This popular and easy Italian Sausage and Cabbage soup recipe is a delicious meal-in-a-bowl that only has 10 minutes of prep time and freezes great for future meals!
This sausage and cabbage soup was born out of convenience and the onset of chilly weather!
This past weekend, we had pretty much no groceries left in the house except for a head of cabbage, some carrots, and a couple of packages of Italian Sausage in the freezer. Since I always have garlic, onions, and canned tomatoes of some sort in my pantry, I am not counting those.
I had the idea to make this soup a while ago but I always imagined fresh parsley as part of the equation. When I realized that all I had left in my house were these ingredients (except for the parsley!), I decided to go for it anyway.
This is a hearty winter soup, loaded with vegetables and sausage in every bite. Mild in flavor but with a nice balance from the tomatoes, this will please everyone in the family and is kid-approved!
Since I prefer a bit of heat, I like to sprinkle some crushed red pepper flakes on mine but that is totally optional. If everyone you are serving likes a bit of heat, I highly recommend using spicy Italian sausage in place of the mild sausage!
Sausage and Cabbage Soup Ingredients:
- Mild Italian Sausage
- Olive Oil
- Yellow Onion
- Garlic
- Carrots
- Green Cabbage
- Spices (Salt, Pepper, Crushed Red Pepper Flakes)
- Canned Unsalted Diced Tomatoes
- Chicken Stock or Broth
Recipe Tips:
- What is Bulk Sausage? Bulk sausage is another way of saying “loose sausage” or sausage outside of casings. If you can only find Italian sausage in casings, make sure that it is uncooked. Use a paring knife to slice a slit down the length of the uncooked sausage, remove the casings and crumble into a bowl. On that note, whatever type of sausage you buy, make sure it is gluten-free, MSG-free, and free of anything artificial.
- To save time, buy already shredded green cabbage!
- You can substitute red cabbage but just know that the color of the soup will be purple.
- Substitute Spicy or Hot Italian Sausage for a kick and omit the optional crushed red pepper flakes.
- If you want to use Italian seasoned Chicken or Turkey Sausage, I suggest adding an additional Tablespoon of olive oil and using it for sauteeing the Chicken Sausage.
- This sausage and cabbage soup freezes and reheats GREAT.
- To reheat: place defrosted OR frozen soup in a pot, cover, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until warmed through.
More Gluten-Free Cabbage Recipes:
Roasted Vegetable Soup with Cabbage
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating below!
This popular and easy Italian Sausage and Cabbage soup recipe is a delicious meal-in-a-bowl that only has 10 minutes of prep time and freezes great for future meals!
- 1.5 pounds bulk mild Italian sausage crumbled
- 1.5 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion halved and thinly sliced
- 6 medium garlic cloves finely chopped
- 4 medium carrots peeled and cut into 1/4" rounds
- 2 pounds green cabbage core removed and shredded
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt plus a few pinches for cooking
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes unsalted
- 6 cups chicken stock or broth
- crushed red pepper flakes for serving optional
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Crumble sausage into a bowl and set aside.
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Peel, halve, and thinly slice onion. Finely chop garlic. Peel carrots and cut into 1/4" rounds.
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Remove core from cabbage and shred. I used the food processor with the shredding blade inserted. Alternately, you could cut the cabbage into very thin slices.
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Heat a large soup pot over medium heat. Once hot, add crumbled sausage. Cook, stirring occasionally, mostly to break up the sausage with a wooden spoon, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until most of the pink is gone.
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Remove sausage from pot and set aside.
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Keep the pot over medium heat and add olive oil. Once hot, toss in sliced onions along with a pinch of kosher salt and a couple turns of freshly ground pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 6 to 8 minutes, until onions are soft.
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Add in garlic and carrots, stir continuously for 1 minute until garlic is fragrant.
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Raise heat to medium-high and add in cabbage along with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. Toss to combine and continue cooking for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until cabbage begins to wilt and release some moisture.
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Add cooked sausage back in along with diced tomatoes and broth. Bring to a boil.
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Once boiling, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, remove from heat and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve with a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes and Enjoy!
