Nowadays, cabbage soup has gained popularity as a go-to diet food. Light, healthy and filling, my rendition of cabbage soup is guilt-free and incredibly comforting.

Even though cabbage soup is considered a diet food these days, many eastern Europeans grew up knowing it as a comfort food. Think of it as the Russian version of America’s chicken noodle soup. Every chef makes it a bit different and adds his or her own personal touch. It just so happens that the soup is healthy for you! That’s a “win-win” in my book.
How Long Does Cabbage Soup Last?
Cabbage soup is the perfect dish to prep for the week. It lasts 4-5 days in the refrigerator when stored in an airtight container. The kicker? The flavor gets better as it sits in the fridge and marinates in itself. Each bowl just gets tastier and tastier!
Can you Freeze Cabbage Soup?
Making a big batch of this soup is the way to go! It freezes super well and lasts up to 3 months. Let the soup cool down completely, ladle it into an airtight container, place it in the freezer and have it on hand throughout those cold winter months.
Tips for Making Cabbage Soup
- Meats to Use in Cabbage Soup: You can get pretty creative with what meat you use for your cabbage soup. Fatty and bone-in cuts are the best because they enrich the broth with a silky, marrowy flavor. I like to use pork spare-ribs, beef spare-ribs or oxtail.
Hot tip: Add in 4-5 slices of diced bacon or ham hock to the soup for an extra flavor boost!
- Cutting your Cabbage: Long, ¼ inch thin slices of cabbage work best in this soup. However, it is more important to cut your cabbage into uniform pieces so it cooks evenly within the soup.
- Sauté your Carrots, Onions and Tomatoes: Before adding your carrots, onions and tomatoes to the soup base, it is important that you first sauté them in a skillet. This unlocks the flavors of the veggies and adds some great texture to your soup.
- Precook Meat Until It’s Tender: This recipe requires you to boil your meat for 30 minutes before adding in any vegetables for a reason. This step ensures that your meat will be fall-off-the-bone tender. It also seasons your broth by infusing it with the flavors from the bone marrow and collagen.

Different Cabbage Soup Varieties
Vegetarian Cabbage Soup
You can easily make this soup vegetarian-friendly by skipping the meat and substituting mushrooms and swapping the beef broth for vegetable broth.
Sausage Cabbage Soup
In a time crunch? Speed up the process by substituting smoked sausages for meat. You can get your broth going and add in the sausages alongside the veggies for a faster and just as delicious soup. I recommend using a smoked Polish kielbasa.
Polish Cabbage Soup
Traditional Polish cabbage soup calls for a meat trifecta of pork spare ribs, ham hock and bacon slices! Toss in a pound of fresh sauerkraut to the mix to make the Polish proud.

My Grandma’s Ukrainian Cabbage Soup
My grandma loved to pack in the fatty cuts of meat to her version of this soup. Typically, she would use the bits and pieces of leftover meat she used for other dishes throughout the week. She would also always add a hefty amount of sauerkraut to the mix.
Hot Tip: Garnish your cabbage soup with a dollop of sour cream and some fresh chopped parsley or dill!
Other Traditional Russian Soups to Try
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb Bone In Meat
- 2 tbsp Beef Better Than Bullion
- 3 medium Potatoes
- 1/2 small Cabbage Head
- 1 large Carrot
- 1 small Onion
- 10 oz canned Diced Tomatoes
- Salt to taste
- Oil
Instructions
- Clean and dice potatoes into small pieces. Shred cabbage into small pieces.
- Rinse meat. In a pot with 4 quarts of water, cook meat for about 30 minutes, season the water with some beef better than bullion.
- To the cooking ingredients, add potatoes and cabbage, simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Dice onions and shred carrots. Sautee onions with a bit of oil until golden brown, add carrots and sautee for another 5 minutes. Add diced tomatoes to the sauteed ingredients and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Remove meat from the soup, take the meat off the bone. Place meat back into the soup, discard the bone.
- Serve cabbage soup while it's warm.
