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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we kinda went crazy on this recipe… added fresh garden spinach and kale, corn, and green beans… also did chick peas and rice. topped it off with feta cheese and garlic multigrain bread. sooooo good!
Delicious!!
My mom used to make this a lot when I was a child. My sister’s and I loved it! My mom called it veg soup but we called it red soup. lol It was our favorite meal and a recipe that keeps getting passed down. My daughter makes it for my 4-year-old grandson now and he loves it.
Can you make this in the slow cooker?
Hi Alicia, we have never tried this recipe in the slow cooker. But I think it could definitely be done! I would suggest browning the beef and adding it to the slow cooker along with the remaining ingredients. Then cooking on low 6-8 hours or until the potatoes are tender. Enjoy.
Super simple and Super delicious!!
It was good but the potatoes took forever to cook. Not a 15-20 min recipe.
If you dice the potatoes a little smaller, they’ll cook quicker. Hope that helps!
My family loved this recipe! I ended up using a mix of frozen peas and corn since those are their favorite veggies. -SWP Employee
My husband loved this (which is really saying something for my picky husband)! I did use one 14 ounce can of petit diced tomatoes And a 10 ounce can of rotel. This made it a little bit, thicker and zestier with 24 ounces of tomatoes instead of 28. You could add another half a cup of tomatoes or the rest of the beef broth if you wanted to stretch it, but it was great! We did not put potatoes in to keep it lower sugar (diabetic). And I do think that we’ll try adding beans and keto noodles to it for an easy pasta e fagioli dupe. Thank you so much!
i just made this soup and it’s way to runy. way to much tomatoe acid : i just don’t get it.
Thanks for trying our recipe, Alan. I am sorry it didn’t turn out as expected for you!
my husband and I loved it. Kind of like beef stew with hamburger
Can I freeze this soup?
Valerie, yes you can freeze this soup. It should be good for 2-3 months in the freezer!
how much dried pasta would u add to this instead of potatoes…thanks
Eric, I would add about 1½-2 cups of uncooked pasta. And make sure you add an extra 1 cup of broth (or water) and let the pasta simmer until tender.
I read thru comments to see if you can freeze this soup. Guessing not with the potatoes in it. I want to make it ahead for lunch on Thanksgiving weekend. Also wondered about the Mac n Cheese Soup as well. Making Thanksgiving Dinner for 12 that same night. Any suggestions?
Hi Valerie, yes you can freeze this soup. It should be good for 2-3 months in the freezer!
Can this recipe be made in a crockpot?
Hi Jess, this recipe can be made in the crockpot for sure. I would brown the ground beef before adding it to the crockpot and then cook on low for about 4 hours. We would love to hear how it turns out for you!
Love all your recipes! Served this with your whole wheat bread. Yum!😋
Wonderful recipe. Quick and easy too
Please bring back the old way of saving recipes. I have too many emails to sift through already.
Thank you
Hi Patti, you will find a “❤️ Save” button on every recipe that lets you save them to our site. I hope that helps!
I love this soup! This is our go to every time.
Delicious soup! My husband, who will not usually eat soup, had 2 bowls!
Cool! My favorite recipe
Amazing! Filling and delicious. So easy to customize. I’m so sick of thinking of new things with ground beef. Thank goodness for this recipe because it’s so easy!
Made this for my family of 5 tonight. It’s hard to please everyone and this soup was a win! Used odds and ends left from the farmers market and 2lbs of beef so I doubled the recipe and it was the perfect amount.