As much of a summer girl that I am, I have to admit…I just love fall too. One of the biggest reasons…fall begins soup season for me! Every year I add more and more recipes to my repertoire and this cabbage and meatball soup ranks up in the top ten.
Don’t get me wrong, we have a few bowls of soup in the summer, but in the cooler months of the year, I would say it is somewhere on the menu once a day. From veggie pureed soups to hearty dinner soups like this recipe.
I am not a huge fan of traditional bone broth on its own in a mug…*gasp* from the Weston Price crowd…I know. I will occasionally have some with sea salt in a mug if I’m feeling ill, but for the most part, my biggest way of getting this superfood in my diet is through delicious soups.
If you are not familiar with the benefits of getting healing bone broths into your diet, I would completely stop reading this right now and read the article Bone Broth is Beautiful– it was one of the first that I read in the “traditional” foodie world, and one of the first changes I made that totally changed the healing of my own gut lining. I am convinced it is a huge part of my gut healing, which in turn has healed so many other aspects of my physical health.
It’s simple to make bone broth, either chicken broth or beef broth. I have to admit I am a crockpot girl completely. Throw the bones in with some water – easy peasy. Let me know if you have further questions – soups and broths are one of my favorite topics!
Cabbage Meatball Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef or ground pork
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp all-purpose seasoning
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ¼ cup butter coconut oil, lard, tallow
- 1 onion medium, chopped
- 2 carrots medium, chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- ½ head cabbage sliced thin
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 ½ Tbsp tomato paste
- 1 15oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 ½ quarts beef stock
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- sea salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl combine the beef, egg, all-purpose season, and 1 tsp salt.
- Form small mini meatballs and brown off in a large skillet or fry pan with some butter or coconut oil. The goal is not to cook them through – just get a nice brown crust on the outside and they will cook the rest of the way in the soup.
- While the meatballs are cooking, sauté the onion, carrot, celery, and cabbage in a large soup pot with about ¼ cup butter for about 10 to 15 minutes. Do this with a few pinches of sea salt over medium to medium high heat and you will bring out the natural sweetness of all the veggies – this really boosts the flavor of the whole soup.
- Add the garlic and tomato paste to the veggies, and cook for a minute.
- Add the diced tomatoes, stock, seasoning, and browned meatballs to the soup pot and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to a low simmer for 15 -20 minutes.
Tips:
- Absolutely prep the night before if you wish! Cut all the veggies and put them in a bag so all you have to do is dump them in the pot when you get home from work! Same with the meatballs – form them the night before and you can brown them off the evening of. It really should only take about 20-30 minutes from there.
- Freezes up great! Double batch and save the rest for a crazy week or when you want to bless someone with a meal!
- Be sure to re-heat your soup over the stove top so you don’t ruin all the nutrients in your bone broth from a microwave
- Bring leftovers in a thermos to work or school!
Renee
Green breakfast smoothie
This looks so good!
Renee, we loved this! I made it last week on one of our first cool nights and it really hit the spot. I don’t cook much with cabbage, but this soup will go in to our menu rotations from now on. Thanks for sharing it!
Awesome!
Hello! I’m very excited to try this recipe! Could you also prepare this in the crockpot? If so, do you suggest cooking the meatballs beforehand and adding them to the mixture then cooking on low for several hours? Thank you!
Hi Velma! Gosh throwing it all in the crockpot sounds fabulous! Ha! I would brown the meatballs before putting them in the crockpot although I don’t think they need to be cooked all the way through. I’m not sure what cabbage will do in the crockpot either – I have never tried. One thing I think I like about this method is that the cooking down of the cabbage in the butter and salt makes them almost caramelize and sweeten and gives such a great flavor to the soup. I just don’t know what the raw cabbage would do in the crockpot method. Let me know if you try it out!
Tried this tonight and it was amazing, thank you!
Great! Thanks for coming back and letting us know!
Amazing recipe!! We poured the soup over brown rice and sprinkled fresh parmesan cheese. I love your website! Thanks 🙂
That sounds delicious 🙂 Thanks for coming back to let us know!
Soo good-and reheated superbly as well! Thanks for sharing!
Hi PT! Thanks for the feedback and coming back to let us know! 🙂
This is delicious! (I’m currently eating it left-over for lunch as I type this…) My man started making it last night before I got home & I helped him finish it up. It was great last night for dinner & just as good today! Yum! Definitely a keeper recipe 🙂 Thank you!
Perfect Bobbi! Love it 🙂 Thanks for letting us know!
This is simmering on my stove right now- I want to eat it all up! And it’s pretty easy!! 🙂 Thank you for the recipe.