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I’ve been longing for soup weather. As I said in last week’s “What’s on My Plate?” post, soup is my love language. Nothing beats sitting down to a big bowl of fragrant soup on a chilly day after you’ve been working hard – in my case, typing away at a desk in a chilly basement, toes attempting to ward off the cold with a pair of fuzzy purple socks. Bet you weren’t expecting that mental picture, were you? Haha…
This soup, which I’ve dubbed “Happy Harvest Soup,” combines lots of vegetables, flavorful sausage, rich tomato juice and cream, and some unexpected spices to create a delicious taste of fall in every bite.
Almost every soup recipe I make is inspired by what is currently in my fridge (and to be honest, I rarely make the same recipe twice for that very reason). In this case there were a pound each of hamburger and sausage in the fridge along with some cabbage, mushrooms, and onions that needed used, so I started piling everything on the counter and supplementing the pile with canned goods and seasonings from the pantry until I came up with what I thought would be a tasty-yet-unique combination. The crowning touches to this soup were a little THM Super Sweet Blend and cinnamon – just enough to add a hint of fall flavor reminiscent of pumpkin and spice, but not enough to take over. It’s different yes, but it’s a good different. Leave the sweetener and cinnamon out if you feel you must, but trust me on this one. You might be pleasantly surprised.
As always, this soup recipe makes a large batch. We have a 6-qt. soup kettle that I use every time I make soup, and it always ends up filled to the brim. When I make soup, I make soup. My mom and I love to have leftovers to eat on for lunches throughout the week.
You may also enjoy:
- Starting THM
- my recipe index
- my recipes grouped by fuel type, allergy info, and theme
- all my soup recipes
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- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 lb. ground sausage (I used pork)
- -
- ½ med. head cabbage, sliced thinly
- 1 lg. onion, chopped
- 2 c. water
- -
- 2 c. tomato juice
- 2 c. water
- 1 14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes
- 2 c. frozen green peas
- 4-8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
- ¼ c. soy sauce*
- 2 tsp. each chili powder, garlic powder, nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp. ginger
- ¾ tsp. THM Super Sweet Blend**
- ¾ tsp. cinnamon**
- Salt, to taste
- -
- 1½ c. heavy whipping cream***
- Brown the ground beef and sausage in a skillet until the juices run clear. Drain the grease off and chop the meat finely.
- Meanwhile, in a large covered soup kettle, cook the cabbage and onion in 2 c. water. When they are mostly soft, add the meat and the third section of ingredients. Simmer until all the vegetables are soft.
- When the vegetables are soft, add the cream (do not boil the soup after this point). Taste and adjust the flavors as you desire. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, then serve.
**Feel free to decrease the Super Sweet Blend and cinnamon if those flavors in soup make you nervous.
***Replace the cream with carton almond or coconut milk for a dairy-free version.
Suggested Products:
- THM Super Sweet Blend – my favorite versatile sweetener
- Nutritional Yeast Flakes
Hi Briana
Fell off THM wagon for the past year, but want to get back on. This recipe sounds awesome; I can hardly wait to make it. I’m a single person and would like to know if it freezes well and for how long.
🙂 Debbie 🙂
Hi Debbie! I’ve never tried freezing this soup so I can’t say for sure, but most soups do freeze fairly well. 🙂
This is delicious! My family will not eat mushrooms, so I pureed them and blended them with the beef before browning. They’re all clueless. 😂 They also refuse to eat peas, so I threw in a can of green beans instead. Thank you, Briana! 🥰
this soup was awesome , a little nervous about spices but it was great
Hi Briana! This soup looks wonderful. I am doing keto….could you tell me the nutrition breakdown? Just need to know the Carb total per serving. Thank you so much!
Hi there! I’m afraid I don’t have the nutritional info calculated for this recipe, but MyFitnessPal is a super easy way to find nutrition facts! If you sign up for an account, under the Recipes tab there’s a place where you can just add the link to a recipe and it will pull up the ingredients for you to confirm, then generate the nutritional info! 🙂
Hello Sweet Briana, I just made this 10/12/2019 and WOW..it is a keeper….left out the 2 cups tomato juice, husband and tomatoes NOT FRIENDS…LOL…replaced with chicken broth (33% less salt), but added the can of dice tomatoes!!! It is so good! Thank you!!!
