Bowl – check, spoon – check, total comfort food that is going to make your tummy happy – check! This incredibly hearty, satisfying, and oh-so-delicious vegan, oil free Cabbage Potato Bean Soup is packed with aromatic spices, nutritious veggies, and bursting with autumn vibes. Hearty potatoes, onions, cabbage, carrots, and beans with a light and flavorful broth simmer together creating a deeply satisfying soup the whole family will love. Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, and no highly processed ingredients.
Hi there, Robin here!
Back in the day, typical cold-weather Ohio farm fare consisted of hearty soups and stews. We could always count on Mom making huge steaming pots of ham, cabbage and potatoes on those days. We would tear into those soups and stews with gusto. I remember eating stew from ceramic brownstone bowls like it was yesterday. Times flies!
Chopping Wood in the Winter
In the winter, my dad chopped a lot of wood because we primarily heated our home with a pot belly stove. I’ve talked a lot about this in past posts, so I will spare you. LOL My brother, sister, and I would often help my dad stack the wood in long neat lines.
At the end of the day, we would come in from the cold with bright rosy cheeks, chilled fingers, and cold numb toes. Mom would have a big bowl of stew ready for us, which we often ate right there by the pot belly stove to warm up.
Over the years, I have made stews exactly like this for my family. There was no wood chopping involved, but there were plenty of cold winter days.
Miso Magic
I started tinkering around with this recipe last Fall and recently perfected it by adding miso. Yes, we do love our miso. It is the perfect balancer when not using oil. Monkey and I recently attended a seminar where Dr. Greger spoke and I was so happy to hear him tell everyone how much he enjoyed miso. He uses miso in tons of his recipes. I was like “yessssssssssss” Afirmation! LOL
Miso is definitely one of those magical ingredients that really can help pull an oil-free recipe together. You certainly do not have to use it with this recipe. It works perfectly fine without it, but miso just kinda “blends” the flavors so nicely. We absolutely love it. You will see it in a lot of our recipes too, just like Dr. Greger does!
Miso Miso Miso, where are you?
Our local Earth Fare carries miso, but I recently went to the store and there was no… *gasp*… miso. I looked everywhere. The place where it always sits was now taken over by a whole line of vegan cheese products, which unfortunately, were not WFPB complaint. Nevertheless, I nearly flipped out.
Ohhhh the Irony . . .
I grabbed a nearby stock person and was drilling him about why they no longer carried miso. What happened? Why was something new in its place, and it sure as heck wasn’t miso? Were they planning to keep it stocked? Find the store manager, major crisis! LOL I was probably wayyyy too dramatic.
Poor Mike (Earth Fare refrigerator section stock person), I actually then had a full blown conversation on the benefits of miso and why they needed to continue to carry it. Mike was super nice, but had no answers. He was super polite and wrote down my concerns, which he promised to present them to his manager. I left, but, I wasn’t planning to wait to see if they were going to carry it again or not.
What is so ironic is that we have been using miso for quite some time, and I have been placing recipe notes on the beauty of miso and what to do if your local store does not carry it. Here’s a direct quote from me on previous recipe notes:
“It has a long refrigerator shelf life because it is fermented. So, if you can’t find it locally, we suggest that when you are taking any trips out of town, find a store that carries it, take a small ice chest and stock up.”
Soooo guess what I had to do, I had to drive to Mustard Seed (health food store in another town), take a cooler and stock up. I totally wiped out Mustard Seed’s miso supply. I wasn’t taking any chances! I loaded up. Monkey thought I was a little over the top, but hey a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do, ya know? They all have 2020 expiration dates, so I am good.
Visit to Earth Fare
I visit Earth Fare like every other day, well sometimes, like every day. It is the tragedy of being a food blogger. You go through A LOT of ingredients because you are constantly testing recipes, and you always want your ingredients to be super fresh.
