Name: Old fashioned vegetable soup with cabbage
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 litre water (or more if needed); 1/2 medium white cabbage (sliced); 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil; 1 medium onion (chopped up); 2 medium carrots (sliced); 1-2 garlic cloves; 1 potato (peeled and diced into 1 cm cubes); 1 vegetable stock cube; 1 teaspoon caraway seeds (less or more to taste); salt and ground pepper (to season); 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (or other leafy herbs)

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Easy vegetable soup with cabbage and a few basic ingredients (Vegetarian). Serve on it’s own or with one of my crusty homemade breads or seeded crispbread recipes and a bit of freshly made herb butter.

You can easily use frozen potatoes for this recipe or even use potato flour to replace some of the potatoes in the soup. This makes the recipe a very budget-friendly one.

This old fashioned vegetable soup with cabbage recipe is gluten-free, dairy free and suitable for vegans and vegetarians.

What makes this recipe work

My favourite ingredients in this recipe are caraway seeds. These go amazingly well with the potatoes and cabbage and make the whole combination of vegetables less bland. If you use a good quality sea salt, the flavour will be even better.

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Main Ingredients & Possible Substitutions

white cabbage – or red one
onion – or spring onions (scallions) added just before serving
carrots
garlic – or garlic powder (or leave out if you find garlic too strong as a flavour)
potato – any kind of potatoes are fine to use
vegetable soup stock cube
caraway seeds – or leave them out if you don’t have any
salt and ground pepper to season
fresh thyme leaves or other leafy herbs – dried herbs are fine too

How to make vegetable soup with cabbage

In a large saucepan or a stock pot heat the oil over medium-high hob.

Add the chopped-up onion, sliced carrots garlic and cook until softened. This will take about 5 minutes.

Add water and the vegetable stock cube and stir until the cube is dissolved.

Add the potato cubes, and caraway seeds and season with salt and pepper.

Stir in chopped-up cabbage and bring to boil.

Once the soup is boiling, reduce it to a simmer, cover with a lid and simmer for another 20 minutes or until the potatoes are softer and done.

What can I add to vegetable soup to make it taste better?

There are lots of ingredients that you can add to your vegetable soup that will make it extra flavoursome. Here are just a few suggestions:

Different fresh herbs like thyme, basil, dill, oregano or marjoram
Seasoning mix spices, such as my homemade version of everyday seasoning mix
Cheese – any kind of hard cheese, such as cheedar, gouda, parmesan etc.
Smoked paprika powder
Extra onion or garlic powder
Spicey chilli powder or mild chilli powder if you like

Bread recipes to serve with vegetable soup

This old fashioned vegetable soup with cabbage is perfect as it is, but you can also serve it with sprinkle of fresh thyme or other leafy herbs and a slice of crusty bread with homemade herb butter or soft dairy free cheese.

Here are my favorite homemade breads that are just perfect for serving with this vegetable soup recipe:

Diet variations

I wanted to make this soup suitable for vegetarians and vegans, because I know most recipes add chicken or beef stock. I’ve used vegetables stock, but if you don’t have one you can always use more herbs.

To make this soup richer, you can add a dash of cream or butter in (plant based if you want to keep the soup suitable for vegan and vegetarian diets).

Can I scale up or down this recipe?

Yes, you can easily make 1/2 of this recipe, just divide all the ingredients by half. It won’t matter too much, though it you don’t get it right exactly, just use the ingredients you have at hand in the quantity you want to use.

Doubling up the recipe is a great idea if you want to make more and freeze some for later. It’s ideal if you want to portion your soup into 1-2 portion sizes and then take them out later.

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Storage and how to keep vegetable soup

This soup keeps well and you can keep it up to 3 days in the fridge.

If you’ve made too much or made extra to keep for later, you can freeze this soup for up to 3 -6 months. I usually divide the soup into one portions and freeze them separately.

I use freezable soup plastic tubs but a strong plastic sandwich bag would work too. This way you won’t waste any soup by making too much or defrosting too much.

Can this recipe be made in advance?

Yes, you can make this soup for up to 1- 2 days in advance, but if you want to make the soup even more in advance, I’d recommend to freeze it.

Can I freeze vegetable soup?

Yes, similarly like potato soup you can freeze vegetable soup easily. Leave the soup to cool down completely, then divide into smaller containers to make up approximately 1 or 2 portions (or whatever portion size you need for your family), close with a suitable lid and freeze.

The Vegetable & Cabbage soup should be fine for about 3-4 months in the freezer. When you are ready to eat your soup, take it out the night before and defrost in the fridge or use a de-frost program in your microwave.

You could also defrost it and heat it up at the same time on the hob. Pour boiling water into a saucepan, dip the frozen soup container in and leave for few minutes.

Once the outer layer of your soup warms up, you should be able to tip the whole content into an empty saucepan. Place on a very low heat initially and when defrosted completely add more heat to warm the soup through.

How to re-heat vegetable soup with cabbage

To reheat your vegetable soup simply warm it up on the hob or in a microwave.

To use the hob, spoon or pour the soup into a suitable saucepan, place on a low heat and let to warm up for few minutes until the soup is nice and hot. Stir occasionally to proven the soup from burning and bubbling over. You don’t need to boil the soup, as it’s already prepared, it just needs to be warm enough for you to eat.

To us the microwave, place the soup into individual soup bowls or plates and microwave for 1-2 minutes on full power (mine microwave is 800 V). Stir, check and put back if you want the soup to be warmer.