….also..the leaves here in Townville, Pennsylvania are beautiful, very near to Faith Builders, at Guys Mills, Pennsylvania…! Granddaughter is at Cedarville U, in Ohio and took your cook books to stay on THM..thank you, so much for the blessing of your COOK BOOKS and the LOVE OF JESUS ADDED to each page 🙂 HUG HUG…Angels all about…Remember: Who Does Jesus Love? Jesus Loves Me! (Briana and Ryan..and I love you too ! 🙂 miss julianne
It’s so good to hear from your again, Julianne! I’m so glad you liked the soup. My husband is in Vermont right now for an interview and he’s been sending me pictures of the beautiful leaves. Unfortunately down here in Louisiana we don’t see many pretty leaves! Blessings to you and your family! <3
I didn’t know you lived in Louisiana, so do I, that’s exciting. I wonder if we are close to each other.
Neat! My husband and I are up in the northwest corner, near Shreveport.
Another amazing recipe! Flavors including all the fun spices made it even better. One of my favorites.
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoy it!
I made this in a crockpot without precooking the cabbage and onion. I added the cream about 30 minutes before we ate it. Turned out perfectly. Only thing I will do differently next time is omit the ginger, sweetener and cinnamon. Those spices weren’t a big hit with my family. Love your recipes, Briana!
I’m glad to know it works in the crockpot! Thanks for sharing!
This soup was delicious, and I will be making it again in the future. I have yet to find a recipe that you have Briana that doesn’t deserve 5 stars. Thank you!
The recipe has two line with nothing beside them, is there suppose to be an ingredient there? The are between sausage….cabbage & water……tomato juice.
thank you
Those are just dividers to make it easier to see which ingredients go with which stage of the recipe. 🙂
Hi! I love this soup! I was nervous about the cinnamon, I’ll be honest! Lol! But I followed the recipe exactly, and it is amazing! We will definitely be having it again! Thank you! You’re brilliant!
I’m so glad to hear that, Pamela! Thanks for trying it!
I came across this recipe today and decided to make it for dinner. Cooked the cabbage in my instant pot (on trivet, manual mode, 12 mins, QPR). Followed the ingredients list above except mushrooms (didn’t have fresh). It looks delicious! Can’t wait to eat it!!
oh wow! This was my first THM recipe and it was soooo good! Tweaked a few things based on what was in my pantry and my preference for sautéed cabbage, onion and garlic. But seriously, it was really delicious. My kids loved it too and they never asked “where’s the pasta?”. Thanks so very much!
I’m so glad you all enjoyed it, Linda!
I know it goes against the diet plan, but how would I substitute regular sugar for the sweetener if I don’t have the sweetener mix? Any idea what amount I should use? It looks different than anything I’ve made but delicious.
You would need 3-4 tsp. of sugar to replace the THM Super Sweet Blend in this recipe. 🙂 You can use this sweetener conversion chart to convert from the sweeteners I use to sugar in my other recipes if you like: http://www.trimhealthymama.com/main-home/sweetener-conversion-chart/
Perfect. Thank you!
I can’t believe I haven’t commented sooner! This soup is so yummy! I was curious about the cinnamon but in my opinion it totally makes this soup! Thank you for such a yummy, satisfying soup.
What kind of tomato juice do you use .. Im making this tonight
We can our own homemade tomato juice during the summer. We don’t add any salt or anything to it, so take that into consideration if you use a storebought canned tomato juice.
This soup is amazing! We eat lots of soup, but this new one has made it to the top of the repeat list! Yum! Thank you so much for sharing. In place of the cream I used one can of coconut milk to make it dairy free.
