Chicken, Cabbage and Kidney Bean Soup

Published on November 2, 2025 at 4:06 PM

This soup is hearty, with a hint of heat, and is full of healthy ingredients!! I typically use homemade chicken stock, which is the product of boiling the bones from one of our roasted free-range meat birds, barely covered by water, for about 2 hours, with a chopped carrot, celery and bay leaf.  Once done, I strain it through a mesh sieve and add to the recipe.  It's a bit thinner than store-bought, but is so tasty.  I also use the meat from these chickens in the soup.  To be honest, I usually prefer dark meat.  However, in this soup I find the white meat maintains a better texture.

 

 

 

Serves 6 - 8

Ingredients:

1 large yellow onion diced

2 large carrots diced

3 ribs celery diced

4 cloves garlic minced

¼ cup olive oil

1- 19oz tin dark red or white kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1-  284ml tin Rotel or other fine diced tomatoes with chilies

½ head shredded cabbage, green, red or savoy

3 cups cubed cooked chicken

5 cups chicken broth or a broth/water mix

2 Bay leaves, whole

1 1/2 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp oregano

1 1/2 tsps cumin

1 tsp pepper

Salt to taste - Approx 1/2 tsp

Juice of 1 lime

optional - crumbled tortilla chips

 

Directions:

  1. Saute onion, carrot and celery in olive oil for about 5-10 minutes on medium heat ( 6 out of 10) in a large heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven.
  2. Add garlic and continue to saute 3 minutes
  3. Add herbs and spices, then saute 3 more minutes, to really bring those flavours out
  4. Add all other ingredients, except chopped chicken and lime juice, bring to a boil then simmer on medium-low (3 out of 10) for 30 minutes, covered and stirring occasionally
  5. Add chicken and heat through, about 5 mintues, then remove from heat
  6. Season as desired, remove bay leaves and add lime juice
  7. Serve hot, topped with some crumbled tortilla chips!

 

Notes:

Don’t worry if the ingredients are not all initially submerged in broth, the cabbage will wilt and settle in.

Omit the Rotel if you don’t like any heat, and just use small diced tomatoes.

Feel free to use 1 bag of pre-shredded cabbage (for cole slaw) - it works fine in a pinch.

To reduce the amount of sodium, don't add any extra salt.  There's usually enough in the stock, if using store bought and the soup itself is already flavourful.

This soup keeps in an airtight container for 5 days in the fridge and up to 3 months frozen.

 

 

 

 

Process Photos

See below for an idea of how this soup comes together

Nutrition Facts

Serving size: 1.5 cups

Servings: 6

Calories205

Total Fat 6g 8%  Saturated Fat 1g 5%  Cholesterol 37mg 12%  Sodium 420mg  21%  Total Carbohydrate 17.7g 6%  Dietary Fiber 6.5g 23% 

Total Sugars 4.6g Protein 18.7g Calcium 52mg 4%  Iron 1mg 5%  Potassium 371mg 8%

The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice

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Comments

Colleen
2 months ago

Definitely makIing this! I haven't heard of those tomatoes - will look for them in our stores.

Jenn
2 months ago

Hi Colleen, If you can't find them, you can sub diced tomatoes and some fresh or pickled jalapenos. I'd saute them a bit with the other veg. Hope you enjoy!