Hot and Sour Cabbage Soup with ginger, scallions, sesame oil, and your choice of ground meat (or sub plant-based ground meat). Vegan-Adaptable. Rich flavorful, tangy, spicy, perfect for chili winter nights! Video. Check out our 26+ Amazing Cabbage Recipes!
It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.– John Burrough
This Cabbage Soup Recipe is inspired by Asian Flavors and is full of healthy veggies and nutrients. Made with your choice of ground meat (like ground beef, lamb, ground turkey, chicken) or substitute a plant-based vegan “meat”. Either way you’ll have a deep rich broth infused with ginger, garlic and sesame oil -deliciously tangy and spicy.
What I love about this recipe is how adaptable it is and quick and easy it is to come together (under 30 minutes). It also feels really healthy and nourishing.
Hot & sour Cabbage Soup | 45 Sec Video
Ingredients Notes
- Your choice of ground meat– beef, lamb, turkey, or vegan “meatless” ground meat ( Beyond Burger, Impossible Burger, etc)
- Cabbage ( purple is pretty, but green is fine too)
- Broth Base chicken, bone, beef or veggie broth
- Garnish with scallions and/or cilantro, a drizzle of sesame oil, sesame seeds. Serve over rice, or noodles if you want!
- See recipe care for detailed ingredients.
How to make Hot and Sour Cabbage Soup
Step One: Prep your veggies.
Chop the onion, garlic ginger.
Chop the Celery and bell pepper.
Chop half a head of cabbage.
Using purple cabbage gives the soup a nice color!
Step Two: Brown the meat (or vegan meat)
Step Three: Add the veggies
Step Four: Add the broth.
Step Five: Simmer and Season.
Add rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Spice it up with sriracha or hot chili paste to taste.
Step Six: Garnish.
Garnish with scallions or cilantro, a drizzle of sesame oil, and toasted sesame seeds.
Hope you enjoy the Asian flavors here, so rich and satisfying!
xoxo
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Hot and Sour Cabbage Soup
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 cups 1x
- Category: soup
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: asian
- Diet: Diabetic
Description
A fast and easy recipe recipe for Hot and Sour Cabbage Soup with ginger, scallions and your choice of ground meat (or sub plant-based ground meat). Vegan-Adaptable.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground meat- beef, lamb, turkey, chicken or “meatless” ground meat ( Beyond Burger, Impossible Burger, etc)
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4–8 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated, or use ginger paste
- 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
- or 1/4 teaspoon black pepper ( or sub 1/8 teaspoon white pepper)
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped ( or sub a carrot, finely diced)
- 2 stalks celery, diced (about 2 cups)
- 1/2 a large cabbage, diced, about 6 cups diced –
- 6 cups chicken, beef or veggie broth
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce or gluten-free Braggs
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 cup scallions, sliced
- sriracha or red chili paste, to taste
Garnish with scallions (and/or cilantro) sesame oil, sesame seeds. Serve over rice, or noodles if you want!
Instructions
- In a heavy bottom pot or dutch oven, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add the ground meat, onion and salt, and saute over medium-high heat, stirring, breaking the meat apart, stirring about 6 minutes.
- Lower heat to medium, add the garlic, ginger, chili flakes and pepper and saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the bell pepper, celery and cabbage, saute for just a few more minutes, then add the broth. Bring to a simmer, cover the pot, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until cabbage has softened.
- Season: Add the vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil. Give a stir and taste. It should taste deep and tangy. If not add little more soy or vinegar to taste. Add a little sriracha or garlic chili paste to taste (or add more chili flakes) and stir in the scallions.*If the broth becomes too salty add a little splash of water to dilute.
- Garnish with scallions or cilantro, sesame seeds and a drizzle of sesame oil.
Notes
If serving over rice or noodles, you’ll want the broth a little salty. 🙂
Leftovers will keep 4 days in the fridge or can be frozen.
