Hamburger Soup is packed with fresh vegetables, hearty beef, and nourishing broth. This upgraded take on classic Beef and Vegetable Soup will bring you back for bowl after bowl. Leftovers reheat and freeze well too!
“I was actually looking for Ree Drummond’s hamburger soup recipe on the internet when I stumbled across your recipe. And I have to say, this is the best recipe and totally wins out over Ree’s recipe. Great work!”
Recently I took the little bits to Madison County – of The Bridges of Madison County-fame – to check out Clark Tower. This massive stone tower was built in the 1920’s on top of an enormous hill with the most gorgeous, sweeping views of Madison County below.
I’ve been wanting to see it for years, and told the kids we were going to go see a castle. We were all thrilled!
The tower is located within Winterset City Park which contains one of the historic bridges, plus a huge playground, hedge maze, and a log cabin originally built in the 1850s.
The changing leaves, cool breeze, bright blue skies, and sense of outdoor adventure made for a truly perfect-feeling fall morning.
What really drove the feeling home was having a pot of cozy Hamburger Soup waiting for us to eat back at the house.
This ground beef and veggie-packed soup tastes like the canned vegetable soup of your childhood (where my fellow elder millenials at?!) made wholesome and homemade.
I can’t emphasize enough how many vegetables are packed into each bowl, yet each brothy bite tastes rich, savory, and hearty. Hamburger Soup is easily a 2-bowl-worthy recipe!
Watch How to Make It
Main Ingredients Needed
This easy vegetable hamburger soup is a clean out your fridge, freezer, and pantry kind of dish. Here’s the main ingredients you’ll need:
- Ground beef: I prefer using fattier, 80/20 or 85/15 ground beef for a more luxurious mouthfeel, but use what you like best or have on hand.
- Beef stock: high-quality beef stock or beef broth forms the savory base of the soup.
- V8 Original Vegetable Juice: surprise! V8 is my secret ingredient for adding more veggies and flavor to each bite. You can buy individual cans of it at the store.
- Fresh vegetables: thinly sliced or shredded carrots, celery, onion or shallot, and diced russet potatoes make up the fresh-veggie portion of the program.
- Frozen sweet corn: for pops of color and flavor in each spoonful.
- Canned green beans: Like any good elder millennial, I love canned green beans and kept them in my recipe as a nod to the canned vegetable soup I used to eat as a kid.
- Tomato sauce: for color and flavor.
- Italian seasoning: for a nice herby flavor.
- Seasoned salt and pepper: black pepper plus my 4 ingredient homemade seasoned salt add lots of flavor with nearly zero effort.
What to Serve It With
What I love about this hearty soup is that I don’t need to serve it with anything, as it already contains the ideal Midwestern meal trifecta of meat, vegetable, and starch.
That said, if you want to round out the dinner table, serve each bowl with a fresh green salad or any of these easy side dish recipes:
- Chicken Stew
- Gluten Free Focaccia
- Gluten Free Flatbread
- Gluten-Free Cornbread
- Gluten Free Scalloped Potatoes
- Creamy Garlic Shells
- Fresh Fruit Salad
- Seasoned Broiled Potatoes
- Cucumber Tomato Salad
- Air Fryer Asparagus
I can’t wait for you to get this hearty ground beef soup recipe simmering on your stove. It truly feeds your stomach AND soul!
How to Make This Recipe
Step 1: Saute the vegetables.
Start by heating extra virgin olive oil or butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add sliced or shredded carrots, thinly sliced celery, and chopped shallot or onion then saute until the vegetables are tender, seasoning with my homemade seasoned salt and pepper.
Add fresh garlic then saute until extremely fragrant, 1-2 minutes.
Step 2: Brown the ground beef.
Turn the heat up to medium-high then add ground beef and break it up as it cooks. Fattier ground beef like 85/15 or 80/20 stays very tender in the soup after sauting/simmering, plus it adds a ton of flavor. You can either drain the mixture then return to the pot, scoop out excess fat with a spoon, or skim off any fat that rises to the top of the soup as it simmers.
