This simple hamburger soup is loaded with vegetables and is an incredibly easy weeknight comfort food dinner because more than likely you’ll have all of the ingredients on hand and ready for soup thanks to your pantry, fridge, and/or freezer.
In This Post
The first time I had this totally solid, totally comforting hamburger soup was when my mother-in-law made it for a family gathering of which I was not yet part of the family. My husband and I had just started dating and it was dinner at mom’s house and I was invited to go.
No pressure. Nope. None at all.
One of the things I learned that night—along with the fact that as a teen my husband used to wear a nylon over his head so his wet curly hair would dry straight—is that getting friends and family together to share a meal doesn’t have to be over-thought or overdone.
Good food means good times, and that’s really all you need.
What’s in This Hamburger Soup?
This ground beef soup recipe couldn’t be more basic, which makes it all the better, especially because if you keep a semi-stocked pantry and basically stocked fridge, you’ll have everything at your soup cooking fingertips.
The namesake in this hamburger vegetable soup is the centerpiece, good old fashioned ground beef, aka hamburger. I use an 85% lean 15% fat ground round but you could always go more lean with the 91% lean 9% fat. Any more fat and you’ll be draining most of it and the flavor from the pan.
Chop your onion and celery in a similar size dice so they cook evenly. I like my carrots big and chunky but if you prefer a more uniform look, you can always dice them smaller too.
For the corn and beans, you can certainly use fresh or canned, but frozen would be perfectly fine too. In fact, you could use all frozen vegetables if you’d like because given that the vegetables are flash frozen, they hold all of their nutritional content just as well as fresh.
Bay leaves and tarragon give the herbed flavor to the soup, along with an herb I feel simply doesn’t get enough attention: marjoram. Similar to oregano, marjoram is more of a floral flavor and not as intense as oregano, and is a delicious accent for vegetables and beef.
How to Make Hamburger Soup
This ground beef vegetable soup couldn’t be easier to make. Simply brown the ground beef, then add the onions and celery and continue cooking until the veggies soften.
Then dump in the rest of the ingredients and let the hamburger soup simmer for 30 to 40 minutes to let the flavors come together.
I like this hamburger vegetable soup as is, but feel free to sprinkle your serving with cheese.
Variations on Hamburger Soup
Beyond making my Cheeseburger Soup or adding in macaroni to this classic recipe, I don’t think I’ll ever get my husband to switch from this rendition of his favorite soup, but if you’re interested in experimenting, here’s a couple of ideas of where to start.
Switch up the vegetables by mixing and matching any of these ingredients:
- Carrots
- Celery
- Corn
- Peas
- Green beans
- Butternut squash or pumpkin
- Leeks
- Fire-roasted stewed tomatoes
- Spinach or kale
- Cabbage
- Bell peppers
Also consider switching up the protein and try these alternatives to ground beef:
- Ground turkey
- Ground bison
- Ground chicken
- Lentils for you non-meat eaters who still crave a bigger bite
Can I Make This in a Slow Cooker or Instant Pot?
While I typically make this easy vegetable soup on the stove top, it can easily be adapted for slow cooker cooking too. Simply brown your beef, onions, and celery in a skillet, then add the rest of the vegetables, herbs, wine, and broth and cook for 4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.
For pressure cooker cooking, brown the beef, onions, and celery on the Sauté function, place the lid on the Instant Pot and set the vent to the sealed position. Use the manual setting and set a 5-minute cooking time. Allow for a natural pressure release for 10 minutes then vent for quick release.
Can I Freeze Hamburger Soup?
This recipe freezes well, making it a natural to make a double batch and freeze half. I freeze my soups in gallon freezer bags, lying them flat so they can be easily stacked when frozen.
More Hearty Soups That Make a Meal
- Moroccan Soup with Kale and Chickpeas
- Turkey Pot Pie Soup
- Slow Cooker Thai Chicken Soup
- The Best Cheeseburger Soup
- Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Slow Cooker Tortellini Soup with Sausage and Kale
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #foodiecrusheats.
Easy Hamburger Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds ground beef I use 85% lean
- 2 cups diced yellow onion 1 medium
- 1 ½ cups chopped celery about 4 ribs
- 1 ½ cups sliced carrots about 3
- 1 14- ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
- 1 14- ounce can corn drained (or 2 cups frozen or fresh)
- 1 14- ounce can green beans drained (or 2 cups frozen or fresh)
- 1 cup new potatoes cut in a large dice
- 2 beef bouillon cubes
- 1 cup red or white wine
- 2 cups water
- 2 quarts beef broth
- 1 tablespoon dried marjoram
- 1 tablespoon garlic salt
- 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven over medium high heat, brown the ground beef, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink (about 7-8 minutes).
