Cabbage & Sausage Soup (Ninja Foodi or Instant Pot)

This Cabbage Soup recipe is so easy to throw together, tastes amazing, and is fully customizable to what vegetables you have on hand. It's a hearty soup that's healthy and full of flavor.

My favorite way to make it is using my Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker, but it can be made in a slow cooker, on the stove in a large soup pot, or even in a dutch oven in the oven.

I remember being on the cabbage soup diet years and years ago. I would make a batch of soup once a week and eat it for every meal, or so it seemed. That got boring quick. However, this Cabbage and Sausage Soup is far from boring! It's delicious and so simple to make.

Frequently Asked Questions

Other Pressure Cooker Soup Recipes

One of my favorite things to make in a pressure cooker is soups! Not only does it save time, it's hands-off and the soups have so much flavor!

I used to spend days making soups. Not anymore! Here are some of my favorites for you to enjoy.

Ingredients & Substitutions

Cabbage

I use regular green cabbage in my soup, but you can use any kind of cabbage that you like. Red cabbage or savoy cabbage would be great substitutions in this soup. Or, you can use a combination of different types of cabbage.

You could also use a different hearty green like Kale in place of the cabbage and the cook time would be the same.

If you want to use a faster cooking green, like spinach, I would stir it in at the end and the heat from the soup will wilt and cook it.

Sausage

I used brats that were uncooked and in their casing in this recipe, but there are so many different kinds of sausage that you can use. Already cooked smoked sausage, polish sausage, spicy/sweet/ mild Italian sausage, or even ground sausage are great choices. Use the type of sausage that you like. Uncooked sausage will impart more seasonings into the cabbage soup, so you may need to increase your seasonings if you are using a cooked sausage.

You can also use turkey sausage or a vegan sausage. Literally any sausage will work or you can skip the sausage and double up on the seasonings and make the cabbage soup with all vegetables.

You could add in raw cubes of seasoned chicken and, as long as they aren't too big, the cooking times won't change no matter what cooking method you use. Feel free to add more than one type of meat, as well.

You could easily turn this into a beef & cabbage stew by using your favorite beef stew recipe and adding the cabbage in place of or in addition to potatoes. If you wanted to keep it keto and have all the beefy flavor of a great beef stew, try using this keto gravy technique to thicken your stew.

You could also turn it into a cabbage roll soup by adding ground beef and rice. Here is a great recipe for cabbage rolls and I would use these ingredients, but simply not make the cabbage rolls. Instead, chop the cabbage and add everything into the pot and pressure cook for about 3-5 minutes. Cabbage Roll Recipe Link

Or skip the meat and make a delicious vegetable soup instead. Just remember, the sausage adds flavor so you definitely want to increase your seasonings.

Liquids & Seasonings

I chose to use chicken broth as my liquid because I think the flavors pair the best with sausage, but you can use vegetable stock, beef broth or stock, or even water, if you prefer. If you want your soup to have more liquid, then increase the broth or chicken stock to 6 cups and for less liquid, decrease it to 3 cups.

The seasonings I used are very simple. Salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and basil. I usually use bay leaves, but simply forgot. Feel free to add in one bay leaf, if desired, and remove it after cooking.

You could also add in some Italian seasoning, ¼-½ teaspoon caraway seeds (you only need a small amount). Fennel seeds would also go great in this hearty sausage soup. If you like things spicy, add in some red pepper flakes!

Other Vegetables & Variations

I used fire roasted tomatoes, celery, onion, carrots, and some frozen red peppers in my soup, but you can add or omit anything you like.

* To freeze red peppers, simply cut them up and place in freezer containers or vacuum sealed bags and add them to soups and sauces from frozen. It's a great way to easily preserve red peppers that you can't use before they go bad. No need to blanche them!

To make a keto cabbage soup, you might want to skip the onion and carrots and add in some more keto friendly vegetables.

When to add them really depends on the vegetable and its cook time. It's a short PC time, so frozen string beans would be fine to add in before pressure cooking, but I would wait and add in broccoli florets until after the PC time and then use sear/sauté to simmer the soup until they are cooked through.

You can easily add in potatoes, just cube them in about 1" pieces and they will cook in the 2-minute PC time. You may want to add another cup of broth or stock if adding potatoes because they will absorb some liquid.

Same with rice. You can certainly add in rice, but make sure to add in an equal amount of extra liquid for it to absorb. So, if you want to add in ½ cup of rice, add in an extra ½ cup of liquid.

Stovetop Cabbage & Sausage Soup

Heat the butter or oil in a large stockpot or large soup pot on the stove over medium high heat.

When the butter begins to melt, add in the sliced sausage and sauté for a few minutes to begin browning the sausage. Add in the chopped cabbage and sauté over high heat for about 5-10 minutes, tossing the cabbage around to get some browning.

Add the remaining ingredients and bring the contents to a boil, stir well and reduce to low heat. Simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the cabbage is cooked to your desired texture and the sausage is cooked through.

*Have an extra cup of chicken broth handy in case you need to add it to the soup. There will be some evaporation during the cooking process and depending on how much broth you want, you may need to add another ½-1 cup.

Taste the broth when the soup has finished simmer and adjust the seasonings as needed.

Serve and enjoy.

How to Make Cabbage & Sausage Soup

Doubling the Recipe Instructions

The pictures below are when I made a double batch of soup, so the pot looks much fuller than it will if you only make a half of a batch.

If you want to double the recipe like I did in the video, simply double the ingredients and increase the sauté time to 10 minutes when you are browning the sausage and cabbage so the cabbage wilts enough to fit the remaining ingredients.

Pressure Cook for 1 minute (zero minutes is fine, as well) and allow the pot to naturally release for 5 minutes, then release the remaining pressure.

Prep

You can either prep all the ingredients before you start cooking or you can prep the sausage and cabbage and then prep the other ingredients while they are sautéing.

If you are using brats or another sausage with a casing and plan to leave the casings on, simply cut them into bite size pieces. You can also remove the casings, if you prefer, and cut them into bite size pieces.

Cut the cabbage into chunks about 2" big.

Cut the onion into large dice about 1-2"

Cut the celery and onion into large pieces about 1" or so.

Measure out the spices and liquids.

Cut the frozen red peppers (or fresh) if you want to add them to your soup.

Sauté & Deglaze

Turn the Ninja Foodi or Instant Pot on high sear/sauté and add the butter to the pot. When the butter starts to melt, add in the sausage pieces and sauté them for a few minutes to start browning them.

Add in the cabbage and sauté on high for 5 minutes. Moving around the cabbage a few times to get some browning on it.

Add in the diced onion, carrots, celery, and seasonings and stir.

Add in the chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pot to make sure anything that may have stuck on the bottom is released.

Pressure Cooking

Putthe diced tomatoes with the their juice and the red peppers on top. Put the pressure lid on, turning the valve to seal. Cook on high pressure for 2 minutes.

When the time is up, allow the pot to naturally release for 10 minutes and then release the remaining pressure.

Stir and taste for seasonings. Add more if needed.

Serve & Enjoy! It's even better the second day!