All that said, lean ground beef is fine to use, or if you want to get even leaner, ground turkey or ground chicken may also be used. I’d stay away from ground turkey breast or ground chicken breast because they tend to dry out.
Step 3: Simmer the soup.
Turn the heat to high then add a can of tomato sauce, high quality beef stock or broth, plus a can of V8 vegetable juice to add extra nutrition, seasoning, and flavor.
Lastly, add Italian seasoning, a bay leaf, a can of cut green beans, and frozen sweet corn then stir to combine and bring the soup to a boil.
Add diced russet potatoes then turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer until the potatoes are tender, 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Diced yukon gold potatoes are a good swap, though I do love the creaminess of regular ol’ russets!
Step 4: Serve
Remove the bay leaves then scoop this hearty, humble, DELICIOUS Hamburger Vegetable Soup recipe into bowls and enjoy. Then go back for another bowl. And then another. You’ll see!
How to Store, Reheat, and Freeze
My Hamburger Soup recipe makes enough to feed an army but if you have leftovers — lucky you! They reheat and freeze extremely well.
- To store: cool the soup to room temperature then scoop into a glass storage container with a lid (plastic will stain) and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
- To reheat: scoop individual-sized portions into bowls then reheat covered with a paper towel in the microwave. Alternatively you can reheat the soup in a pot on the stove over medium-high heat.
- To freeze: cool the soup to room temperature then chill in the refrigerator. Pour the chilled soup into a gallon-size Ziplock freezer bag then seal and freeze flat. Thaw the bag placed inside a dish (in case of leaks) in the fridge then reheat in a pot on the stove over medium-high heat.
I hope you love every spoonful of this nourishing, brothy, beef and veggie-packed soup. Enjoy!
More Hearty Soup Recipes
- Gluten Free Lasagna Soup
- Loaded Baked Potato Soup
- Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup
- Ham and Bean Soup
- Sweet Corn, Kielbasa and Potato Soup
- Italian Wedding Soup
- Black Bean Soup
- Cheesy Taco Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or butter
- 1 cup baby carrots, thinly sliced OR 1 cup shredded carrots
- 2 ribs celery, thinly sliced
- 1 shallot or small yellow onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
- homemade seasoned salt and pepper
- 1 lb ground beef, I like 85/15 or 80/20
- 4 cups beef stock or broth
- 15 oz can tomato sauce
- 15 oz can cut green beans, drained
- 5.5 oz can V8 original vegetable juice
- 1-1/2 cups frozen sweet corn
- 1-1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 small russet potatoes, ~14oz, peeled then diced
Directions
- Heat the extra virgin olive oil or butter in a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, and shallot or onion, season with homemade seasoned salt and pepper, then saute for 3 minutes. Place a lid on top then cook until the vegetables are crisp-tender, 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic then saute until very fragrant, 1-2 minutes.
- Turn the heat up to medium-high then add the ground beef and season with more seasoned salt and pepper. Brown the beef, breaking it up as it cooks. If there’s a lot of extra fat in the pot you can either scoop it out now with a spoon, or skim it off the top of the soup later.
- Add the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the potatoes then turn the heat to high to bring the soup to a simmer. Add the potatoes then turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer until the potatoes are tender, 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. (You may put a lid on the pot near the end to help the potatoes soften if they’re taking too long.) Remove the bay leaf then scoop the soup into bowls and serve.
Notes
- To store: cool the soup to room temperature then scoop into a glass storage container with a lid (plastic will stain) and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
- To reheat: scoop individual-sized portions into bowls then reheat covered with a paper towel in the microwave. Alternatively you can reheat the soup in a pot on the stove over medium-high heat.