- Add the diced onion and celery and cook until tender, another 3 minutes or so.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, stir. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a bubbling simmer and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the carrots are tender and the flavors have combined. Season with more salt and pepper if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
More Easy Recipes That Use Hamburger
- Daddy’s Baked Hamburgers
- Ground Beef Stuffed Peppers
- The Best DIY Foil Packet Dinners
- My Mom’s Homemade Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
- One-Pot Sloppy Joes
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My grandmother used to make a soup very similar to this. She called it “Prison Stew”. During the depression she would made this with whatever she could scrounge up. I make it all the time. I’m going to try your version soon. It sounds just as good as Nana’s!
Making now and it smells so good!
That’s a great thing to hear Leigh. Hope you enjoyed it.
Love love Hamburger Soup.
I made this today….. yummy
I didn’t use wine but added 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and vegetables I had.
I love your recipes!
What can be used in this recipe instead of wine ?
You could use a vinegar or omit it completely
You mentioned using bay leaf in your paragraph about herbs, but it isn’t listed as an ingredient later in the recipe. I enjoy bay leaves so that is why I noticed it. Thanks for the delicious sounding soup recipe!
I was just about to point out the same recipe omission…. The photo shows 3, so I went with that ♀️? Everything is simmering away!
I made this for dinner with 1 pound of 90% lean ground sirloin and added extra vegetables to make up the difference in heartiness. In lieu of bone broth, I found a pint of mushroom bisque made with chicken bone broth (a crowd-funded product) in the pantry as my “secret ingredient.” I also substituted poultry seasoning for the marjoram. The tarragon gave the soup and amazing aroma that was a totally new experience for me.
Even though I am a small household, cooking a large pot of soup works really well because my 23-year-old son lives with me, and we benefit from having leftovers available. Thank you for this one!
YUM! I agree that leftovers are the best! Thanks Kathy.
The recipe calls for 2 tsp pepper which I unfortunately used without thinking. The soup was so peppery it was difficult to eat. I’m going to try to remove the veggies and use new broth to see if I can rescue the soup.
Recipe sounds delicious. I am looking forward to making this soon. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Heidi – are you using the bouillon cubes to “amp up” the beef flavour? Marsha notes that she doesn’t use them because of the salt content and for me, it’s also because a lot of those cubes have MSG, which makes me very sick.
What about cooking down the beef broth, to concentrate it and thus increase that beefy flavour? If commercial beef broth is being used, my only concern would be that this would increase the saltiness of the finished soup. What do you think? Cheers – El
That is definitely true El, With the MSG and the salt content it will make for a saltier soup. If you prefer to cook down the broth that is definitely the option you should go with!
Would love to make this, however don’t use any bouillon cubes because of the salt content. What can I substitute for the 2 beef bouillon cubes?
You could omit it completely and cook down the beef broth longer to increase flavor.
Thanks for the post
How many calories is Thai?
Hi Sandy, I don’t currently add calorie info, but hope to soon. If you’d like to you can input the recipe in an app like My Fitness Pal for the calories.
Thanks for this recipe! I have pasta in my pantry but no potatoes. How much uncooked pasta do I add? Do I also need to add more liquids? Thanks again!
Boil your pasta first before adding to the soup or they will suck up all of the broth. 1 cup cooked pasta seems right.
haven’t had anything like this in years, but a great reminder of a similar soup I used to eat, so thank you for that and for such a straightforward weeknight recipe!
I made it. Wonderful hearty soup on a cold day! My 18 month old granddaughter is a picky eater and I was thrilled she LOVED it! She kept saying “more, more”.
Making now ina pressure cooker. After sauteing, should I set my pressure cooker to soup? It says 25 minutes. Wasn’t sure if you meant to cook it manually for 5 minutes or if you were referring to the saute funtion. My saute function is 5 minutes only. It tastes amazing already. Can’t wait to try it.
Thanks for sharing you have a very nice post
Looks delicious-what can I use instead of the red wine? The calorie and fat content surprised me; can that be lowered with super lean beef? Thank you!
Hi Cathy, the red wine is optional. I use it to deepen the flavor. Use 1-2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar to add some acidity and umami in place of the red wine. Yes, you can use super lean beef. Or, just eat a smaller portion. This soup feeds 8-10. I adjusted the serving size in the recipe to account for 10 servings.
Don’t turn up your nose at this one–my mom made this very soup (minus the wine and packaged beef broth) since the middle 50s–we lived on a farm during pre-microwave days and she was often trying to turn a package of frozen ground beef into dinner in a short time. 65 years later, this favorite of my husband shows up from time to time on my table. The kids always enjoyed it, too, as long as there were no peas as one of the three objected to them. These days we like peas sometimes in lieu of green beans, and a can of chickpeas is a good addition also. Any potato variety works fine for us and it’s a great way to use up leftover veggies. It was called hamburger stew in our house
Yes to all you just said Janet! It’s such a classic recipe, right??!! Love that you’re still making it all these years later and that it’s still favorite. I’d say that’s the hallmark of a good recipe, that it endures time. And great tips on subbing in different veggies too, it’s really what cooking easy recipes is all about, making what you have on hand work for easy eats. Thanks for the comment!