This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate I earn qualifying purchases. Click here for more about this policy.
Healthy Cabbage Soup is a hearty vegetable and protein filled low calorie soup. An easy healthy cabbage soup bursting with spices and delicious flavors that's great for healthy eating! Low Calorie + Gluten Free + Paleo
This healthy cabbage soup recipe is unsuspectingly delicious! Known as the weight loss cabbage soup, I've made it better for you and better nutritionally balanced too by adding more vegetables and protein than the "diet" version.
This version is not only nutritionally balanced, but also tastes amazing, is Paleo and Whole30 friendly, low carb, low calorie and gluten free. A healthy comfort meal!
What Makes This Cabbage Soup Recipe Healthier For You
Cabbage soup became a health trend a few years ago and popular among those trying to lose weight. Cabbage or any non-starchy vegetable is absolutely healthy, but there's nothing magical about eating cabbage soup that drives weight loss.
Calorie deficits drive weight loss, not cabbage soup or one particular type of food. I talk more about this in my free weight loss class.
Cabbage is healthy and it just happens to taste amazing in this healthy soup recipe! I made this cabbage soup better for you by balancing the nutrition with adding protein. Protein is always something I see women over 35 deficient in and often recipes are not well balanced with protein.
- Right Amount of Protein - None of the clients I've ever worked for have been eating the right amount of protein. This recipe has 32 grams of protein per serving which is great!
- Lower Calories - This recipe has 313 calories per serving. It's also BALANCED with the right amount of protein, fat and carbs. You always want that balance to make your meals healthy.
- Lower Fat - This recipe has 10 total grams of fat per serving - 2 of which are coming from saturated fat (less optimal fat). You could easily add another tablespoon of olive oil to this recipe or use a higher fat ground meat and it would still be low fat.
- Gluten Free - This recipe is made gluten free.
- Paleo - This recipe is also Paleo and Whole30 friendly.
Ingredients In Healthy Cabbage Soup
Here's what you need to make this low calorie cabbage soup. You will also need a large pot (I used my Dutch oven for this recipe).
- Ground Turkey or ground meat of choice
- Extra Olive Oil
- Onion
- Garlic
- Carrots
- Celery
- Green Cabbage
- Vegetable Broth
- Diced Tomatoes
- Oregano
- Salt + Pepper
How To Make Low Calorie Cabbage Soup
This cabbage soup recipe is very simple to make and comes together very quickly. I made this recipe on the stovetop using my Dutch oven. See below for instructions for making this in an Instant Pot or slow cooker.
To make this weight loss friendly cabbage soup, start by heating the olive oil in a pan on the stovetop over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, carrots and celery. Cook until the onions and garlic are translucent.
Add the ground turkey, oregano, salt and pepper to the pot. Cook the ground meat 3-5 minutes breaking it up while it cooks. Add the shredded cabbage, diced tomatoes with juices and broth. Stir to combine.
Last reduce the heat to medium-low heat and simmer for 30-minutes then serve!
How To Make Cabbage Soup In The Instant Pot
To make gluten free cabbage soup in the Instant Pot, start by sautéing the vegetables with the olive oil using the sauté function.
Next add the ground turkey to the pot. Cook the meat until no longer pink while breaking it up with a spatula. Add the remaining ingredients including the cabbage to the pot. Place the lid on the Instant Pot, turn the valve to sealing. Cover and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
Allow the pot to natural release for 5 minutes before turning the valve to venting and removing the cover. Stir and serve!
How To Make Cabbage Soup In A Crockpot
To make Paleo cabbage soup in a slow cooker, place all the ingredients in a slow cooker except the shredded cabbage. Cover the pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high 4-6 hours.
The last 30-minutes of cooking, place the shredded cabbage in the pot to cook. Stir the ingredients and break up the meat if needed then serve!
Substitutions For Making Cabbage Soup
Here's the substitutions I recommend for this healthy cabbage soup recipe. Keep in mind that when you make substitutions or changes to the recipe, it does change the nutrition data that you see in the recipe below.
- Ground Turkey - Any ground protein will work in this recipe. Lean ground beef, ground chicken or ground pork.
- Olive Oil - You can use avocado oil instead.
