Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage
This 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 soup on the stove.
PIN Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup to make it later!
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 this soup had a can of 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 a few people liked it with Parmesan cheese. I’m an equal opportunity soup garnisher, so take your choice on that. 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 you can always leave that out. Hope you enjoy, and happy weekend everyone!
What ingredients do you need?
- Olive Oil (affiliate link)
- lean ground beef
- onion
- celery
- crushed garlic
- canned petite dice tomatoes
- beef stock (or broth)
- vegetable broth
- Dried Parsley (affiliate link)
- Dried Thyme (affiliate link)
- Spike Seasoning (affiliate link)
- salt and fresh-ground black pepper
- frozen cauliflower rice
- green cabbage
- spinach
- red pepper flakes (optional)
- sherry vinegar (or use any mild vinegar that you like)
Do you have to chop the 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.
Want to make ground beef 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?
You can check out Low-Carb and Keto Soups with Cauliflower Rice or Low-Carb and Keto Soups with Cabbage to find more tasty soup recipes like this one.
Want more low-carb recipes for the slow cooker?
Check out my huge collection of Keto Crock Pot Recipes for more slow cooker meals that are low in carbs!
How to Make Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage:
(Scroll down for complete printable recipe with nutritional information.)
- Heat a little olive oil in a large heavy frying pan and brown the ground beef well.
- 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.)
- 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.
- Cook about 4-5 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low.
- 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.
- 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.)
- 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.
- Then stir in 2 tablespoons of sherry vinegar (or use another vinegar if you don’t have that.)
- Serve hot with sour cream or Parmesan cheese to add at the table.
More Slow Cooker Dinners You Might Like:
Slow Cooker Bean Soup with Ham, Spinach, and Thyme ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Cook-All Day Slow Cooker Soups ~ Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker
Slow Cooker White Bean and Kale Soup ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen
Amazing Slow Cooker Beef Stew Recipes ~ Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker
Slow Cooker Turkey Soup with Spinach and Lemon ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen<
25 Low-Carb and Keto Slow Cooker Dinners ~ Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker
Weekend Food Prep:
This 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
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
- 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.
- Chop the onion and celery.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.)
- Taste soup and add salt and fresh-ground black pepper as desired. (I added a tiny bit of each.)
- 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.
- 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.Â
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount 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.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Use Soup Recipes to find more recipes like this one. If made with lean ground beef, this Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage that’s loaded with low-glycemic ingredients would be great for any phase of the original South Beach Diet and most types of low-carb diets
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Slow Cooker Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You can also Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there. Click here for Slow Cooker / Pressure Cooker Recipes on my other site!
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe 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 2021.
45 Comments on “Slow Cooker Ground Beef Soup with Cabbage”
Sounds great. Anyone have ideas about how to make it in an instantpot (not on the slow cooker setting)?
I can’t say for sure, since I haven’t made it that way. But if you wanted to try it, I’d cook the ground beef in the IP until it’s browned, add the chopped onion, celery, and garlic and cook a few minutes. Then add the canned tomatoes and water you rinse the cans with, beef stock, vegetable broth, dried parsley, dried thyme and Spike Seasoning and cook on Manual, high pressure, about 10 minutes. While that comes to pressure, cooks, and releases pressure, chop the cabbage and spinach. When pressure is released switch to Saute and cook cabbage 5 minutes or so. Then add frozen cauliflower rice and spinach and cook another 15 minutes or so. Stir in vinegar and cook a few minutes more.
Personally I’d probably just make it on the stove rather than in the pressure cooker if you don’t want to use a slow cooker, but if you try it in the Instant Pot, I’d love to hear how it works.
Thanks Kalyn I probably will just try the stovetop. I’m a tad bit Instant pot obsessed!
Looking forward to making this. Not a fan of cauliflower rice, so I’ll use Miracle Noodle Rice instead! Thanks for sharing!
Hope you enjoy. I think that will work well in this recipe too!
I would love to try this soup as I have all the ingredients except for the cauliflower rice. Could I use regular rice in instead? Would it pre cook it and just add it in the end to warm it up?
Yes, if you don’t care if it’s a big higher in carbs you can definitely switch out the cauliflower rice for pre-cooked rice, and it should be added at the same time. Hope you enjoy!
Kaylyn, at 27g of carbs a serving that’s still a little too high for my 21 gram a day diet. Can you tell me your thoughts on how I could cut those grams? I was thinking the kidney beans would work but I don’t know how much more that would lower the carbs. Your thoughts. Thank you and love you recipes!
You are ahead of me! I just posted a Ground Beef Vegetable Soup that’s a low-carb version of this soup. I had a link from that one to this one, but now I need to add a link here to the low-carb version! Thanks for catching that; some days I just can’t keep up!
We loved this soup, I added a jalapeno because we like a little spice and had to use chicken broth because I didn’t have beef,,,,fantastic!!!!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I don't have beef broth, but I do have vegetable, do you think that would work?!
Yes, I think vegetable broth will be fine, just slightly less beefy flavor in the finished soup.
Cabbage might hold up to cooking all day on low, but I think the spinach would be completely dissolved into the soup. You might like it that way, I've never tried it. But I can't say for sure how it will work.
Do you think it would be ok to throw cabbage & spinach in pot in the beginning so it's ready after work? That's generally why I use the crockpot. Don't want to wait an extra hour after I get home to eat.
I'm so glad I found this site!! Your recipes are the best, especially this soup!
Alexis, so glad you're enjoying the soup!
I have to say, I absolutely LOVE this recipe. its hearty, delicious, & filling! I'm on a huge cabbage craze right now & this is perfect! its a favorite for my husband & I, especially when we're health nuts. mostly me trying to make him healthier. 🙂
How fun to hear from someone in Australia. Glad you enjoyed the soup!
Thanks for this fantastic recipe Kalyn!
This was devoured by 4 very hungry Australians last night! I'll be checking out your other recipes for sure!!!
This is cooking in my crock pot right now and smells wonderful. I thought I had all the ingredants until I came to the tomatos and had to sub 1 can with rotel…I had already added the red peppers flakes too so it will pretty spicy.
I think I will mix in some prcooked quinoa in my bowl befor I eat it for a filling dinner tonight….Thanks for the great recipes!!
This soup cooked in my slow cooker last night as I slept and I enjoyed it for dinner this evening 🙂 Yumm!
Chrissy, both the beef broth and beans are standard 14-15 oz. cans.
Looks like a great recipe for new moms. A questions about quantities; when referring to "can" of stock and "can" of beans, what size can? Thanks!
Sarah, glad to hear you are enjoying the recipes.