So, the next time, I visited Earth Fare, my Earth Fare stock buddy, Mike, had not let me down. There was a HUGE supply of miso! Yes, I did buy some, even though I didn’t need any, but I thought if Mike and his manager went through the trouble of making me happy, then the least I can do is buy some right? They even rearranged the shelves so my miso reclaimed its previous spot. Move over vegan cheese – I can’t eat you anyway because you are full of oil and preservatives.
Crisis averted! I am a happy camper once again! Thank you Earth Fare! Loyal customer right here! If I could only get them to stock soy curls, now that would be amazing!
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Hi! Ameera here.
Ohhhh my goodness, Mom and her miso. Mom and I had to drive Mustard Seed in Akron because Mom needed her miso fix. She’s obsessed. LOL I admit, I love the beauty of miso and what it does for WFPB recipes because we don’t use oil. The flavor is beautiful.
Cabbage and Potato Stew
This Cabbage Potato Bean Soup is super-duper tasty. Dad totally wolfed it down. This soup in the previous non-Vegan, non-WFPB version was always one of his absolute favorites. He said he didn’t miss the ham at all. He loved it, and ate bowl after bowl.
It is relatively inexpensive and very satisfying. We hope you give it a try!
We would love to know if you love it as much as we do!
Products Used:
- 8-quart ceramic/enamel lined Dutch oven or similar large stock pot
Cabbage Potato Bean Soup
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4-5 Servings 1x
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
Description
Bowl – check, spoon – check, total comfort food that is going to make your tummy happy – check! This incredibly hearty, satisfying, and oh-so-delicious vegan, oil free Cabbage Potato Bean Soup is packed with aromatic spices, nutritious veggies, and bursting with autumn vibes. Hearty potatoes, onions, cabbage, carrots, and beans with a light and flavorful broth simmer together creating deeply satisfying soup the whole family will love. Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, and no highly processed ingredients.
Ingredients
- 6 large white potatoes, peeled, cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
- 1 medium yellow onion, small dice
- 2 celery ribs, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
- ½ small green cabbage, cut into thin strips
- 2 cups vegetable broth *
- 4 cups water (or broth)
- 1/3 cup tomato sauce
- 1 Tablespoon white miso *
- 1 Tablespoon ume plum vinegar *
- 1 – [ 15 oz. can ] cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 1/2 teaspoons liquid smoke (+/- to taste) – (optional) *
Spice/Herb Ingredients:
- 2 Tablespoons dried minced onions
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon dried crushed fennel
- 2 teaspoons sea salt (+/- ) *
- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon black pepper to taste
- Pinch red pepper flake
Optional Toppings:
- Red pepper flakes
- Italian microgreens
Instructions
- Place the Spice/Herb Ingredients into a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
- In a large ceramic/enamel lined deep skillet, Dutch oven/pot or similarly large stockpot, add the onion, celery, and carrots. Sauté over medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes until the veggies start to get tender. (If needed to prevent sticking, add a splash of vegetable broth or water).
- Add the minced garlic and sauté for one minute.
- Add the water, vegetable broth, tomato sauce, and miso bring to a boil, then immediately lower to a simmer.
- Add the Spice/Herb Mix and all the remaining ingredients except for the cannellini beans, and simmer until the potatoes and cabbage are just about tender. Then add the cannellini beans, simmer until the potatoes and cabbage are tender.
- Serve with your favorite toppings.
Notes
*Vegetable Stock: We use Pacific Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Stock. We love this brand because it is Whole Food Plant Based compliant, as it does not contain MSG, has no oil, and does not contain any highly-processed ingredients.
*Ume Plum Vinegar: Ume Plum Vinegar is perfect for this recipe as it has that deliciously tangy flavor which complements the cabbage. It is relatively inexpensive. We use it quite frequently and it worth requesting it from your local grocery, or ordering off of Amazon in our humble opinion.
*Miso: We used Miso Master Organic Mellow White Premium Lite Miso, Certified Gluten Free. Miso really lends itself to balancing flavors when you don’t use oil. You can also substitute with chickpea miso for a soy free version.
*Liquid Smoke: The liquid smoke is optional. If you would like to try it, we suggest adding a little bit at a time to test it out. It does add a nice flavor component to this dish.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Makes: 4-5 Servings
*Storage: Refrigerate and use within 7 days.
