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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Quick, easy, and delicious!!! In addition to the ingredients listed, I also add a pound of sausage, an additional potato, baby carrots, and celery. We love having leftovers and still have plenty to freeze!
Love those additions Kim! So happy to hear you love the soup!
Years ago I used to can a mixture of “a last of the garden vegetables”…on a cold winter night I would open a can and add the cooked ground beef and a few spices. My family loved when I served this comfort food. I no longer can or freeze, but tonight I made your recipe. My husband & I enjoyed it immensely…it brought back
A lot of memories of our family gathered around the table, sharing a home cooked meal together. Yum, yum!
I’m so glad you loved it Grandma Sue, those truly are the best recipes!
Honestly the Italian Seasoning gave it an overwhelming Italian flavor. Like a soup you would get at an Italian restaurant. I was expecting something like a beef veg flavor not a heavy Italian oregano flavor. Other than that it was quite hardy and easy to make. Any suggestions to replace the Italian seasoning?
Charles, I’d suggest reducing the the amount of Italian seasoning to your liking. Or if you aren’t an oregano fan, perhaps you may prefer using parsley instead. Enjoy!
Garlic and herb seasonings
I made this soup today. I did not have a can of diced tomatoes, so I substituted a large fresh tomato and a small can of V8 juice. The soup was delicious and reminded me of my mother’s from many years ago. It was super easy, too.
I am so glad you loved it Linda! Those sound like great additions.
What spices do you use for the hamburger soup recipe just says spices and does not specify which ones.
Thank you
I use Italian seasoning which is a spice mixture that can be purchased at the store or you can make your own homemade Italian Seasoning.
I don’t need 98 pages of comments , Just the Receipe only . Wheres the receipe print ONLY????
The print button is located next to the ingredients. Enjoy! :)
Delicious! mine tasted a little too tomato, I added extra worcestershire and a pinch of allspice and the Umami I was looking for was there. But this was a terrific soup thank you for my childhood diner soup memories.
I just made this with some changes. used fresh (zucchini, yellow squash, potatoes), canned (green beans, corn), forgot to get Italian seasoning so i used dried oregano and basil. i don’t like onions and tomatoes that much so i use one 15oz can condensed tomato soup, 1/2 can diced tomatoes and 1/2 small onion diced small. this came REALLY REALLY good. i was amazed.
Thanks for sharing the recipe.
PS after typing this i just realized i forgot to put the Worcestershire sauce in it. Wonder if it would make a taste difference with the Worcestershire sauce in it? next time i will see. lol
I’m so glad you love the soup Tommy! We really enjoy the addition of the Worcestershire sauce. I’m sure you will too!
Made this soup per instructions and it was delicious….it has been added to my fall/winter rotation….it was so, so good
So glad to hear you love this delicious soup recipe Susan!
Hi Holly. Just made the hamburger soup, and it was delicious! I remember my mom used to make it, but I don’t remember it this good. Usually I make all my soups in the crockpot, but this time I made everything in a deep cast iron pot with cover. I doubled the recipe, and made a few additions. I added 1 can of corn, and a handful of frozen peas along with the frozen veggies. I added 2 carrots, peeled and diced along with 2 stalks of celery diced. My husband loved it and I froze a few containers and put a casserole in the fridge for tomorrow. So yummy! Want to try your cabbage soup next and cabbage rolls. Love your site! Thank you. I have started to setup a binder of recipes I will try of yours. Sue
Thank you so much! You’ll love the cabbage soup for sure. I’m so glad to hear you love this soup so much!
What should I use if I dont have tomato soup? And if I use beef boullion cubes do I add 3 1/2 cups of water?
You can leave the tomato soup out (and add a bit of tomato sauce or even vegetable juice like V8 if you’d like). Beef Bouillon should be just fine in this recipe. I would reconstitute the bouillon according to package directions.
I made this and it’s so delicious!!!
I’m so glad you loved it Theresa!
I am usually one to follow exact directions, but I varied slightly on this. First I halved recipe (next time I’ll make whole recipe as it was delicious and I’ll freeze half), I used 1 can beef broth and chicken bullion cube dissolved in micro in 1 cup of water. I didn’t have tomato soup so I added 1/2 can tomato paste. I also used a small can of rotel-like diced tomatoes – this gave it a little kick that my husband loved. Also added fresh diced zucchini with the carrots, green beans, potatoes, and celery. Served with warm French bread. Hubby loved it. Definitely will be baking this again! Thank you!
Great additions, thank you for sharing!
Sounds delicious Anne, thank you for sharing!
What oz of the condensed tomato soup did you use? I’m super excited to make this!
I use a 10.5oz can.
The recipe says makes 8 servings… What are the serving sizes? This sounds delicious and want to try it but want to make sure with our carb restrictions a serving will be filling enough. Thank you
Each serving is about 1½ cups.
Do you think it’s okay to do pasta and potatoes or no?
Sure it is!
Holly I’ve made this soup twice now for my family and it is our new favorite! It’s so good that I’m making it Sunday for my church family. It’s great with both pasta and potatoes! So filling! Thanks!
So glad to hear you love this recipe so much! We do too!
I am making this now…just with a little more grand beef than noted ;) But the cooking isn’t quite clear, as you say to simmer for ten minutes…but does that mean as it’s heating up to a simmer, or bring it to a simmer and then simmer for ten minutes..before adding the veggies ;)
Bring it to a simmer and once simmering allow 10 minutes. This is just to give the potatoes a chance to soften.
This was great! I doubled the recipe but my daughter only bought one can of Italian tomatoes. It still turned out great. Even with a double batch it was gone in a day and a half!
So glad you loved it Danielle!
I want to make this but my question is what “seasonings” do you use?? thanks!
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper
My Mom called it This-n-that soup. Only she melted cheese into it. I like it because it does not require exotic (to me) ingredients nor an entire spice shelf. I like to taste the food not spices.
Love your Mom’s name for this! :) Cheese would be great with this dish!
I’m sorry if someone already asked this.. there were so many comments! :D Could I put this in the crock pot? I’m thinking if I could.. I should add a little more liquid so the taters can soak up some with out thickening the soup. What do you think? Thank you!
That should work perfectly, I don’t think it needs more liquid (but I haven’t tried it). I’d suggest cooking it on low 6-8 hours or until potatoes are tender. Let us know how it goes. :)
JUst wondering how well this would freeze. Should I omit anything when freezing?
It freezes perfectly Angela, no changes needed!
I have a problem with freezing anything with potatoes. When I defrost the potatoes tend to be mushy. Am I using the wrong type of potatoes?