- To freeze: cool the soup to room temperature then chill in the refrigerator. Pour the chilled soup into a gallon-size Ziplock freezer bag then seal and freeze flat. Thaw the bag placed inside a dish (in case of leaks) in the fridge then reheat in a pot on the stove over medium-high heat.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
Photos by Ashley McLaughlin
We made a similar recipe at Girl Scout camp-Girl Scout soup. All canned veggies. We enjoyed this more Adukt version. We used plant based ground meat. I used canned diced tomatoes and tomato paste-the bouillon balanced it nicely.
I’m so glad this updated version was a hit, Nancy!! Thank you so much for your feedback and recipe rating!
I’ve been wanting to make this soup for a while because it reminded me so much of a childhood friend’s mom’s soup that I loved. Finally made it and it is absolutely amazing! I used fire roasted tomato sauce, but other than that made no changes. Great recipe!
Love to hear this, Julie!! So glad it reminded you of a dish from your childhood too. Thank you so much for your feedback and recipe rating!
Kristin, this was excellent on a cold winter’s night! I used ground locally raised bison for the meat. I added a can of three bean blend in place of the green beans. Shared some with a neighbor as well. I think the flavors will go through it even more for the next time I warm it up. Yum yum! Thanks!
Oh that sounds divine, Nancy! So thoughtful of you to share. Thank you so much for your feedback and recipe rating!
Best soup ever! I used Sam’s Choice Angus Bacon & Aged Cheddar Beef Patties for the beef and used Cavender’s Greek Seasoning, garlic salt and pepper. Dumped everything in my crockpot and threw it on high for 3.5 hrs. At the 2 hr mark I added 3 C. instant white rice since I forgot the potatoes. It came out a thick veggie beef stew that was delicious. Next day added more beef broth and V8 to bring it back to a soup.
Ooo, sounds amazing, Tanya! So glad you were able to make this work with what you had on hand!
I was actually looking for Ree Drummond’s hamburger soup recipe on the internet when I stumbled across your recipe. And I have to say, this is the best recipe and totally wins out over Ree’s recipe. Great work!
Oh my gosh, such high praise – I am thrilled to hear that, Kam!! Thank you so much for your feedback!
My mom taught me to make this soup when I was a young lady. This is what she called beef vegetable soup, very delicious
Sounds like a nostalgic recipe, Corean! :)
Made this as per recipe with one small change: I had no green beans but I did have two small wedges of cooked cabbage, so I rough shopped that and added it in instead of the beans. I did make a batch of your seasoned salt and used that! So delicious!
Ooo I love that, Carol! I’ve been seeing so many recipes for roasted cabbage wedges lately that I can’t wait to try.
Have a double batch simmering on the stove right now! My husband requested it as part of my pre hand surgery freezer stock up. It’s so delicious & comforting 😋
I’m so glad you love this soup, Lisa – wishing you a quick recovery, too!
This is a really delicious, nutritious and a hearty soup! When my husband and I want something filled with veggies this is always our go-to! Thank you for your creation
Same here, Carol!! So glad you two enjoy it! :)
This is such a good and easy recipe. Sitting here thinking about this soup I am now hungry for it!
Oh I’m so glad, Shelly!! I think about this one a lot too – SO GOOD!
I made this soup the first time you posted it and it was so good! Thanks for reupping. One thing, MSG is NOT gross. Please do some research! :)
Thank you for pointing that out – I wrote this post in the fall of 2020, before I learned why MSG has/had been villainized. I will change the text immediately. Thanks for the heads up!
Made this soup and doubled the recipe. It is wonderful. So tasty. Tastes even better a day or two later. Absolutely a keeper.
I’m so thrilled you loved it, Karen! Thank you so much for your feedback and recipe rating!
I’m very very late to this party, but people. Make.This.Soup. Very easy to make, from simple ingredients….and you won’t believe how good it tastes. Great little recipe, IG, and thank you! So glad I subbed to your beautiful site.