updated with a lower-carb version and new photos in 2020. The recipe was last updated with more information in 2023.

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