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.
Easy Hamburger Soup
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
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
More Recipes You’ll Love
Delish and perfect for a chilly night! Cant wait to make it again. I didnt have Italian seasonings so added some Italian dressing. It worked out great. Served with warmed french bread.
You’re right Kristin, that DOES sound perfect on a chilly night!
I have made this before several times and again tonight for dinner. Only thing I added was fresh chopped celery leaves, just the leaves not the stalks, as the leaves have more flavor.
Sounds delicious, Storm! Thanks for sharing.
The 2 medium potatoes, what would that be in cups? Thank you!
Hi Laci, it is about 1.5-2 cups of diced potatoes.
Thank you! Making it tonight!
Love this Hamburger Soup! Perfect recipe. It was even better the second day. I used a bag of frozen vegetables for soup which included everything called for in recipte. The potatoes were cut small and cooked up well. Also, I used 1 1-2 lbs. ground meat. So easy!
I love this soup but I can not ever get my potatoes soft enough! Should I pre boil them?
Hi Brittany, you could preboil them or cut them a little smaller so they can fully cook with the soup.
This soup is good but I made it my own way. Replaced tomato soup with regular V-8 Juice. Omitted bay leaf as I had none. Added 2 Tbs of light brown sugar to reduce the tomatoie acidity and add more flavor other than from the tomatoes. My picky eater husband loved it and ate 2 full bowls! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for sharing your substitutions, Sharon! Those sound delicious.
Made this tonight and it was delicious!!
Have made this a couple of times now, and love to serve it with garlic or cheddar breadsticks (I cheat and just buy them…). Very tasty! The only other thing I add is a couple of good splashes of Maggi, for the umami! Great recipe :D
I made this soup this weekend. It was a big hit. My daughter, even loved it and she generally doesn’t eat soup. Thanks and it was easy to make.
My family loved this. We’ll make it again.
I had some frozen mixed vegetables I thawed in the fridge and needed to use, so I tried this recipe.
I did not have potatoes, and no desire for pasta in my soup, so just meat and veggies for us.
I have quite a bit of venison burger in the freezer, and that’s what I used.
I’ve never made a soup like this or similar to this before. It was easy, good, and my family liked it. 5 stars.
Nice simple flavorful soup with healthy and hearty ingredients. Served with some corn bread on the side. Just make sure you cut your potatoes smaller to ensure they are cooked all the way through. Had to do mine longer than recipe, just because I prefer larger cuts of potatoes in my soups.
I added a little more water and some tomato paste. Delicious
Yummy, easy recipe for a snowy day in NH! It’s a great recipe to clean out refrigerator and freezer of the collection of vegetables accumulating. I added a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies for a bit of a kick. I also added cooked elbow macaroni to make it a bit more hearty. I will definitely make this again. Thank you!
Easy recipe to follow! Thank you! I only gave it a three ( average ) because of the condensed tomato soup. I knew I should have used something less processed, but I thought I’d give it a try. I did add kale, extra fresh garlic, etc. And I did add a bit of red pepper flake ( to taste ). So again, thank you for the recipe. All of ours were clean, so it was still good. again, thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it, Azure!
If I make it in the crockpot do I need to brown the meat with the onions before?
Hi Shannon, yes. I would recommend browning the beef with the onions before adding all the ingredients to a crockpot.
I looked this recipe up several months ago, maybe even a year… I just wanted to say it’s amazing & easy. Everyone is always happy when I make it. It’s a somewhat healthy comfort food. Thanks!!
Really good and oh, so simple. Will be making again.
I made this pretty much exactly as it was written. For potatoes, I used baby gold potatoes, cut in 1/4 or 1/6, depending on size (did not peel them). I loved it, it was delicious.
This recipe was quick and absolutely DELICIOUS! I used small red potatoes because they hold up well in soups and stews. I didn’t have canned tomato soup so substituted about a tablespoon of tomato paste and a cup of water. I used fresh basil and parsley instead of the Italian seasoning. For the veggies, I used canned corn, fresh green beans, carrots, and turnips and some canned corn and frozen peas. The flavor is rich and very satisfying, especially on a dreary cold afternoon. I will definitely make this again.
Love this soup and have made it for many years. I use V-8 instead of broth. Just more vitamins. Freezes welll
I also use Spicy V-8 and don’t even need to season it
I made this recipe as written. I was worried about the amount of tomatoes, but the soup turned out perfectly delicious. The leftover soup is even better a day lor two later. Planning to make another batch to freeze for quick meals. Thanks for a great recipe!