I just made the cabbage soup, I added a bit of Tumeric and 1/2 cup of Israelie couscous. Absolutely beautiful.
I love the idea of those 2 spices! Thank you for your feedback! I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe.
My polish mother uses a ham bone when making this soup with sauerkraut and a large can of tomato puree its great
Those are great tips, thank you, Michael. The ham bone sounds like it adds tons of flavor.
Soup is delicious! Love it sprinkled with parmesan cheese!
Debbie, you can never go wrong with a sprinkle of parmesan 🙂
I love cabbage every which way, especially sauerkraut with that zingy sourness. Your soup certainly does not disappoint. As you say, it improves as each day passes and before I knew it I was making another batch the same week (I think it lasted 2 days) my kids(18 & 19) eat like it's a competition and they have hollow legs. This and my homemade bread was simply to die for. Thank you for your delicious recipe.
What an awesome review. Thank you for sharing your feedback. I am so glad to hear this!
This is good with sour cream, too.....
Yes, my family adds sour cream to it.
Loved this recipe of cabbage soup. Thanks for such amazing recipe.
Thank you for sharing your feedback. Glad you loved it.
Hi there ,Mom and I use a tall pot with a lid ,, and salt pork slices on bottom saute salt pork to render fat , den one or two beef soup bones their usually available about one inch thick with lots meat attached. brown em both sides cover with lots sliced yellow onions den cabbage cut same as onions den a large can of good tomato juice. cover and cook med heat for an hour when done add a splash of white vinegar that gives it that sour kraut taste yummy
Joseph, that sounds really great. It reminds me of the way my grandma used to cook.
It is really cool to read the reply must take lots of time ,..to read all then write back ,,,don't forget to check with yer mom on that potato sausage . Am going to bake bread today or tomorrow AM gonna add what mom Calle fritilla ,spelling ?? rendered down salt pork crisps but in smaller log shaped loafs its always a treat ,,,,,wit some cheese and red wine ....Happy Mothers Day !!!
Thank you!
What cut of meat is "bone-in-beef?"
It can be any cut, bone-in beef has a lot of flavors as you cook the soup broth.
You can use something called flanken: it's short ribs cut crosswise, so it's like strips of meat with little bones along the strip. Perfect for either cabbage soup or borshch. I also like to do this soup sweet and sour: vinegar or lemon juice and sugar. It can be more sour or sweeter, depending on your taste.
Oh yum, thank you for sharing this tip. I will definitely try it in the future!
I think adding some sour kraut would be so yummy and add more flavor
Yes, my mom typically adds it too. She makes her homemade one. I love how diced tomatoes add that fresh sour flavor, also really great.
So how much sauerkraut if bot using the tomatoes?
This would depend on the brand because each one is a bit different in flavor. I would say right around 1 cup.
Would chicken thighs work for this?
Yes , I use chicken thighs sometimes .
Thank you! Turned out great! 🙂
Made this twice in the last week and half and everyone loves because it's yummy. I love it because it's so easy. Everyone's happy! ???
Oh wow! I miss this soup. I need to get bone in meat and make it again.
Just made this for lunch and omg it is so good!! perfect! Followed everything exactly as written, only added some cayane pepper! defiantly will try this one again!
Oh wow! Cayene pepper will make it so healthy! Amazing! Thanks for sharing feedback
How did I not see this soup? Reading all the reviews makes me want to try it! Mmm Does it taste similar to borsch? Lol maybe I'm asking that cause it's similar in color.
Yes, it is technically called borsch but every region calls it differently. I think you will love it 😉
In Russia, this is shchee. Borshch is the red beet soup.
I am German and love European recipes. I have printed off some of your recipes. Can hardly wait to make some of the pastries, they sound amazing. I love to cook and bake and just started working with yeasted pastries. I really like the format you use for us to print the recipes. Definitely will make this soup in cooler weather. Thanks for sharing your recipes 🙂
Oh, thank you Michelle. While traveling we have met a few Germans, I heard all about delicious pastries you guys have. I am looking forward to visiting Germany one day. I hope you love recipes you have on your to do list. Keep me posted on how it goes 😉
So how do i make it with sauerkraut? Can u plz give the original recipe,cuz i really prefer Kapustnyak with sauerkraut instead of fresh cabbage,i think it tastes totally different ! Do i just ommit the tomatoes n add sauerkraut? Thanks!!!
