If you’ve been following my Insta Stories this year, you might’ve seen that one of my smaller goals for 2017 is to use reusable produce bags. It’s something I’ve tried in the past but never stuck with, so when I told Eric about the goal he wasn’t sure that I would actually do it. Especially since I’ve had a pretty bad case of new-mama brain lately. “This is going to last a week!” he chuckled. But here I am 6 weeks into 2017 and it’s going great…mainly because proving him wrong is one of my greatest joys in life.
These are the bags I purchased on Amazon. I love that there are various sizes, and so far they’re holding up well! Adriana has also claimed one and likes it when I add a few light groceries into her “grocery bag” while she sits in the cart. Just remind me not to put a clementine in there again; she thinks it’s pretty funny when she bites through the skin. 
You may suspect we’re living off of soup these days due to how many soup recipes I’ve shared over the past few months, and you might be right! Soup has been our go-to solution during the hectic postpartum season because I can make a big batch and the leftovers only get better as the days go by.
My aunt recently had us over for lunch, and she made this incredible borscht-inspired soup that I immediately knew I had to try to make at home. I couldn’t believe how few ingredients she used for a soup that blew us all away. Her secret? A jar of marinara sauce forms the soup’s base. My jaw dropped! I recreated the soup at home the very next day, and my jaw dropped again when Adriana ate 3 bowls of it in a row. She was covered in beet stains by the end, but it was worth it because I never thought she’d eat this kind of soup. Heck, I never thought I would enjoy beets in soup either, but it’s our new obsession. So if you’re worried about a beet and cabbage soup being a bit too earthy-tasting, I encourage you to give this one a try. It’s surprisingly sweet, and really satisfying. I’m also convinced the healthy ingredients helped me fight off a cold that was going through our household, too. It’s bursting with Vitamin C, iron, and B vitamins, making it a great immune-booster this time of the year!
Hunky Heartbeet Cabbage Soup
Yield
9 cups (2.1 litres)
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
You won’t believe the gorgeous colours in this incredibly healthy, borscht-inspired soup, from the prep stage (gorgeous shades of plum and violet) to the final end result (a bold crimson red). It's the perfect soup to celebrate Valentine's Day (or really, to brighten up any chilly winter day). This soup takes an hour and a half to cook thanks to the raw beets, so be sure to give yourself enough time; the bonus is that you can cover it and walk away as it simmers. To avoid a longer cook time, chopping the beets very small (think pea- or almond-size) is key. A big thank-you to my Aunt Elizabeth for inspiring this soup.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons (30 mL) coconut oil
- 2 cups (280 g) diced red onion (about 1 medium/large)
- 5 cups (540 g) diced red cabbage (about 1/2 medium)
- 4 cups (500 g) peeled and diced raw beets (about 2 large/3 medium)*
- 5 cups (1.25 L) marinara sauce**
- 3 cups (750 mL) water
- Fine sea salt or Herbamare, to taste
- Cashew Sour Cream, for serving (optional)
- Fresh dill, for garnish (optional)
Directions
- Add the coconut oil into a large pot. Over medium heat, sauté the onion for about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring once or twice.
- Add the diced cabbage and beets. Stir again. Continue sautéeing for another few minutes.
- Add all of the marinara sauce and the water. Stir to combine. Simmer the soup, covered, over low to medium heat for 1 hour and 30 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until the beets are fork-tender. Your cook time may vary depending on how fresh your beets are and how small you chopped them. (If it’s your first time cooking the soup, you may want to check on it a few times and stir to to make sure it’s not sticking to the bottom of the pot.)
- Taste and season with salt to taste. Ladle into a bowl and serve with a spoonful or swirl of Cashew Sour Cream and chopped dill if desired, but it's great all on its own, too.
- This soup will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 1 week. It freezes beautifully, too: Simply cool the soup and place it into a freezer-safe container, leaving an inch of space at the top for expansion. Freeze for up to 2 months.
Tip:
* To prevent staining your hands, wear disposable gloves while peeling and dicing the beets.
** If you can find it, I highly recommend using White Linen Collection Marinara Sauce from Costco in this recipe. I use 1 full bottle, which works out perfectly to about 5 cups. It’s my favourite store-bought marinara sauce (I have no affiliation with them, by the way, just passing along my personal recommendation!). My Fail-Proof Marinara Sauce from Oh She Glows Every Day is also lovely in this soup!
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Blessings in a Backpack update:
If you remember, we committed to donating the January revenue from our paid Get Glowing app bundle (for both Android and iOS) to Blessings in a Backpack Canada. I’m thrilled to let you know that we raised enough money to feed 19 children, providing them with a backpack of food to take home every Friday, for an entire school year! A BIG thank-you to everyone who downloaded the bundle of recipes. We couldn’t have done this without you!
I’m not a great fans of Cabbage. But after seeing the images of this soup, i thought why not!!!! Really it seems awesome and i think the taste would be more like the commentators replied.
Amazing!! Put this in for 30 minutes into the pressure cooker and turned out perfectly! Thanks for sharing!
