Hamburger Soup is a quick and easy meal loaded with vegetables, lean beef, diced tomatoes and potatoes. It’s great made ahead of time, budget friendly, reheats well and freezes perfectly.
We serve this easy Hamburger Soup with a fresh green salad and some crusty bread for the perfect meal!
I love a good soup as a weeknight meal. Hearty soups are satisfying & simple and they are loaded with vegetables and healthy ingredients! Soup is the perfect cool weather food or delicious weeknight dinner!
You can make them totally low cal like a Weight Loss Vegetable Soup, nice and hearty like a Chicken Wild Rice Soup or rich and creamy like a Slow Cooker Corn Chowder!
This Hamburger Soup is simple classic comfort food, hearty, healthy and satisfying. Perfect on a cool evening to warm your belly from the inside out.
I have to say that while we’ve always referred to this as hamburger soup, I know you guys have tons of other names for it! Hamburger soup, vegetable soup, hangover soup, poor man’s soup, bachelor’s stew… just to name a few.
Regardless of what you call it, you’ll definitely want to make it!
How to Make Hamburger Soup
A rich tomato broth is filled with ground beef, tender potatoes and vegetables. Sometimes the most simple ingredients make the best ever meals.
This hamburger soup is not only delicious, it’s easy to make with ingredients you likely have on hand.
I start with a mixture of lean beef, onion and garlic browned and drained. You can use any kind of ground meat in this recipe including ground turkey.
Beef broth is the best broth option to add lots of great flavor; I personally prefer the low sodium variety.
Hamburger Soup with Vegetables
I use a mixture of frozen vegetables to make this super easy (no chopping, no prepping) but it’s also a great way to use up any veggies in your fridge. Carrots, celery, peas, beans, zucchini… pretty much anything goes, sometimes we make this even with cabbage!
This version of Hamburger Soup uses potatoes since that’s how we always had it growing up. If you don’t have potatoes on hand (or just prefer pasta) you can add any type of pasta into this recipe!
I add an extra 1 cup of broth (or water) and let the pasta simmer until tender. Macaroni, shells and rotini are favorites to make this into a delicious and hearty macaroni beef soup!
What to Serve with Hamburger Soup
While the soup is simmering, I prepare a quick chopped salad and slice up a loaf of french bread (almost always served with Homemade Garlic Butter) for a complete meal.
If you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, this soup is great reheated for lunches all week but even better, it freezes perfectly!
I prop up a freezer bag in my little baggie holder and fill each baggie with one serving.
When I need a quick lunch, I take it out of the freezer the night before or in the morning and microwave for a perfect meal. (And then sometimes add a little sprinkle of cheese before serving).
This has been a family favorite forever!
It gets rave reviews from everyone who tries it, it’s quick and easy to make, reheats well and is versatile. The perfect soup.
This is also an excellent gifting soup.
If you know anyone that’s recently had a baby or surgery, or is just having an extra crazy week with the kids, this is the soup to drop off.
Add along a side of 30 Minute Dinner Rolls for the perfect meal!
It stretches to feed a crowd with that salad and bread and will last a few days.
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 medium potatoes peeled and diced
- 3 ½ cups beef broth
- 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juices, 1 can
- 10.75 ounces condensed tomato soup 1 can
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 3 cups frozen mixed vegetables or fresh chopped vegetables
Instructions
- Brown onion, ground beef and garlic until no pink remains. Drain any fat.
- Add potatoes, broth, tomatoes, tomato soup, Worcestershire sauce, seasoning and bay leaves. Simmer covered 10 minutes.
- Stir in vegetables. Simmer 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
Video
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Soup
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I love this recipe! I make it for my family often.
My question is, how would I go about Canning this soup in my pressure canner?
I’m sorry, I haven’t done any canning so I can’t answer that question. Hopefully another reader can help you out!
Hi Karen, when canning a homemade soup, it is highly recommended you use a respected source for the type of soup, such as the Ball Blue Book, as there is a lot of variables at play with each type of soup. I think freezing would be a faster, and safer option.
Great tip Lee, thanks so much!
Karen my mom made hamburger soup when I was growing up. So I decided to can it so I could have it anytime I want. It’s very easy. Brown your meat add everything else that you want (except pasta). Ladle it into what ever size jars you want to use. Process it for 75 minutes for pints or 90 minutes for quarts. This is the time you would use for meat. But always, always consult your canning book for exact time and pressure. I know that you will enjoy it. Only add pasta after you have opened your jar for use. As well as any cheese that you would like.
