Corned Beef Soup {Slow Cooker}

Let your slow cooker do the cooking for this traditional Irish dish. Corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes simmer along with sauerkraut for stick to your ribs soup. This is the best Corned Beef Soup.

St. Patrick’s Day is a high holy day in our house.  We typically celebrate the Irish holiday with a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner around the kitchen table.

A desire to shake up how I was going to prepare the Irish feast this year lead me to tweak my recipe.  A tried and true kitchen appliance does most of the work for my Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup.

Jump to:

• why I love corned beef and cabbage soup
• the ingredients
• recipe substitutions
• step by step recipe instructions
• cooking tips
• more St. Patrick's Day recipes
• just one more thing
• Recipe

why I love corned beef and cabbage soup

With St. Patrick’s Day falling on a work day this year, I will be cooking for a personal chef client during the day.  That doesn't leave much time at home for a lengthy cooking, stove top version for tender corned beef. 

That’s where the slow cooker mode on my Instant Pot comes to the rescue.  It's an ideal piece of kitchen equipment to do the work for me.  The long, slow simmer yields a delicious dinner in the process.

the ingredients

• corned beef
• yellow onion
• carrots
• red and white potatoes
• green cabbage
• sauerkraut
• reduced sodium chicken stock
• fresh parsley

Check the recipe card below for full quantities of the ingredients.

recipe substitutions

• I like a yellow onion in the recipe, but a white onion works too.
• Red and white potatoes look pretty in the soup. Either all red or all white potatoes can be substituted.
• Reduced sodium vegetable stock can be used in place of the chicken stock.

step by step recipe instructions

This corned beef and cabbage soup is so easy to make. I love that my slow cooker does all the work for me.

1. Add all the ingredients (leave out the parsley) to a slow cooker and stir to combine.
2. Cover and cook on High for 4 to 4 ½ hours or on Low for 7 to 8 hours. The corned beef should shred easily and the vegetables should be tender.
3. Remove the pieces of corned beef from the slow cooker and shred into bite-sized pieces.  Return the beef to the slow cooker and stir to combine.  Stir in chopped fresh parsley.
4. Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. This is a great make ahead recipe as it tastes even more delicious the next.

cooking tips

I made a few changes to my usual corned beef and cabbage dinner recipe to result in a chunky soup. 

• Dice the carrots, onions, potatoes, and cabbage in the same size pieces so they cook at the same rate. Add the vegetables to the crock of the slow cooker along with chunks of corned beef (including the little spice packet), sauerkraut, and chicken stock. 
• Make sure to use the low sodium version of the chicken stock as corned beef is a salty cut of beef.

more St. Patrick's Day recipes

• Rustic Irish Soda Bread
• Guinness Irish Lamb Stew
• Crazy Good Reuben Casserole
• Mint Chocolate Fudge Brownies

just one more thing

If you make this slow cooker corned beef soup recipe, I’d love hearing from you. Please leave a comment and/or give this recipe a star rating. Also check out my YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram pages for lots of fabulous foodie stories and videos, cooking tips, and recipes.