Feel free to add other veggies!
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 187
- Sugar: 8.8 g
- Sodium: 959.3 mg
- Fat: 4.9 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 17 g
- Fiber: 3.5 g
- Protein: 19.4 g
- Cholesterol: 45.2 mg
I did not hold out great expectations for this one. But then I thought, how often is Sylvia wrong? It was delicious. I used half and half chicken and vegetable stock because that’s all I had. If I were to add anything, maybe a dash of fish sauce.
Thanks for another hit.
Thanks Geoff- yes it has surprisingly great flavor- it surprised me too and I find myself craving it. 😉
This is such a fantastic recipe. I make it over and over. Great for someone who is going on Keto. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks Irene!
Super good! Added some chili peppers and a little more Rice Vinegar because I love the sour in hot and sour. Fantastic recipe.
Perfect Justin, glad you enjoyed.
This is one of my favorite recipes. I make it with ground venison and it’s superb ever time. I had to share this story. I made it last Saturday night and it was good, but it didn’t quite taste the same as usual. Next day I went to use the leftover cabbage to make fried rice and I realized it wasn’t a cabbage at all. It was a head of iceberg lettuce. I made this soup with a head of lettuce, y’all. And it still wasn’t half bad!
Oh my gosh Christy-that is hilarious! 😂
I was quite apprehensive about this recipe, I wasn’t sure it would come together successfully.
I am however really impressed! I used beef mince and chicken stock (I would suggest using beef or veg stock). I used far more vinegar, chilli and soy than recommended to make a rich broth. I browned the meat deeply before adding the stock for depth of flavour and it turned out well.
Perfect for an Autumn evening. I will be definitely be making again.
Glad you enjoyed this and took a leap of faith!
I used jalapeño in the soup, left out the protein but added air fried crispy tofu cubes when serving & topped with toasted crushed pepper flakes and sesame seeds. Doubled the recipe and it barely fitted in my 5.5qt pot but now I got soup for days 🙂
Love your creativity here Bowie!
Love the idea of adding the tofu!
I wasn’t sure about this recipe just judging by looks but since everything else is so great here, thought I’d give it a go.
Made this soup for breakfast and man, those flavors are absolutely epic! What a fantastic kick start of the day. I used green cabbage and left out the meat, just having the beef broth for meat flavors and nutrients. Will be adding this on heavy rotation for our soup-start from now on!
Glad you gave it a go Anouk!
I’ve made this recipe twice (following the recipe pretty closely) and both my husband and I loved it, even though he thought he didn’t particularly like cabbage. I used two Beyond Burger patties, which is only 8 ounces but plenty of “meat.” The Beyond Burger adds a sort of cinnamon flavor that is really nice.
I’ll have to try that! That sounds good Amy!
Very tasty! Omitted all meat and used beef broth. Sooo good and healthy!
Awesome Laurie!
Delicious and quick! Very pleased. This will go into regular rotation. The result looked just like the photo!
Great to hear Lori!
I love your recipes & food photog, often sharing online. But this one makes a huge quantity (we’re just 2) & after a few bowls, our bodies did not enjoy all the bulk, so I threw a huge amount of it away. Taste was just ok, and my soup turned an ugly dull pink from the red cabbage. That made it very unappealing. Nothing like your photo.
In this recipe, the concept was high, outcome not so much.
Oh No! Sorry about that Melissa. What meat and broth did you use? Just curious…
Sylvia, you have done it again, I make so many of your recipes it’s crazy. I made this with impossible and added carrots because they’re yummy and colorful, added angel hair rice noodles. My sister ate 2 huge bowls and sent the recipe to all her friends, I guess she really liked it😁. Thanks again
Awesome Julia- glad the recipes are working for you!
Epic recipe. Will be making this often. Thank you!
Thanks Maria- glad you liked it!
I am definitely saving this recipe! I didn’t alter the recipe and used ground beef and beef stock.