- What is Bulk Sausage? Bulk sausage is another way of saying "loose sausage" or sausage outside of casings. If you can only find Italian sausage in casings, make sure that it is uncooked. Use a paring knife to slice a slit down the length of the uncooked sausage, remove the casings and crumble into a bowl. On that note, whatever type of sausage you buy, make sure it is gluten-free, MSG-free, and free of anything artificial.
- To save time, buy already shredded green cabbage!
- You can substitute red cabbage but just know that the color of the soup will be purple.
- Substitute Spicy or Hot Italian Sausage for a kick and omit the optional crushed red pepper flakes.
- If you want to use Italian seasoned Chicken or Turkey Sausage, I suggest adding an additional Tablespoon of olive oil and using it for sauteeing the Chicken Sausage.
- This sausage and cabbage soup freezes and reheats GREAT.
- To reheat: place defrosted OR frozen soup in a pot, cover, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until warmed through.
Did you make this recipe? Tag @EverydayMaven on Instagram with the hashtag #EveryDayMaven and please give a star rating below.
UPDATE NOTES: This sausage and cabbage soup recipe was originally published in February 2014 and was most recently updated in September 2024.
Cynthia says
Two questions– I have Jimmy Dean pork sausage (no casing) defrosted. Think that’ll work?
Also, does this freeze well? We can never get through a whole pot of soup, as hard as I try 🙂
EverydayMaven says
It should work and yes, it freezes GREAT!
Sandy says
My adult son came down with a terrible cold and I was going to make chicken soup for him. I had this in the freezer so I defrosted it for myself. He claims to hate cabbage but heated some of this up for himself and declared, “This stuff is a treasure.” He claims the spiciness (when I made it all I had was hot Italian sausage so I used that) and soup quality helped him become unstuffed better than anything. Forget the chicken soup, I have to go get another head of cabbage. Thank you so much. With my son loving this cabbage soup and my being already hooked, this will become a healthy soup for both of us. As a type 2 diabetic, it’s the bomb.
EverydayMaven says
Hi Sandy! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and let me know how much you guys are both enjoying the soup! Tell your son I’m glad he is feeling better 🙂
Gina E. says
I liked but didn’t love this soup at first. But tonight I added some chopped baby spinach and a splash of lemon juice, and it was fantastic! Next time I’ll leave the sausage in a bit bigger pieces, but it’s definitely a keeper. Delicious, healthy and filling. Thank you so much!
Nick T says
I made a nice big pot of this today, with a few changes. I cooked the onions and carrots at the same time, along with some celery. While I was waiting for it to cook down I added some chopped mushrooms I had lying around. I think they made the base even better. Also I’m a garlic lover, so as usual, I used extra.
For broth, I used some homemade veggie broth I had in the freezer, but I must’ve used a little too many greens in the last batch, as I discovered that my broth had made the soup slightly bitter. To counteract that, I added a teaspoon of honey, a few dashes of paprika, and a little chicken boullion for extra salt. Problem solved – soup turned out delicious.
Thanks for a great recipe.
EverydayMaven says
Hi Nick! So glad the soup was delicious with the modifications 🙂
Daniel says
Absolutely LOVE this recipe. Made it last week. Making it again this week. The only modification I made was to add cayenne pepper directly to the soup and also added some caraway seed when I added the carrots onions and garlic.
Easy, healthy, filling, delicious. What more could you want.
EverydayMaven says
Hi Daniel – so glad you are enjoying this soup!! Thanks for taking the time to let me know 🙂
Vedrana says
Made it today with few little changes. Wonderful! Thank you so much! 🙂
EverydayMaven says
You’re welcome Vedrana! 🙂
chloe says
This soup has become one of my go to recipes. Tonight we were leaving for vacation so I threw in some extras to clean out the produce drawer – a few red peppers and a pack of mushrooms. Turned out super tasty as usual! So simple and healthy but so delicious and satisfying. Thanks!
EverydayMaven says
Love the idea of adding red peppers and mushrooms Chloe! 🙂
Parwald says
i just turned off the burner after making a double-batch of this soup (with my own homemade chicken broth), and it is delicious. I know my kids will love it, too. They love cabbage and sausage. Thank you for sharing. Next time, though, I’m going to try throwing it all in the crockpot.
EverydayMaven says
Let me know how it works out in the slow cooker Parwald! So glad you like it 🙂