I made this glorious hamburger soup yesterday for three very important reasons:
One, it was so ding dang cold outside, all I could think about was soup recipes.
Two, church was canceled (church? canceled? I don't understand!) and I didn't have anything else to do.
Three, I was hungry, man.
I love hamburger soup so much, because you can add whatever veggies you want: zucchini, green beans, corn, even mushrooms. If you ask me, that makes it a pretty healthy ground beef recipe. It's meaty and hearty and flavorful and satisfying. Mmmmmm! It just feels good to eat it. My kids loved every single bite of this. (And so did their mom, by the way.)
Now this is a family favorite. Alex even makes hamburger soup herself for her husband Mauricio! Make a big pot for your own family. They'll love it, and love you!
What is hamburger soup?
It's mainly ground beef and lots of veggies. Instead of hamburger soup, you could call this "clean out the fridge soup." I use onion, celery tomatoes, garlic, bell peppers, carrots, and potatoes, but use what you like or have on hand. Lots of beef stock is poured in, along with some tomato paste and dried herbs.
Can you add pasta to hamburger soup?
Absolutely! This soup is very forgiving, so use what you and your family like best. Elbow macaroni would be great in hamburger soup. Go ahead and cook the macaroni separately and stir it in at the very end before serving.
What is the difference between hamburger soup and chili?
Think of hamburger soup as a vegetable and beef soup. You'd never find potatoes, celery, or carrots in chili—not any chili recipe I'd eat, anyway! Chili is made with ground meat and beans (if you're in to that kind of thing) and lots of spice. Hamburger soup also has ground meat, but there's a lot more veggies and a lot less spice.
Can you freeze hamburger soup?
Yes, you sure can. I love making a big batch and freezing some. It'll last in the freezer for up to three months. Let it thaw in the fridge overnight then reheat it in a pot on the stove. Bake a batch of corn muffins to go with it and no one will know (or care!) that dinner came straight from the freezer.
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Yields:
12
serving(s)
Prep Time:
15 mins
Total Time:
45 mins
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 lb.
ground chuck
- 1
large onion, diced
- 2
stalks celery, diced
- 3
cloves garlic, minced
- 14 oz.
can whole tomatoes
- 3 c.
beef stock or beef broth, plus more as needed
- 1
yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 1
red bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 1
green bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 4
carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
- 5
red potatoes, cut into chunks
- 3 Tbsp.
tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp.
kosher salt, more to taste
- 1/2 tsp.
black pepper, more to taste
- 2 tsp.
dried parsley flakes
- 1/2 tsp.
ground oregano
- 1/4 tsp.
cayenne pepper, more to taste
Directions
- Step1Brown the meat with the onion, celery, and garlic in a large pot over medium-high heat. Remove the pot from the heat and drain off as much fat as you can. (Discard the fat once it cools.)
- Step2Return the pot to the heat and add the rest of the ingredients: whole tomatoes, beef stock or broth, bell peppers, carrots, red potatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and spices. Stir to combine, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, then cover the pot and simmer the soup for 15 to 20 minutes more, until potatoes are tender but not overly mushy.
- Step3Taste and adjust theseasonings, adding more salt if needed.
Tip: Soup should be somewhat thick, but if you'd like it to be more "soupy," add 1 to 2 cups more broth or hot water and heat through.
Here's what you need, other than the seasonings, which I left out of this photo because I'm an airhead.
But you're probably used to that.
Peel the carrots.
(I like to do it on a paper towel so I can just fold it up and toss it!)
Now, dice up an onion. I keep the dice pretty small, so the soup won't have big chunks.
Then dice up a couple of stalks of celery to about the same size…
And mince up 3 cloves of garlic.
I decided to use three colors of bell peppers, because my grocery store does this neat thing where they package up all three colors of bell pepper together, and I can't resist them because they look so pretty together.
I'm very visually driven. I'm not sure if I've ever conveyed this to you before, what with my four thousand photos per recipe post and everything.
Seed the peppers, then dice them up.
Slice the carrots on a diagonal…
Then cut the red potatoes into large chunks.
And now it's time to make the soup! Throw the hamburger, onion, celery, and garlic in a large pot….
Then brown it over medium-high heat until the meat is totally cooked!
Now, this step is important: Remove the pot from the heat and drain off as much fat as humanly possible. The more fat you drain off, the less fat you'll see later on the surface of the soup, the more palatable the soup will be, and the more your cardiologist will thank me.
So everyone wins!
Yuck! Let it cool, then toss it.
Crack open a can of whole tomatoes. (This is a large can, but I only used half of it.)
Pour in the tomatoes along with the juice…
Then reach in, grab the tomatoes one by one, and squish them with your hands.
I like to do this rather than use canned diced tomatoes, because you’ll have more randomly shaped tomatoes in the soup rather than uniform dices.
And I’d rather be random than dicey.
Throw in the bell peppers…
The carrots…
And the potatoes!
Next, for the liquid, add 4 cups of beef stock or beef broth. You can also add a cup or two of water if you want your soup to be more soupy (and less stewy), or you can add it toward the end of the cooking time once you assess the consistency.
Assessing Consistency… One Hamburger Soup at a Time.
I think that should be my new tagline. Has a nice ring to it.
And now, I'm going to reveal something about myself that you might not know. I don't share this with many people, but I feel we have developed a certain level of trust through the years. Here goes: I like to stir tomato paste into anything I cook that has a beef broth base. So brisket… pot roast… stew… you name it. A little dab of tomato paste will catapult it into the heavens.
I feel better having shared this with you. I feel lighter.
Figuratively speaking, of course.
Now, it's time to season it up! Add some kosher salt—I start with just half a teaspoon at first. I can always add more later!
Next comes black pepper…
Dried parsley flakes (and I definitely could/would have used fresh if I'd had any)…
Ground oregano (you can also use ground thyme)…
And, to make sure the soup eaters are awake, a little bit of cayenne pepper.
Now just stir it all together, return it to the stovetop…
And bring it to a boil!
Then reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and let it simmer for 20 minutes or so, until the potatoes are firm but tender enough to eat.
Yum! Smells so, so good.
Now it's time to taste the soup and make any adjustments it needs: Add more salt if you wanna, a little more cayenne if it needs a little heat, a little more tomato paste if it needs more tang.
Then serve it up in all its chunky, flavorful glory!
My kids positively inhaled this. It was perfect for a perfectly frigid day.
And psssst: A little spoonful of parmesan cheese never hurt anyone. Yum!
Enjoy this, guys.
