This Russian Beef and Cabbage Soup Recipe is comfort food at its best. Seasoned beef chunks with fresh cabbage, potatoes, onions, and carrots. The soup is hearty and filling and is so satisfying on a cool day.
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How to Make Beef and Cabbage Soup:
Season meat for soup. Slice garlic into thin slices. Break up bay leaf. Cube meat into bite-sized pieces.
Combine meat, garlic, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Mix well and refrigerate at least one day or up to 5 days.
Bring water to a boil. Rinse seasoned meat (just to get the bay leaf and garlic off). Add the meat to boiling water and cook 35 – 40 minutes on medium/high heat until meat is tender.
Sauté the vegetables. Chop the onion finely. Grate carrot.
Sauté onion with 2 tsp oil until onion is tender, 4-5 minutes. Add grated carrots and 3 tsp oil. sauté until carrots are tender, 4-5 minutes.
Remove skin from tomatoes, chop finely and add to pan, stir. Add the ketchup and sour cream, mix and allow to simmer about a minute. Remove from heat.
Cube potatoes and add to a bowl, pour cold water over potatoes until ready to use.
Shred cabbage and set aside.
Once meat is tender, drain water from the potatoes and add to the pot with boiling meat. Season water with 2 tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper. Cook 10 minutes on med/high heat, in a soft boil.
Add the cabbage to the pot. Cook another 10-15 minutes, until potatoes are cooked and tender.
Add the sautéed vegetable to the pot. Mix everything and turn down heat to a simmer for about 5 minutes. Add fresh herbs and remove from heat.
This cabbage soup is rather popular in the Russian and Ukrainian kitchen. Though everyone has their own version of the soup, I love this recipe most. The seasoning penetrates deep into the meat and it becomes so tender and flavorful when cooked. The added potatoes with carrots and vegetables make it a wonderful hearty soup.
Enjoy the cabbage soup with a dollop of sour cream.
Try these other great soup recipes; Creamy Chicken Soup, Meatball Russian Soup, Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Tools used to make this soup; ladle, grater, skillet, stockpot.
Beef Cabbage Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb beef (sirloin, stew or your fav), cut into bite-sized pieces
Soup-
- 14 cups water
- 4-6 med/large potatoes, cubed
- 1/2 medium white cabbage, shredded
- 2 carrots, shredded
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 5 tsp olive or canola oil, divided
- 2 fresh medium tomatoes, chopped
- 1 Tbsp ketchup
- 1 Tbsp sour cream
- 1 garlic clove, minced minced
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 pepper
- fresh herbs, any
- serve with sour cream
Instructions
Seasoning the Meat-
- Cube meat into bite-size pieces. Season with the salt and pepper. Slice garlic and add to meat. Break up a bay leaf, add to meat. Mix everything and refrigerate for at least one day (up to 5 days).
- Bring water to a boil. Rinse seasoned meat (just to get the bay leaf and garlic off). Add the meat to boiling water and boil for 35-40 minutes on medium/high heat until meat is tender.
- Chop onion finely. Shred carrot.
- Saute onion with 2 tsp oil until onion is soft (about 5 minutes). Add shredded carrots and 3 tsp oil, saute until carrots are soft (about 6 minutes).
- Remove skin from tomatoes, chop and add to vegetables, mix. Add the ketchup and sour cream, mix and turn off heat. Let it simmer about a minute and remove from heat. Set aside.
- Cube potatoes and add to bowl, pour cold water over potatoes until ready to use.
- Shred cabbage, set aside.
- Once meat is tender, drain the potatoes and add to the meat. Add the 2 tsp salt, 1/4 pepper. Cook 10 minutes on med/high heat.
- Add the cabbage to the pot. Cook another 10-15 minutes (until potatoes are cooked). Add the sauteed vegetable from pan, add fresh herbs. Allow soup to cook another 2-3 minutes.
- Enjoy with sour cream.
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