This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.
My family and I enjoyed this soup and will make it again sometime. I didn’t have large potatoes on hand and guessed at how many small to medium potatoes to use. About how many cups of cut potatoes do you recommend?
Hi there Melissa 🙂 Awesome! We are so glad to hear that you and your family enjoyed this soup! The great thing about this soup is that there isn’t a precise amount of potatoes needed. You can add more or less depending on personal preference. The more potatoes used, the less broth, and conversely, the less potatoes used, the more broth. We don’t have a cup measurement available. If we had to guess with small potatoes, it probably be about 12-16 small potatoes, but again, this really just depends on the size of the small potatoes, and personal preference 🙂… Read more »
Thanks for this recipe! I’ve made this soup three times over Christmas break, and my eldest son even asked for the recipe so that he can make it when he returns to his college apartment. Last night, I increased the broth and seasoning ingredients by a third and added small pieces of kale for the pop of green color.
Yaaaay!!! So glad to hear that you make it often! It’s definitely a favorite in our home too! It is so sweet that your son wants to make it as well! Love how you made this recipe your own – sounds so delicious <3 Thank you so much for taking to time to write such wonderful feedback!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
This recipe came to my attention from Gina’s Weekend Reading. What a hit! I was so taken by the mix of herbs that I knew immediately I had to give it a try. Husband and I both enjoyed it very much! Great flavors! Thank you!
Hi there Suzy 🙂
Awesome! We love Gina and so glad that you saw our featured recipe. <3
We are SO thrilled that you and your husband enjoyed this soup! Thank you so much for taking the time to write, we truly appreciate your generous feedback!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Hello, I have everything that I need to make this except the dried crushed fennel. I can’t find it so would crushed seeds work? Thank you for any help
Hi there Suzanne 🙂
Thank you so much for reaching out to us. Yes, crushed seeds will work too. We suggest adding a small amount, taste test, and add more if preferred.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I had a huge cabbage and didn’t know what else to use it in (made your Asian cabbage noodle stir fry and your sweet and tangy vinegar coleslaw this week).
This was perfect for a chilly Easter weekend. :o)
The flavours were wonderful and it was so filling. Not the cabbage soup I remember from years ago (those terrible dieting days). Lol
Can’t wait for leftovers!! We added a little Sriracha for some heat too.
Hi there Sandra 🙂
AWESOME!!! We are THRILLED that you enjoyed this recipe. We appreciate you sharing your wonderful review. Thank you so much for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
It doesn’t say when to add the spice mix?
Hi there Cynthia 🙂
It is there under “add all the remaining ingredients”; however, I updated the recipe so it is more visible. Thank you.
-Ameera and Robin
Warming comfort on a cold day.
The only changes I made was a can of rinsed lentils instead of white beans and red cabbage because that is what I had on hand.
Delicious!
Hi there Tater 🙂
YAYYY!!! We are so happy that you enjoyed this recipe.
Thank you for taking time to leave us an awesome review.
-Ameera and Robin
This recipe is delicious as Everything you create is! I couldn’t recommend you enough..thank you! I did add the microgreens to this as recommended and I’m so glad I did! It adds a whole different texture level to this. My 4 yr old cried before even taking a bite,,,so worried about the greens in this….until she took a bite and then another…and then devoured it! Thank you for all you do…create and share with us!
Hi there Courtney,
WOOO HOOO!!! We are thrilled that you gave this recipe a try and enjoyed it. Super WOOO HOO on your 4 year old devouring it! We sincerely appreciate the awesome review! Thank you so much.
-Ameera and Robin
This soup is delicious. I wasn’t sure due to the simplicity of the main ingredients but the flavor of the broth is fantastic and the flavors came together nicely. I did not have fennel unfortunately do I skipped it but I do have anise and was wondering if I could substitute it.
Hi there Nikki,
YAYYY!!! We are so happy that you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you so much for taking time to leave us a great review.
-Ameera and Robin