It is a tomato-based soup with crunchy shredded cabbage and tender sweet potatoes. To give it a light, refreshing Mediterranean vibe, we added fennel and celery and seasoned it with lemon and tarragon. If you love veggie-only soups, you’ll love this cabbage sweet potato soup as well.
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If you are looking for more hearty vegetable soup recipes, try this vegan cabbage potato soup, this Hungarian bean goulash soup, or this lemony vegan white bean soup. For even more inspiration check out our vegan soups recipe gallery or browse through these 30 deliciously creamy vegan soups.
What to expect from this recipe?
So how to best describe this cabbage sweet potato soup? It is a combination of the classic Italian minestrone soup and the creamy chicken or mushroom tarragon soup. What will it taste like?
It is quite a sweet soup as the tomato base, the cooked cabbage, and the sweet potato is all on the sweeter side. To complement this sweetness the soup is seasoned with lemon and tarragon. Tarragon has a distinct flavor, similar to licorice, fennel, or anise. Only 1 teaspoon is needed. Not too much but just enough to bring out the flavors of the other ingredients.
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Ingredients
What do you need to make this cabbage and sweet potato soup? You need only 11 ingredients though, but nothing fancy or hard to get. (Exact amounts will be displayed in the printable recipe card.)
- cabbage – the best type of cabbage is green cabbage. You can use savoy cabbage or even Chinese (Napa) cabbage, but we don’t recommend using red or purple cabbage as it will discolor your soup significantly.
- sweet potatoes – the best type is the orange one. If you can use white or purple sweet potatoes you can expect the color to be slightly different from the one on the picture. The taste will also be different a bit as white ones tend to be less sweet and closer to classic potatoes, while purple ones has a strong earthy and nutty flavor.
- onion
- garlic
- celery stalks
- fennel
- tomato paste
- canned chopped tomatoes
- vegetable broth
- lemon
- tarragon
How to make this cabbage sweet potato soup?
Preparing the ingredients
- Shred the cabbage using a mandolin or just cut them into stripes. We show step by step photos in our vegan coleslaw recipe.
- Wash, peel and dice the sweet potatoes evenly.
- Peel and chop the onion and garlic (finely).
- Wash and cut the fennel. Chop off the green fronds, and use only the white bulb part. Cut them in half and then slice one half like you would slice and onion.
- Wash and slice the celery stalks.
- Wash and slice the lemon. As we put them in the soup without peeling. Make sure to choose organic ones, or ones where the peel is not treated with chemicals or preservatives.
Cooking the soup
- Pre-heat your Dutch oven* or large pot over low/medium heat.
- Add olive oil and chopped onion. Cook them for approx. 2-3 minutes until they are tender looking.
- Add finely chopped garlic. Stir and cook for a minute.
- Add chopped celery and fennel. Stir and cook for another 3-4 minutes until they soften. (photo #1)
- Add tomato paste and canned chopped tomatoes (with sauce – no need to drain it). Stir well. (photo #2)
- Add vegetable broth and dried tarragon leaves. Bring the soup to boil. (photo #3)
- Add shredded cabbage, diced sweet potatoes, and lemon slices. Season it with salt and black pepper. Cook them until all vegetables are fork tender (photo #4)
FAQs and substitutions
What else can you add?
- Vegetable soups are fair game to add other ingredients like legumes like peas, beans, or lentils.
- If you don’t have sweet potatoes, butternut squash or other types of pumpkin are a good substitute. You can even add mix of russet potatoes and sweet potatoes although they might need longer time to be ready.
- We have a yummy vegan cabbage soup with sausage or you can even add bacon.
- Garnish it with parsley and serve it with crusty bread if you must.
What if I need to thicken this soup?
It will be a thin soup similar to minestrone, so you don’t really need to thick it with anything. While flour is the classic way to thicken any soup, it is not always needed. The canned chopped tomatoes and the starch content of the sweet potatoes will be enough to make it a light soup.
Can I use other types of cabbage?
The best type of cabbage for this soup is green cabbage. You can use savoy cabbage or even Chinese (Napa) cabbage, but we don’t recommend using red or purple cabbage as it will discolor your soup significantly.
Does cabbage get soggy in the soup?
There are two ways to avoid getting your cabbage soggy. 1) cut them into larger pieces or 2) decrease the cooking time. Thinly shredded cabbage that is cooked for an hour will most likely get soggy. In this soup, the cabbage is cooked for at most 15 minutes.
How to store it?
You can store it in the fridge for 3-4 days without any problem. This soup is also quite freezer-friendly.
This Cabbage Sweet Potato Soup recipe is meat-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free. It is also suitable for a vegan and vegetarian diet. It can also be WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) if you sautee veggies in water or veggie broth.
More sweet potato soup recipes
We have many recipes using sweet potatoes from gnocchi, sushi rolls to brownies. You can browse through all sweet potato recipes, but here are some of our favorites soups using it as the main ingredient:
- Ginger Carrot Sweet Potato Soup
- Roasted Pumpkin Sweet Potato Soup
- Roasted Broccoli Sweet Potato Soup
- Smoky Vegan Sweet Potato Soup
Mediterranean Cabbage Sweet Potato Soup with Tarragon
Ingredients
- 1 Onion (small)
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 1 lb Sweet potato diced
- 1 lb Cabbage shredded
- ½ Fennel
- 2 Celery stalk
- ½ Lemon
- 1 Tbsp Tomato paste
- 1 cup Chopped tomatoes canned
- 6 cup Veggie broth
- 1 Tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tsp Tarragon
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
Preparing the ingredients
- Shred the cabbage using a mandolin or just cut them into stripes.
- Peel and chop the onion and garlic (finely).
- Wash and cut the fennel. Chop off the green fronds, and use only the white bulb part. Cut them in half and then slice one half like you would slice and onion.
- Wash and slice the celery stalks.
- Wash and slice the lemon. As we put them in the soup without peeling. Make sure to choose organic ones, or ones where the peel is not treated with chemicals or preservatives.
Cooking the soup
- Pre-heat your Dutch oven or stockpot over low/medium heat. Add olive oil and chopped onion. Cook them for approx. 2-3 minutes until they are tender looking.
- Add finely chopped garlic. Stir and cook for a minute.
- Add chopped celery and fennel. Stir and cook for another 3-4 minutes until they soften.
- Add tomato paste and canned chopped tomatoes (with sauce – no need to drain it). Stir well.
- Add vegetable broth and dried tarragon leaves. Bring the soup to boil.
- Add shredded cabbage, diced sweet potatoes, and lemon slices. Season it with salt and pepper. Cook them until all vegetables are fork tender.
Deborah I.
I made the soup for dinner last night. I didn’t have fennel but I did add a turnip that I had on hand. I ate it with cornbread. It was tasty and filling. I will make it again with fennel.
My Pure Plants
Hi Deborah, we are so glad you tried and liked our recipe. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Angela
Hi, this looks great! It doesn’t say in the recipe where to add the lemon, so please let me know 🙂
My Pure Plants
Hi Angela, it is in the last step. You add the lemon slices together with the cabbage and the sweet potatoes.