This hamburger soup is an easy and delicious meal full of veggies. It is also a great way to stretch the meat you have on hand. The recipe is super flexible so you can use what you have on hand. No potatoes? Add a few extra carrots or just leave them out! Lots of versions are delicious!
Nourishing Hamburger Soup
This healthy soup is full of healthy vegetables and wonderful flavors. We love it for dinner and it makes great leftovers. If you want to freeze it leave out the potatoes (remember potatoes don’t freeze well.
Soup is a great winter food because it is simple and filling. But it is also easy when our family schedule just seems crazy. I don’t like to let soups cook all day in the crock pot because they can get overcooked or be undercooked when you need them.
Instead I make soups the day before and then put them in the crock pot on the “keep warm” setting so they are hot and ready when we come in from sledding or touring Christmas lights.
Our Cold and Flu Season Prep List
- Get on the family about good hand wishing. This means using soap, warm water and thoroughly scrubbing our hands as needed.
- Go through the medicine cabinet and throw away all expired cold medicines.
- Replace expired medicines and make sure we have children’s Tylenol, cough drops and other over the counter items on hand.
- Stock the pantry with crackers, cream of wheat, canned soups, broth, juices, ginger ale and good soup making supplies.
- Make and freeze pints of our favorite soups. (Soups that freeze best are ones without white carbs like pasta, rice and potatoes. Soups with milk or cream in them also don’t freeze well.)
Three Things We Do To Stay Well During Cold and Flu Season
- I try to make sure we get plenty of sleep
- I make sensible nutritious meals to keep our bodies in fighting condition. The immune system needs basic building blocks to function including specific amino acids only found in meat.
- I make sure we get protein and veggies to give our bodies the best chance of staying well.
The Best Tools For Making Soup
Tools In This Post: One of my almost daily dinner tricks is to use this handy tool for dicing. Onions, tomatoes, bell pepper, jalapeno peppers – they all come out evenly and perfectly sized in a snap. The tool rinses out easily and I save a ton of time cutting up food for meals like soup, salsa and stir fry. If you cook much, this is a worthwhile investment.
Nothing goes with soup as well a fresh rolls! These dinner rolls are delicious and ridiculously easy.
Hamburger Soup
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef 15% fat
- 1 sweet onion diced
- 6 stalks celery diced
- 2 bell peppers (any color) seeded and diced
- 1 can diced tomatoes with basil garlic & oregano, 14.5 oz (or Italian stewed tomatoes)
- 5 cups water
- 4 carrots sliced
- 1 pound red potatoes cubed with skin on
- 2 Tablespoon beef bouillon
- 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper coarsely ground
- 1 teaspoon freeze dried Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
Instructions
- In a large pot over medium-high heat, brown the hamburger. Strain the fat and juices from the meat and put back in the pot for cooking. Set the browned hamburger aside in a bowl and cover to prevent drying.
- Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper to the meat juices and cook over medium-high heat for several minutes until they start to soften.
- Add everything else to the pot except the cooked hamburger. Stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cover the pot. Maintain a simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add the hamburger and check the potatoes / carrots - these veggies are done when they are tender and almost firm but not mushy.
- Continue to simmer until the potatoes and carrots are done. Taste the soup and add any additional salt or pepper if desired.
- Serve with grated Parmesan or mozzarella cheese and crackers, crusty French bread or rolls.
Nutrition
Caryn
I’m going to have to try this one! I don’t make a lot of beef based soups, though, so I’m curious: is there an advantage to using water and beef boullion instead of beef broth?
Mirlandra
There are a few possible answers to this question. I think the first is personal preference. Most store beef broth does not have the flavor I’m looking for. I find it is lacking in seasoning or zip. Sometimes I even think it detracts from the food instead of adding to it. I also think it is more expensive to buy and takes a lot of room to store. I have several brands of bouillon that I think have excellent flavor and do a good job rounding out what you are making. I actually use them in a lot of different ways – for instance if I’m boiling broccoli I will put beef or chicken bouillon in the water instead of salt! The taste is amazing and more appealing to meat eaters than the normal boiled broccoli. In soups I find that a little bouillon gives a great flavor base to work with. But again, this is such a personal preference. It is something I suggest people try both ways. You will probably find you have a strong preference for one or the other.