This Keto Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Soup is a comforting, hearty, low carb meal made easily in your slow cooker, stove top or Instant Pot for any busy weeknight or a cold day!
WHAT IS CABBAGE ROLL SOUP?
Soup recipes are the epitome of winter in my opinion! This unstuffed cabbage soup has been a favorite since I first posted it in January of 2016!!
Cabbage roll soup is essentially deconstructed classic cabbage rolls in soup form!
You may or may not be a cabbage fan, but honestly you must try this great recipe which might just win you over!
One of the most comforting meals on a cold winter's day made in your slow cooker or just simmer in a large pot on the stove, but either way it's a hearty soup for the whole family with all the flavors of traditional cabbage rolls but lots less work.
Often cabbage roll soup has white rice or brown rice in it, but to make this keto friendly, I swapped it out with cauliflower rice.
You will love how thick the texture is because of using riced cauliflower and you'll love how much lower in carbs it is than traditional cabbage roll soup. In fact, I think you'll love it even more than traditional cabbage roll soup with rice!
Carbs in Classic Cabbage Roll Soup
One cup serving, according to Cronometer, has about 31 grams of carbs.
Carbs in our Keto Unstuffed Cabbage Soup
Our serving is actually 1.5 cups for just 8 grams of carbs!
CARBS IN MARINARA SAUCE
Tomatoes and tomato sauce can be enjoyed on a low-carb or keto diet. There is no food that is keto. Ketosis is a nutritional state your body is in when you lower the carbs enough to get into ketosis.
1 large tomato is about 7 carbs. Contrary to popular belief, you can enjoy a small amount of tomatoes within a recipe. Granted you may not be able to eat a whole tomato and stay in ketosis but, a small amount can be enjoyed.
½ cup of my homemade low carb marinara sauce is 6 total carbs. You can also purchase Rao's brand which is low carb if you don't want to make my recipe.
This unstuffed cabbage roll soup provides you a whole lot of servings so the total carbs per serving are 8 and if you follow net carbs just 6 grams per 1.5 cups of this delicious soup!
LOW-CARB Options for RICE
There are a many options for a low carb rice that you could use in this cabbage roll soup. I chose cauliflower rice but there are plenty of others if you aren't a fan.
Palmini rice is made from Hearts of palm and has about the same amount of carbs as cauliflower rice.
Miracle rice or Shirataki rice is another low carb option with the lowest amount of carbs, just 4 per serving.
If you choose to use rice instead of cauliflower then I would suggest 1 cup of cooked rice and eliminate the cauliflower.
You can eliminate the cauliflower in the recipe if you prefer. I feel it was a good substitute for rice which is usually in cabbage rolls. I think it thickened this slow cooker soup nicely without being very noticeable in texture.
I will tell you that not even my hubby noticed cauliflower was in this soup and everyone who was at our party raved about it and asked for the recipe and none of them are low carb!
SLOW COOKER VERSUS STOVE TOP METHOD
The slow cooker is great if you have the time in the morning to make before heading out to work. It will be amazing to come home to the aromas of an amazing cabbage roll soup.
But don't fret if you don't have a slow cooker or don't have the time. I've provided directions below for making this recipe in your stove top in about an hour.
Either cooking method will provide you a satisfying meal for the whole family and plenty of left overs!
HOW TO MAKE Instant Pot CABBAGE ROLL SOUP Recipe
Set your instant pot to saute mode and heat olive oil and garlic. Add onions and shallots and cook until softened.
Add ground beef and cook until browned and no longer pink.
Add seasonings to beef, marinara sauce and remaining ingredients (the riced cauliflower, broth and cabbage).
Stir to combine everything and cover. Set to manual mode on high pressure for 30 minutes. Quick release and carefully uncover once pressure seal has released.
Top with some fresh parsley and enjoy!
How to Store Keto Cabbage Roll Soup
Store this easy soup, once cooled, in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
How to Serve Easy Cabbage Roll Soup
I think this is a one-pot meal in itself and you may not want anything else, but here are some low carb keto bread options you might like:
This healthy soup can also be served with any of these low-carb vegetable side dishes.
LOW-CARB VERSUS KETO
If you've had a reluctant family member not ready to embrace a sugar free and/or low carb lifestyle, try comforting recipes like this that they won't even notice is grain free and healthy!
They will hopefully realize it's not that hard to give up processed carbs and sugar.