This was fantastic! It was devoured at our dinner party and so easy to make I managed to pull it off with a newborn attached to me. Plus I love that it’s so healthy.
Great staffs!!! I like all the things about kitchen and my best friend Ellena referred me to visit here. I have to tell you that, i’m really very pleased to read about you and your blog. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and I’ve no regrets being here!! :)
It’s lovely to hear from you, Edna! I’m so glad to you’re enjoying my blog and recipes. Thanks for taking the time to say hello! :)
I like your site very much. Lots of information you provided and the excellent part is people are engaging with you. This feels actually good when you comment back. Thanks for sharing and also engaging with us.
Excellent
Cool!
The color and name of this recipe is fabulous & caught my eye! Love the use of beetroot here Angela, it can be hard to find nice recipes with it! That gold spoon too! ?
Hi Angela, can I substitute the cabbage woth chard? Any thoughts on this?:-) Thanks, Nina
Hey Nina, The cabbage gives this soup a great texture so I wouldn’t recommend swapping it out, but that’s just me! If you’d like to experiment with it, feel free, and please let us know how it goes!
Absolutely delicious!! I added a bit of red vinegar while cooking and served with either cashew cheese and dill or horseradish.
Making this soup for the second time tonight and I can’t wait! It was such a hit that I’m doubling the recipe. We love the Kirkland organic marinara from Costco and it worked beautifully in this soup. Thanks for including simple recipes like this that pack big flavour.
Fast and easy recipes are huge winners in our busy household these days–I’m so glad to hear this one is a winner in yours, too. :) Hope you enjoyed that second batch juts as well as the first!
Hi, I just wanted to say I love beets and this may be my new favorite way to cook borschch! I used Gia Russa sauce and I find that it works great because it’s slightly spicy so it adds a nice depth. Love the recipe, thank you!
I’m happy to hear you enjoy the recipe, Agata! And thanks for sharing your sauce rec — that slight spiciness sounds like it would be great in this dish.
I am a huge fan of soups like that I mean the chunky ones I have a plan to make it next weekend hugs:*
www.jojosvegankitchen.com
Will have to try this.
Thanks for posting.
Hi! I love your recipes, have you ever tried to make vegan Spanish tortilla? This is the only good recipe I could find online:
https://www.eco-wanderlust.com/blog/vegan-tortilla-recipe
You should post a recipe for one!
This is a great twist on Borscht. One of the tricks to add lots of flavor, is brine your beets and use the juices. Packs a punch.
This is really an Delicious Soup!!
Thanks Angela :) https://doyousew.com
I ADORE this soup. I thought that the use of marinara sauce was suspect, but the soup is genius, has so few ingredients, and elevates them all. I can’t wait to make it again!
this is AWESOME!!! yummy. I can’t wait to try this! Pinned! so healthy!!
I have not tried this recipe yet, but soon i am going to. Hope it will go as pretty a it looking here.
This was fantastic, thank you so much! It looks SO gorgeous when served, such an amazing colour.
I didn’t have marinara sauce so I just used plain tomato sauce instead and seasoned appropriately, and I also added celery for a bit more chunk. This made for VERY large, satisfying portions for very low calories and it was delicious.
Glad you liked the recipe, Nikki! And I totally agree–I love how the colour just pops!
Just starting vegan lifestyle, this sounds amazing!
Made this soup today and I LOVE it! 10/10 Never would’ve thought of combining beets w marinara. Every recipe I’ve ever cooked from this website always tasted spot on. Thank you, Angela, for sharing!
This looks great, and I love the shortcut of using marinara sauce. But I usually add in the beet greens into my borscht. What do you think about cutting back on some of the cabbage and adding in the beet greens and stalks?
Thank you!
Hey there, If you like the flavour of beet greens then definitely feel free to play around with the recipe! I’d say it’s pretty versatile. :)
I am not vegan, but this recipe looks soooo good ! I may have to try it out.
I love this recipe. Making it for the 2nd time in two weeks – and I never do that. So easy and so yummy. One caveat to folks out there – if you use a mix of wild rices, it needs to be cooked a bit longer. Not sure how much longer actually because I needed to serve it so finished off the rice portion in the microwave. Going to do white rice like the recipe calls for this time.clean water clean earth
Hey there, Thanks for your great feedback! I’m so happy to hear it was a hit. I need to make this soup as soon as our fall weather starts up again!
I have always avoided cabbage but just looking at your photos. I don’t know what it is but this meal looks really appetizing. I’m going to have to make this for me and my wife.
I hope you enjoy it…it’s so tasty! It’s my fave way to have cabbage for sure.
Hey, I totally loved your recipe. It must taste great! I will cook it once.
Cheers,
Allison
That looks amazing.
Hi, this looks lovely and I have cabbage and bet ready for the taking in my garden right now! Thanks for the recipe!
Do you ever post nutritional information for your recipes? If not I will plug the ingredients into Sparkrecipes.
Thanks again.
Just made this tonight….soooo goood!!!
Will make again and again!
