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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This is a very quick and easy delicious recipe Holly and I want to thank you for sharing it. I’ve made this soup about 3 times since I found your recipe and my family and I love it. It’s so nice to have when it’s cold and or rainy outside. I’m making it again today :).
So glad you loved it Mary!
I can’t wait to try this .
You’ll be glad you did Lois!
Just wondering, if I were to add pasta, how much and when would I add to the soup?
I would add it in the last 10 min or so (or however long your noodles suggest on the package). If you replace the potatoes, I’d suggest about 2 cups of uncooked pasta.
Everything looks so good.Going to try them all. Hamburger soup is cooking as I write.
How many servings does the hamburger soup recipe make?
8 servings.
This is my first time EVER commenting on a recipe, but I just can’t help myself! This soup is SO good. Out of this world good. I was very sick when I made this (used my crockpot) and after coming home from the ER, I gave it a try. I swear I woke up feeling 70% better! Coincidence… maybe. But I’m going to give all the credit to this fantastic soup ;) I will say that I *accidentally* opened up a can of diced tomatoes w/green chilies, and not wanting to waste it, I decided to use it in the soup. My husband said it was JUST the right amount of kick. Not spicy, just right! Will make this over and over again!!!
Thank you so much for coming back to comment Alisha! I’m so glad you loved it and I hope you’re feeling better!!
Wonderful flavor! I used fresh potatoes an carrots and added frozen corn and peas at the end. I also added a little salt and lots of pepper. This will be my go-to for hamburger soup. All others have been deleted!
So glad you loved it Len!
O-M-Goodness!!! My wife made this soup a week or so ago and we LOVED IT!! All the kids actually had seconds on soup (Never happens LOL). Loved it so much that I turned around and made a double batch and canned it. I also created a video and will be uploading to our YouTube channel as well. Probably within the next 1-3 days, the video will be up. I made sure to include pics of this page and your recipe. GREAT STUFF. I actually just cracked open one of the jars I canned last night and had it for a midnight snack. FANTASTIC!! :)
I just watched your video on Youtube, I loved it (readers you can find it here)!! So much fun to see you make this and love the tips on canning, I have never canned before so thank you for sharing your tips!
This has become my go to meal prep lunch. It holds up great for the week and freezes really well. I love Nancy’s idea of adding cabbage!
I’m currently stationed in Germany, and it’s like being back home every time I eat this soup.
So glad you’ve loved it Camille!
I made this to have in the freezer when preparing to have surgery. I added some chopped cabbage and one can of white beans to this recipe. It was delicious and it froze very well.
That sounds delicious too Nancy! Wishing you a speedy recovery.
I used this recipe as a base for transforming leftover meatloaf. Score! Thank you!
Great idea Jenny!
Made this soup tonight. Perfect for a cold winter night and it is delicious.
We made this tonight and there isn’t any left! The family loved it! This is a keeper. Thank you
I am so glad you loved it!
This is soooo good!! I’ve made it more than once and it’s great! I throw mine in the crockpot and walk away!
So glad you love this soup. It’s one of our favorites!
Made this for the first time tonight. It was SO good!!
So glad you loved it Becky!
Came out extremely good. I also added a couple of mini-sweet pepper, chopped, and about a half of an Anaheim pepper, and a pinch of Fennel Seeds.
I am glad you loved it! Those sound like great additions!
Making this today. Do not have tomato soup. Any suggestions?
You can leave it out or add a bit of tomato paste or even a bit of vegetable juice like V8.
Hey everyone. My mom used to cook this all the time and I loved it. She also made a soup similar to this but it had shredded chicken in it instead. I have tried to find her recipe for years but I cannot find it. Does anyone have a recipe similar?
You could try substituting the beef for chicken in this recipe. Let us know how it goes!
I used a pound of turkey meat and a half a pound of ground chuck. I also used 8 cups of beef broth along with the onion soup mix. 4 cloves of garlic and 3 teaspoons of Worcestershire and 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning. My family loved it it was so full of flavor I used more beef stock because we live in Colorad and it seems like we need more liquid out here in the High Altitude we will definitely make again yum
Great additions Pam, thanks for sharing! Glad you loved the soup!
Hi Spend with pennies!
I made this soup a few weeks ago….delicious!
Great flavor. My wife has had to go gluten free so just made it with tomato puree instead of sauce…just added some sugar….uped the Italian seasoning as I added a LOT of veggies. Thanks for a great recipe!
You’re welcome Graham! I’m so happy to hear how much you loved soup!