Unsure about the differences between sugar-free and low carb? I've cleared it up for you in this post as well as low-carb versus keto to help you figure out the best plan for you!
KETO UNSTUFFED Slow Cooker CABBAGE ROLL SOUP
Crock Pot Low Carb Un-Stuffed Cabbage Roll Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- ½ cup onion chopped
- ½ cup shallots chopped
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 16 ounces low carb marinara sauce
- 2 cups cauliflower riced
- 5 cups beef broth low sodium
- 8 cups cabbage sliced
Instructions
- Heat olive oil and garlic on medium high heat.
- Add onions and shallots and cook until softened.
- Add ground beef and cook until browned and no longer pink.
- Add seasonings to beef and marinara sauce.
- Add the riced cauliflower to the beef mixture and stir until coated.
- Pour the beef into the crock pot.
- Pour beef broth into crock pot and add cabbage.
- Stir to combine everything.
- Cook on high 3 hours or low 6 hours. If you don't have a crock pot, simply cook ground beef in a dutch oven or heavy soup pot, follow recipe and simmer on low, covered for about an hour until cabbage is tender.
Video
Notes
- This recipe was first published in January 2016 and updated with video in October 2018.
- You can subscribe for free by email so you won't ever miss any recipes I share on social media.
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
Helen
Everybody loves this soup but I did make a few changes because I loved my neighbor Ellie's Stuffed Cabbage and her sauce was sweet & sour. So, I added 2T.+ of Apple Cider Vinegar, 3 T. Sukrin Gold or any brown sugar substitute. Added 2T. of Chili power and several dashes of Frank's hot sauce. My jar of marinara was 24 oz. I used Swanson's unsalted beef broth. Taste & adjust seasons. Thanks so much Brenda!
Brenda Bennett
I think my hubby would love that spicy variation!
Julia
I swapped the beef for ground turkey and the low sodium beef broth for low sodium chicken broth. It turned out great. Thank you for sharing this recipe. My family loves it. I love it.
Brenda Bennett
Thank you!
Merrie
I made this and added a pkg of cream cheese towards the end of cooking time to melt in and make it creamy. Gives the keto aspect a boost and so delicious!
Brenda Bennett
Thanks for sharing!
Roxann Benbow
Made this for dinner last night, it makes a large quantity. Its is very good we both liked it. Will be making it again.
Kim
Could you use Sour cabbage?
Priscilla
any idea how to make this in the Instant Pot? how many minutes to pressure cook? I have ground beef already browned. I could saute the onions & then deglaze the pot with the broth before putting everything else in
Selma
Priscilla, our instant pot has a slow cook button, maybe your has it too? Otherwise, I have made cabbage alone in instant pot before and it took only 5 min. I like mine to have a bit of a bite. Since all other ingredients are already precooked, 5-10 min should be enough giving a amount and depending how soft you like your cabbage to be🤗
David
I grew up eating cabbage rolls, they were amazing. This was a huge hit, well done Brenda and a big thank you.
Suzanne
Can you freeze the leftover
Brenda
Yes that works.
Susan H
This looks so good!!! Can I use frozen cauliflower rice or will it ruin the recipe?
Brenda
Sure that works, just thaw and drain liquid before adding to the soup.
Rosalyn
Delicious as is, I have made several times, once with minstrone soup and once with vegetable soup instead of broth and marinara, i also added a can of hunts tomato sauce and a bay leaf. Super easy in the crockpot, so many variations. I even added quick pearled barley about 10 minutes before I ate it this last time.
Nancy Joles
Made this, used turkey as my husband can’t have hooved meat due to lone star tick bite. Used riced cauliflower. It’s yummy!
frank weir
This has stove-top pressure cooker written ALL over it!! LOL!!
Suzanne R
Your cookbook says 9 servings but not how much each serving is. What is the serving size?
Brenda
1.5 cups
Tara Stubbs
Is it really 990mg of sodium per 1.5 cups? That is a lot! Curious to how that was calculated.
LeAnne Marie Forsythe
Could I use frozen riced cauliflower do you suggest putting it in a 1/2 hr before it is done?
Jen Allen
Can this be converted to an instant pot recipe? If so ,how?
Judy
You noted that to reduce the carb content, you could have 1 cup instead of the suggested serving size. What exactly is the suggested serving size?
Brenda
Right in the nutrition fact box at the bottom of the recipe. Serving size is 1.5 cups.