Recipe: Crock-Pot Cabbage-Sauerkraut Soup for Cabbage Soup Diet

It’s sad to state, but my cookbook collection is short on good, old-fashioned cabbage soup recipes. I have one in my old Mennonite ‘More With Less’ cookbook, and there is a sauerkraut soup recipe from Poland in another. (Consulting the soup section of my 1929 German-language cookbook, it seems they recommend Maggi seasoning not only in cabbage soup but in nearly every other kind of soup.)

So I made this recipe in my Crock-Pot. It came out quite good and it was very filling. And with the sauerkraut in it, it has a different flavor. Sauerkraut like other fermented foods (kimchee) is said to be very good for you. So I’m trying out my own keto version of the Cabbage Soup Diet— the Cabbage Soup Lifestyle?  Anyway, it’s a change of pace, and cabbage is a cheap food but this soup is way better for you then those nasty, high-carb ramen noodles.

Cabbage-Sauerkraut Soup in a Crock-Pot

2 medium onions, chopped

4 cups cabbage, chopped

heat 2-3 Tablespoons butter or bacon grease in skillet or wok. Stir-fry onions and cabbage until soft. Put in Crock-Pot (3 quart or larger.) Add to Crock-Pot:

1 cup (8 oz can) sauerkraut

5 cups water/bone broth/regular broth 

    add at least 1 cup of bone broth to water mix to flavor cabbage. Half-water, half bone broth is good mix.

1/2 teaspoon Mrs Dash seasoning (or Spike)

1 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt or sea salt

1 Tablespoon caraway seed

Cook for 6-8 hours on low, then serve. Note: I usually put my Crock-Pot on high for the first 1/2 hour and then lower it, but you probably don’t have to do that. I put my Cabbage-Sauerkraut Soup in a Ball canning jar for storage in the fridge. Servings are 1 cup each. I don’t know the carb count exactly, but the bone broth has minimal carbs and you are allowed 1 cup of cabbage, among other vegetables, on Atkins Induction for your salad. So even on Induction you can have your soup as a salad replacement for up to 2 meals. 

Recipe variations:

If you don’t care for sauerkraut, replace it with another cup of cabbage.  If you prefer kimchee to sauerkraut, replace the sauerkraut in the recipe with kimchee. You can use part regular cabbage and part red cabbage, depending on what you have. You might also add 1/2 to 1 lb. of some kind of meat to the soup, in case you plan to eat soup as a meal. (I didn’t, I had it with some ham and a couple of eggs over easy. I should have made it with a smaller piece of ham and only one egg because the soup is very filling.) You can also add Maggi liquid seasoning at the table to this soup.

This recipe is meant for use in the Cabbage Soup Diet, keto variation, as described in a previous blog article: https://nissaketofasting.blogspot.com/2018/10/will-cabbage-soup-diet-make-you-gain.html

Coming attractions: When I finish this batch of cabbage soup, I have plans for creating a very different cabbage soup recipe for a change-of-pace.

Below is a link for the actual kind of Crock-Pot I used for this recipe. If you don't own a Crock-Pot, you really need one--- they are so useful, even for people who don't normally cook much.