- Vegetables - Spinach, kale, bell peppers, zucchini would all make wonderful additions to this soup recipe. Feel free to add non-starchy vegetables!
- Diced Tomatoes - Any canned tomatoes will work or tomato sauce.
- Broth - Chicken broth, beef broth, vegetable broth or stock may be used.
- Spices - You can use Italian Seasoning or Basil to add to the dish or to swap the Oregano.
Healthy Cabbage Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Turkey
- 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 cup White Onion
- 4 Garlic Cloves minced
- 4 Carrots diced
- 4 Celery Stalks diced
- 1/2 Green Cabbage shredded
- 4 cups Vegetable Broth low sodium
- 28 oz Diced Tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon Oregano
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
Stovetop Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add the onion, garlic, carrots and celery. Cook until the onion and garlic are translucent.
- Add the ground turkey, salt, pepper and oregano. Break up the meat as it cooks with a spatula as it browns 3-5 minutes.
- Add the cabbage, tomatoes and broth. Stir, cover and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 30-minutes before serving.
- Keep leftovers in the refrigerator up to 5 days or freeze up to 60 days.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Sauté the vegetables with the olive oil using the sauté function.
- Next add the ground turkey to the pot. Cook the meat until no longer pink while breaking it up with a spatula. Add the remaining ingredients including the cabbage to the pot.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, turn the valve to sealing. Cover and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
- Allow the pot to natural release for 5 minutes before turning the valve to venting and removing the cover. Stir and serve!
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a slow cooker except the shredded cabbage. Cover the pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high 4-6 hours.
- The last 30-minutes of cooking, place the shredded cabbage in the pot to cook. Stir the ingredients and break up the meat if needed then serve!
Video
Notes
- My Amazon shop has more products similar to those used for this recipe and that I recommend to my weight loss clients.
Nutrition
Added 1 tsp of chili powder for a little more kick. Hands down, the best healthy cabbage soup recipe I’ve ever tried!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Hi there! Made this soup and it is delish
I entered everything into my fitness pal and didn’t come close to the numbers you had…. My protein for 1 serving only amounted to 8? Not sure if I am reading your numbers incorrectly or what but even the calories are much lower than what you have listed.
What you entered into MFP is inaccurate somehow. The recipe uses 1 pound of ground turkey. 8 grams per serving is way too low for 1 pound of ground turkey. 4 servings of 1 pound of ground turkey has at least 25 grams of protein. That's also why your calories are too low. Everything listed here is accurate. Just re-ran the numbers and verified. You can just enter a "food" into MFP and enter the calories/protein/fat/carbs from my recipe listed in the nutrition here instead of building your own recipe with each ingredient from scratch. Doing it that way is a sure way to make a mistake.
How much is one serving? Like two cups?
1/4th of the recipe equals one serving. If you want an exact measurement, weigh the entire cooked soup on a food scale in grams then divide by 4. What that number is in grams equals one serving that you can weigh on a food scale to be precise.
My whole family enjoyed it. They added parmesan cheese, and I added nutritional yeast and nonfat plain Greek yogurt. Since I'm on LoSo diet, I made with no-salt-added products, so they added salt to their servings, and I added Mrs. Dash. Very flavorful, filling, and healthful. I especially enjoyed the textures.
Made this tonight and it was delicious. Is this on the MyFitnessPal app? I’m trying to keep track of my calories.
I'm not sure if it's in the app or not. A lot of people enter them in though so it is possible!
Hi my name is Lisa, I made the healthy cabbage soup. But I'm on a low sodium diet so I just used, unsalted chicken broth, no salt added tomato sauce. I had to add a little sugar, it was kind of bitter. And I enjoyed it very much.
Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Lisa, it was bitter due to the lack of salt. Vegetables definitely need salt, but if you're on a low sodium diet that's what you have to do. Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I just made this. Amazing. I did a few things different. I cooked low sodium turkey in water then drained. I added onions, celery, carrots, fresh garlic to pot with meat and stirred in low sodium organic vegetable broth. I also used no salt added petite diced tomatoes. My spices I used were, oregano, tarragon, thyme, coriander, both black and white pepper, paprika, and half teaspoon of salt. I am totally addicted!