I used Paul Newman’s marinara sauce as I had no time to hit Costco. I have also bought the white linen brand sauce and it is great.
Hey Nadia,
I’m so happy you love it as much as I do! It’s one of my biggest recipe “surprises” to date (I really didn’t think I would like it!)
It makes a big batch for just two of us. But I took it to work for lunch every day and did NOT get tired of it – in fact, I came to CRAVE it every day and was sorry by Friday when it was all gone! Unique flavor. Didn’t do the sour cream option. Just a good bread to go with it. Thank you!
Hey Denise, Oh I’m so happy you love it as much as we do!
Made it, loved it, used the leftovers smothered over noodles with feta cheese and it was just as good! And incase you were thinking you could shave cooking time by brunoise-ing the beets, they’ll still take over an hour. Worth it!
Hey Brenna, I’m so happy you enjoyed it so much. Thanks for your review!
Made this for dinner tonight – it was great!! I didn’t want to attempt to peel and chop rock hard raw beets so I roasted them in the oven before making the soup so the skins would slide off easily (since I discovered this method, I don’t want to deal with beets any other way). Then I followed the soup recipe and added the roasted, chopped beets at the very end. It was delicious! Thank you for the recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it Tara. And yes, sometimes roasting and peeling beets is the way to go!
I love borscht and really enjoy the flavours of this soup. I added a couple bay leaves and some caraway seeds to give it more of the borscht flavour.
Hey Amy, So happy to hear you enjoyed it. Good call on adding bay and caraway!
I’ve made this soup four times in the past year and it has been my absolute favourite comfort food in the last few months! It’s also great to make in batch and eat over the course of a week and I enjoy topping it off with a little yoghurt and pumpkin seeds. I have even converted my beets hating mother into eating this!
Hey Lia, Whohoo! That’s so great to hear. We adore it too…it’s one of my fave ways to enjoy beets actually!
Love this soup! Made it few times last year. Just one thought- beets don’t need an hour of cooking, really may be 10-15 min because of the small pieces. I am making this soup right now once again! Thanks for the delish recipe.
I just made this in under 30 minutes with my pressure cooker (Instant Pot)….about 30 minutes in total!! Fabulous with dill!
That’s so wonderful to hear that it worked in the instapot!! Thanks for your review Shelagh!
I made this with a 28 oz can of pureed tomatoes in place of the marinara sauce, added in a bit of basil and oregano as part of the onions base to make up for it, and it turned out delicious. Thanks!!
This is delicious! I seriously did not expect it to be this good. Super hearty and satisfying, and the cashew sour cream on top of a bowl adds perfect richness to the soup. I had always wanted to try borscht but thought it looks intimidating. Your take on it is so easy and low maintenance! Will be making this again. Thank you!
hey Monique, I’m so glad it was a hit…I can’t get enough! And so healthy too. :)
Delicious. Made this soup last night and only used fresh tomatoes as no marinara sauce on hand. It turned out so good and will certainly make it again.
Hi Joanne, I’m so glad fresh tomatoes worked too. It’s the perfect time of year for throwing them in soup! I’ll have to try it soon.
I just pulled the beets from my garden and was looking for something to make. I cooked the beets in my instapot to make the peeling easy, and added the beet greens to not waste them- really good.
Fingers crossed that my 3 1/2 year old daughter will like this as well!
I love that you cooked the beets in the IP…great idea! I can’t wait to try that.
This was so good! I had a couple of GIANT beets from a friend’s garden and some red cabbage to get rid of… so this soup came to mind!
I added a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar towards the end of cooking– beet soup (borscht) always was vinegary when my grandma made it so I wanted to have that flavour!
The marinara hack is such genius! I will make this again and again, thanks Angela, you never disappoint!
Hey Allison, I love that you tweaked the soup based on your grandma’s recipe! So glad it was a hit :)
This was yummy but I added in soy sauce and vinegar to add a little bit more depth. And that just hit the spot. I love how this recipe is so easy, superhealthy and so cheap to make! Only set back, you really need to find quality beetroot else the flavour won’t be there.
I love your tweaks Monique :) I’ll definitely have to try that!
LOVED IT!! But holy cow did it take a long time to cook. Instant pot version PULEASE!
haha you read my mind because this soup is on my IP conversion list!! ;)
Is it possible to use canned beets with this and just cook it for less time?
Hey Amy, That’s a great question and I’m sorry I haven’t tried it out before so I’m not sure! I’m not sure how it would impact the texture and flavour…would take some experimentation probably! If you try anything I would love to hear how it goes.
So easy and so delicious!
Thanks so much! :)
I cannot get over this soup. I make it almost monthly (and freeze what I don’t eat-though that has only happened once haha). It has become my new favorite soup, and whenever I’m feeling sick, this is the one thing I can always eat! So, so, so delicious!
After sautéing onions and adding cabbage and beets realized the pot we were using was going to be too small and decided to cook the soup in the instant pot and it worked soooo well! Cooked on high pressure for 10 minutes then let sit for 5 before opening and it worked perfectly ;)