Wow. Wowie, wow, wow. I just want to congratulate you on creating one of the best soups I’ve ever consumed in my life. I went back for seconds. My mom and I literally could not believe our taste buds! Looking over the spices involved, I was like, “This does not sound good or focused at all,” but man. I have never been so wrong in all my life. Even my dad liked this one! 😀
Our family loves this soup! Thank you for the recipe!
This soup was amazing! We were hesitant on the cinnamon and ginger but tried it anyway…so glad we did! I doubled the batch and cooked it in the crockpot and then delivered it to the field. It was a true Harvest Soup! Thank you for sharing!
That’s so neat!
thank you for all of your recipes Briana they are amazing:)
This was seriously so amazing! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Would this be considered a light s?
I would just call it a regular S. 🙂 I probably wouldn’t consider it a Light S, but it’s not super heavy either.
Thank you! I didn’t see the heavy cream when I first read the recipe
Hi Briana…wanted to let you know I made this soup last week…wow! I love the rich creaminess, and the meats are filling. I was surprised with the cinnamon and ginger, but wouldn’t change a thing..love it!
So glad you enjoyed it, Anita! Thanks for letting me know!
Would tomato sauce work in place of the juice?
It’s much thicker, so I wouldn’t suggest that.
What do you use for the tomato juice? Would tomato sauce work?
Tomato sauce is not the same thing (it’s much thicker, so you’d need to make some adjustments). We can our own tomato juice in the summer, but I’m sure you can purchase it at any grocery store.
Even if your family is not following this way of eating would they be willing to try something new?
Whether they’re willing or not, if that’s what’s for supper, that’s what they eat. 😉 We ask that the kids eat it at the first meal it is served even if they don’t like it, but if it’s really not something they care for then we usually don’t make them help clean up the leftovers for lunch throughout the week (which is fine because it saves more for the rest of us who love it).
Silly question, but can you freeze soup in individual portions? There is just me in the family following THM and that is a HUGE amount of soup.
I haven’t tried freezing this soup, but I’m pretty sure it would work. 🙂 You may want to just make a partial batch and test it first.
As far as freezing I would freeze everything but the cream and add it fresh
I make huge batches and freeze flat in gallon bags. Heats up quickly in the microwave when it’s flat. I do the whole recipe and have not noticed a difference between the fresh and the frozen.
I could not be any more excited that soup season is finally here! This looks SO good and so perfect for crisp fall nights. Love!!
Ideas for subbing peas? That is the only veggie I don’t love!
Then just use whatever veggies you do like. 🙂
How could i do this in the crockpot? Just brown the meat and set the rest on low for the day? It sounds delicious!
Yeah, that would probably work. I’d add the cream toward the end.
I made it! I was AH-MAZING! Seriously one of my favorite things i have ever tasted- not kidding at all.
I did it in the crockpot and added the cream at the end. It was very easy and using the crockpot was so convenient.
Thank you for sharing this with us 🙂
I’m so glad! Thanks for sharing about the crockpot idea!
How long did you let it cook for in the crockpot?
Oh YUM!!! You have done it again – thank you!!
I threw in some zucchini and hot peppers, but forgot to add the peas.
Served with CHEESY-CHEESE GARLIC BISCUITS (GRAIN-FREE RED LOBSTER BISCUITS)
Those sound like great additions!
Have you tried this with a LOT less cream? 😀 I love cream but it’s so dang expensive!!! Think it would work with just small swirl of cream and some almond milk? I’m just wondering if it would still be creamy….
It wouldn’t be nearly as good. 😛 But I’m sure it would still be more than edible.
I have found that I like to use half-and-half in my THM recipes that call for Heavy Cream, its still very good but a lot cheaper. And sometimes heavy cream is almost too rich for me. Just a thought for those, not wanting to pay for heavy cream. Can’t wait to try this soup Briana, I adore soups and fall time, perfect combo!! And anything with cabbage I love! 🙂
I don’t like my meals too rich so I use around 1/2 c and it’s wonderful!
I use a can of coconut milk. Its yummy!
This looks delicious. I make soups the same way. I really need to write things down as I make soup, because sometimes the family wants it again!
Be blessed!
Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage