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.
Anna
I've been making every couple of months for over a year now. If you're wanting to make things even easier, buy a bag of coleslaw mix! The only other thing I do differently is use the 19 oz turkey packs from Aldi, my own homemade spaghetti sauce, homemade chicken stock (I can or freeze HUGE batches at a time), and double the garlic. So good with some crusty bread!
Rogelio
Well I am also the reluctant husband until I was called back to hospital due to blood sugar. I did find low sugar spaghetti sauce, and no salt beef broth. I am gonna enjoy this! Thanks
Tim
This was was very good this is definitely a keeper thank you for posting the recipe.!
Jacolyn
AWESOME!!!
Very quick & easy and will be making again & again. I added Romano-Parm. cheese to top before serving! So DELICIOUS! THANKS so much!
Megan Devito
My kids BEG fort his soup! Even my picky boys love it. I hope it is okay that I shared your recipe with a link back to your blog on my site. Everyone should check out what you have going on over here. Thank you for allowing me to feed my family well.
Julia
This is really good. I have made it several time. My husband loves it and I have made it for company too. No one seems to mind the riced cauliflower.
Kristi Smith
Could Miracle Rice be used in place of the riced cauliflower?
Brenda
Sure
Rae
Just made this for dinner tonight and it was very delicious and pretty simple to make! The only thing is that the recipe says it's 9 servings and I didn't change a thing but reasonably this was about 6 servings and 5 if you have a pretty hungry husband who likes his bowl a bit more than 3/4 full. It seems like 1.5 cups would be enough food for a toddler? Maybe that's what the 9 servings means?
Garry
Brenda, where does the high sodium count come from? I think it is probably the combination of ingredients, but what can be done to make this dish low sodium?
Brenda
I'm guessing from the beef broth even though it's low sodium you might do better using chicken broth and possibly from the marinara sauce.
Dana
I cannot wait to try this recipe, it looks delicious. Going to the store now just to buy the ingredients. I'm excited for a non dairy keto meal. THANKS!
Kerri
I’ve been avoiding making something like this because all the recipes I’ve seen use diced tomatoes, but I’m not a fan of chunky tomatoes. So when I saw you used the marinara sauce I decided to give it a try. So glad I did. It’s still cooling but of course I snuck a taste and OMG! I don’t like onions so I doubled the garlic and used a teaspoon of onion powder. Also, cooked it all in my Instant Pot...perfection! Half is being packed for my lunches this week and freezing the other half for lunches another week!
Debra
How long did you cook in the Instant Pot?
Lindsey
Too bad you can’t rate this - it’s delicious!!! Made it in a Dutch oven which was done in about 45 minutes of simmering. Would be good with a little chili oil to finish it off. YUM!!
Janelle
I’ve made this several times in the crockpot and we love it!
Do you have cooking times for the instant pot? It’s just more convenient and faster than using my crockpot.
Brenda
No sorry but I will work on it as I have an instant pot too!
Ellen Taylor
I have tried Cabbage with Beef in several recipes and got this one to try soon. Hope it will be yummy 🙂
Tammy
do you leave the meat undrained after cooking before adding other stuff?
Brenda
I did, but you can drain it if you want.
Karen
Cabbage and my gut don't get along but I always did like stuffed peppers so I think I'll make this the next storm that comes through using red, yellow, orange, and green peppers.........and see how it turns out. I'm guessing it'll be excellent on a cold winter's day.
Kirsten David
How did you come up with the nutritional box at the bottom? I usually only see that on packaged foods. Love everything you do!
Brenda
That's a Word Press Recipe Maker Plug In.
Nancy
Thanks for the recipe,
Patti
This looks wonderful!! Stupid question, but how do you measure "8 cups of cabbage"? I try to due everything by weight when ever possible since starting Keto. Thanks for sharing all your wonderful recipes!!
Brenda
I shredded the cabbage and packed it into a large 12 cup measuring bowl I have. It was a level 8 cups.
Colleen
I LOVE this soup! I don't know why, but any soup with cabbage is automatically amazing, but this soup was even better than I expected. I used just one pound of ground turkey, and I would even do it again with ground Italian sausage. So good.
CG
Can’t wait mine is in the crockpot now. I used ground chicken breast, riced cauliflower, organic crushed tomatoes, low sodium beef broth, onion, green peppers and cabbage and seasonings! 220 calories and 7 carbs
Chris Jones
This soup is delicious. I added a little fresh basil, chives, oregano and marjoram from my herb garden...just a bit. Also, I added fennel seed because my marina sauce didn't have any in it. Really, no changes at all needed. What a terrific recipe and so easy.
Rachel
Never mind! ?
Rachel
Hello, this recipe obviously uses cabbage, but cabbage is not listed or mentioned in how to cook it...? Help! Looks so delicious!
Crystal | Beat Bake Eat
I left out the cauliflower and used a basil tomato sauce and it was very good. Very filling actually. I was surprised. Thanks for sharing!