You can omit tomatoes and fresh cabbage and just replace it with sauerkraut. Enjoy 😉
This is Polish not Russian. the Russian version is different and is called Shchi. Many different Slavic groups cross-used recipes but Kapusniak is definitely Polish in origin.
In Ukraine we also call Kapusniak, and Schi - in Russia, the word Kapusniak doesn't sound like russian at all, but we mostly always use sauerkraut cabbage for this soup
Hey Candy 🙂 I am sure, the countries that neighbor they all have similar foods.
Do you drain the tomatoes?
You don't need to drain tomatoes. They provide great flavor for the soup.
This is my fiancé's favorite soup, but his mom makes it with cream of wheat... Do you know how much cream of wheat should be added?
I have never tried this soup with cream of wheat. That sounds very interesting, I am not sure how much of it is added to the soup.
Just made this wonderful soup! It's a winner for sure. Thanks for providing such great and reliable recipes!
Yana, I had a major craving for this soup today, now my mouth is watering. I am glad you guys loved it. About recipes, thank you for support, appreciate people like you. 🙂
Doing now:) But I use need ribs.
I would share with you but. . . It's too good! 😉 made the whole huge pot for just the hubby and myself and it's almost gone! Guilt-free recipes are awesome! 🙂 Thanks again!
Natasha your site is my addiction. I'm staying up at night reading your recipes. Will try this soup on Monday. thank you so much for your recipes. I learn a lot from you.
Wow Vera, I hope you got some sleep 😉 thanks for leaving such a sweet comment. People like you encourage me to keep on going 🙂
Do you use 4 quarts (16 cups) of water or 4 cups?
Yes, 4 quarts for the pot of soup.
My parents and me make a different version of kaputsnyak. With meat like usually and use sauerkraut and millet and no tomatoes in zazharka so it's white like soup. Very yummy and light.
That sounds really interesting, I have never tried anything like that. I may have to try this version of the soup. 🙂
My mother also makes kapusnyak with millet all the time and its OHH SO DELICIOUS! u should definitely try it with millet!
Ok, now I do want to try that for sure. All those Caps, lol!!! So you add millet in addition to all this ingredients?
I've never tried this before, but trying to eat healthy these days I think I might make this soup with chicken, should be good. Thanks for the inspirations!
Btw, is there any way you can allow your users to comment without having to go through the "D" stuff...? I can't tell you how many times I wrote a comment and then it tells me to register or log in with my wordpress account (for which I can never remember the password) or something else, so I just drop it and never comment... Kind of annoying... Oh and if I try to post as a guest, it tells me that it identifies me with one of the accounts so I can't post as a guess. Way to much headache for just a simple comment)))
I hope you love the soup. 🙂
Marina, thank you so much for such a great feedback about this commenting system. We are still trying to figure out the best one to use. I will send this over to out technical support and we will check into it 🙂
so what kinda meat are you using??
I used bone in pork, we got a quarter of a farm raised pig. Now I have a lot of bone in pork for soups 🙂
Can I use beef?
Yes for sure!
Oh, that looks so delicious! My mom makes something very much like it, but she uses sauerkraut and a combination of stock and tomato juice. I'll have to give your recipe a try.
This cabbage soup has so many different versions. My husband doesn't like it very sour so that is how we have it. My mom also adds sauerkraut, to me its just as good. 🙂
Just made this kapustnyak. It turned out delicious. I usually make my kapustnyak with fresh tomatoes and add ketchup and at the end I like to add parsley and dill. Serve it with sour cream. Love your recipes.
Thank you Oksana. I like the idea of adding ketchup, I bet it adds a lot of flavor to it.