Great tips. Thank you for letting us know Bette!
Love this soup!! I used fingerlings potatoes that were multi colored and it was absolutely wonderfu. This will be our new winteŕ,summer,spring and fall soup. Thank you for sharing.
All season soup :) You’re welcome, glad you love it.
I never comment on websites when I try recipes, but I had to comment on how wonderful and easy this recipe is! Someone shared it on FB, and I thought, hey, I have all of those ingredients! So I made it and my family loved it, I’ve got another pot of it on the stove as I type this! I will be making this often!
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment April! Glad your family love this recipe as much as my family does!
This is a great recipe, thank you! We found this a while back and tried it, and it’s now become a regular in our soup rotation because of how versatile it is in using whatever veggies you have around the kitchen. I will actually be making this tonight to prep for the week ahead, using a mix of fresh veggies, frozen veggies, and some diced up baked potatoes we have from earlier this weekend. Absolutely PERFECT for throwing together with minimal work. I don’t have any diced tomatoes on hand, but we have tons of whole, stewed tomatoes that we often use for pasta sauces. Just drop them in a large bowl, carefully squeeze and break apart with your hands (this is how we use them for sauces as well), and drain off a little of the excess juice. Perfect for soups too. You get some nice uneven, rough chunks of stewed tomato, like it was made from scratch. We love it packed for lunch with a sandwich or even a little crusty french bread and some stout cheese. Very satisfying!
Thank you for sharing your tips Eddie! I’m so glad you are enjoying this soup recipe! We love it too!
I am new to the Insta Pot craze. Does anyone have conversion instructions for the Hamburger Soup recipe to be made using the Insta Pot?? Thank you!!
In the six quart, I just hit manual high, and cook for 12min. I have used the soup button in the past, but it cooks too long and the potatoes and veggies are overdone. You can sauté in the instant pot the onion, garlic and meat beforehand per directions if you want, but I found its not necessary to do so.
Thank you Jamie!
Instead of potatoes you can add 1 can of garbanzo beans. I made this & everyone loved it.
Great idea!
Made this tonight and I just loved this wonderful soup. So easy to make.
So glad you enjoyed it Melissa!
I made this tonight and it was delicious. I used ground turkey and I put a can of tri beans in too. I will definitely make this again!!!!!
Sounds delicious Julie, so glad you loved it!
My Nana called it tramp stew, with the only “boughten” ingredients being the hamburger, tomatoes, and potatoes. Then the other railroad workers would bring what they had and add it to it, other meats and veggies. But if it only had the basic ingredients she called it hamburger soup.
Thank you for sharing Judy!
It’s Hobo Stew in my family…we just throw what we have in.
I made this soup on Saturday, June 16th…it was delicious and even better on the second day! I didn’t have beef broth on hand so I use loose beef bouillon instead and for the tomatoes I used petite cut. I will make this again and again. My husband raved about it. Thank you for the great recipes. I love receiving them and deciding which ones to try.
Mary, thank you for letting me know how much you love the recipes, and this hamburger soup! We love it too.
By far the family’s favorite dish. Great comfort food and so darn easy to make. I did however, substitute no yolk noodles for the potatoes. It’s awesome. Thank you!
You’re welcome Lisa
I make it all the time my husband loves it and I do too
So happy to hear that you both love the soup Margarety!
The recipe was both quick to prepare and delicious. The hint of tomato soup (my favorite) with each bite added a rich great flavor. This is now a family favorite.
So glad to hear your family loved this Karin!
Made it last week, both husband and I loved it, Making it again this week!
Just finished making the Easy Hamburger soup and it’s delicious. The only variation was I added diced celery. I definitely recommend this wonderful soup.
So glad to hear that you loved the soup Edith!
Iove this soup first time i made it family loved it now I make every week and my grandson eats almost 2 bowls
So glad to hear Mattie!
Yes I made this recipe several times, everyone loved it very much. Thank you for sharing!!
So glad you loved it Marge!
Thank you holly for this amazing recipe! I love it!
So glad you loved it!
The soup was a quick and easy meal. However I did have to add more seasonings to suite my taste. I used fire roasted tomatoes instead. Plus just added more Italian seasoning and marjoram, onion powder, garlic powder. And it was delicious. Will be making again.
Glad you enjoyed the soup Jennifer!
Without my favourite hamburger recipe on hand, I looked up one online, finding this one! I loved it! Tweeting it to use up my leftovers also! Tks.
Enjoy Denise!