Soooo delicious!!
Great to hear Marley-yes, flavorful and easy!
Made this last night and it was excellent! I used ground beef and beef stock. I recommend not salting the meat at the start if, like me, you use store bought stock. The salt in this, plus from soya/tamari sauce (even low sodium) plus sriracha or sambel oelek for more heat was the right amount of salty! Another teaspoon of salt would have ruined it for me. Flavours are unique, delicious, and this was super easy to make. Lots of veggies too. Thank you Sylvia!
Thanks Kathryn- appreciate the feed back!
Very good. I used 1/2 inch cubed chicken breast and an inch of serrano chili instead of the siracha. Upped the sesame oil a little because we like that a lot. Skipped the bell peppers because I don’t like them! 4 people 16+ snarfled it all down right quick…
Nice Marijke! Love how you adapted!
What a perfect meal for a cold winter night! I just finished enjoying this delicious soup and feel warmed, full and content. I made the soup with ground turkey and garnished with cilantro and sesame seeds. I really appreciate your recipes and instructions, Sylvia. Always a joy to make, eat — and share. My friends and neighbors thank you also Sylvia as I regularly share samples 🙂 You have such a gift for flavors!
Thanks so much Deb! Glad you enjoyed this!
Soooo delicious! I made the recipe exactly as listed except I did use the beyond meats ground beef. I just love all of your recipes.
My husband typically does not like soup or stew type meals (of course I love them) but he couldn’t get enough of this one. I ate mine like a soup and he had his over rice.
Very flavourful 🙂
Great to hear Gen- and glad you liked the Beyond Beef!
Soooo good! Used ground beef and expanded it to a whole head of red cabbage, used broccoli instead of celery—just using what was in the fridge. Added extra ginger, garlic and chicken broth and seasonings – all to taste.
Can’t get over the flavor! Looking forward to leftovers for lunches this week!
Thanks for another great recipe Sylvia! Happy New Year!
I’m so happy you liked this Tad! Happy New year to you and Kristin and hope your holidays were wonderful!
Delicious, even though we had no peppers, so subbed carrots. For meat, we used leftover roast chicken, added at the end. Amazing amount of flavor given how uncomplicated the seasoning listed is. Will make this frequently.
So happy you enjoyed this Sue! Love the use of leftover chicken- great idea!
Hi Sylvia, great soup very flavorful . I did not change or add anything. This was really good. I can’t stop eating it. Love your recipe. Monique
Thanks Monique! Glad you liked this! I like this one too. What type of meat did you use?
I have used the ground beef
Thanks Monique! Appreciate you sharing!
My CSA loaded us up with cabbage in the fall and this recipe was a godsend helping me to clean out the fridge. I used ground turkey and went to town with the garnishes. 😋
Awesome Vernon! Glad you liked this one!
Wow! This soup has everything I’ve been looking for in a new and interesting soup! I’ve been looking for a way to eat more cabbage and this definitely hits the interesting category.
The only thing I’d change is the presentation of the meat in the soup. I’m not fond of the ground meat all loose and tiny. I’m heading back to the drawing board to either create little meatballs or perhaps pork sausage cut into bite size pieces.
You’re recipes are always fabulous. Thank you for sharing them!
thanks Jan!
I haven’t made this yet, and it bugs me when people comment when they haven’t made the food. Yet here I am commenting. THANK YOU SYLVIA!!!! for creating a recipe that makes me excited about cooking it when I’m sick of cooking and taking care of folks on break. I can’t wait to make this. Yum, yum, yum!
Awesome and thanks!
Looks wonderful!!!
What about baked tempeh ‘crumbs” in place of meat? Or better without? If no rice vinegar would you use white vinegar or what about pickle juice???? Or is that just too much? Thank you for all!!!!
I love that idea Joyce! And yes, white vinegar (maybe go a bit less) or pickle juice- fun idea!