The Best Hamburger Soup Recipe! – How To Make Delicious Soup
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Last Updated on August 17, 2022 by Katherine
There is honestly nothing better on a cold and drizzly fall afternoon than curling up with a warm bowl of hearty hamburger soup! One of my favorite things about soup is that you can batch cook a whole bowl and freeze portions of it for later. The hamburger soup recipe I’ll share in this post, for example, will make about 6-8 bowls.
Soup is also a great way to use up a bountiful garden harvest of vegetables and the vast majority of recipes are changeable. My hamburger soup recipe can easily swap out different ingredients to suit your personal tastes and what vegetables you might have a lot of.
Ready to get cooking? Let’s go!
Gather Your Ingredients
I like to start my recipes much like I start my crafting projects. I like to gather up all the ingredients and things like my soup pot, wooden spoon, etc.
Not only does it make for a nice “before” picture for this post, it’s nice to have everything ready to go into the pot when it’s time to toss it in there.
Chop Those Veggies!
For the hamburger soup, we need potatoes, carrots and celery all cut up. If you are not an expert at cutting vegetables (I am 100% terrible at slicing them myself), simply aim to have roughly the same size in your pieces. Nobody’s perfect and your soup will taste amazing regardless of whether your potatoes are perfectly cubed or not!
Browning Beef & Onions
The first actual cooking step is to brown the beef and cook the onion. Start by tossing both your beef and onion slices into the pot and turn the burner onto a medium-high setting and cook until there is no pink remaining in your meat. I find this takes roughly 6 minutes.
If you are using full fat ground beef, you will probably have a lot of excess fluid to drain once the beef is finished. I find when using lean or extra lean, there’s not a lot of excess oil coming off the meat and it’s unnecessary to drain it before adding all your other ingredients.
Add Everything Else & Simmer
You can now turn that stove burner down to a low setting and add in all your other ingredients. Give the pot a good stir as you add in everything. Then you can just sit back and chill for a bit, giving your pot a stir every so often so things continue to meld together nicely.
Your Hamburger Soup Is Ready!
In about 2 hours, that is. Your soup will be ready when your carrots and potatoes are softened enough. Simply remove the bay leaf (great for seasoning, not so great for eating) and serve!
If desired, you can garnish your soup with whatever you like. I recommend shredded parmesan cheese!
Hamburger Soup
Easy soup recipe, combining ground beef, vegetables and some spices.
Ingredients
- 225 g Ground Beef, browned.
- 1 Medium Onion, chopped.
- 200 ml Canned tomatoes
- 1 Large Carrot, grated.
- 1 Large Potato, cubed.
- 1 Large Celery Stalk, sliced.
- 2 pkg Beef Broth (OXO)
- 750 ml Water
- 75 ml Condensed Tomato Soup
- 30 ml Barley
- 5 ml Parsley
- 1 ml Sugar
- 1 ml Salt
- 1 ml Thyme
- 1 Bay Leaf (remove before serving)
- 0.5 ml Pepper
Instructions
Begin by browning the beef and onions in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Once the beef is cooked through (no pink remaining) drain any additional grease.
Add all remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours. Remove the bay leaf prior to serving.
Recipe Notes
This soup cooks up wonderfully in the slow cooker. Begin by browning the beef and onions in a saucepan. Transfer the beef and onions to your slow cooker, add the remaining ingredients and either set a low or a high heat and sit back and enjoy.
Don’t forget to remove the bay leaf prior to serving, though!
How to Make This Hamburger Soup Recipe In A Slow Cooker
If you’re a fan of setting it and leave it alone for hours, a slow cooker is your best friend in the kitchen. This soup cooks well in a slow cooker, but I recommend browning the beef in a medium or small saucepan before adding everything into the slow cooker.
Recommended Items To Buy
You can absolutely get away with a nice big soup pot, a stirring spoon and your ladle, but the following items are some of my favorite recommendations for soups as they either save you some time or they simply make the soup-making process easier.
Slow Cooker
You can find a decent slow cooker (sometimes called a crock pot) for around $50. These ingenious inventions are perfect for soup as they can allow your ingredients to simmer and mix for hours while you go about your day.
My only specific recommendation to look for is one that is digital, as they often have a function where it will keep your food warm after it reaches the cooking time you set. This option can help save you from burning too many soups if you’d rather not keep a close eye on the time.
Containers
Simple plastic or glass food storage containers are perfect for batching your soup into individual servings. I recommend that no matter what you choose, make sure the containers can go into the dishwasher!
Rubbermaid TakeAlongs are perfect for your soup making needs and you can buy them at your local Walmart!
Long-handled Wooden Spoon
I prefer wooden spoons because they are kinder to your pots and you’ll find the handles don’t get hot if you’re stirring soups constantly. The only thing I dislike about wooden spoons is that, like all wooden things, you can’t pop them in the dishwasher!
Ladle
Ladles are an essential for soups. They allow you to portion off your large pot of soup into individual portions. You can find them in a variety of sizes and some of them will even have cup or ml measurements on them for easy measurements.
You might find other useful items down the road if you decide to make soup making a significant portion of your life, but if you’re just making soups for yourself and your family, you don’t need to spend tons of money.
Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed this recipe and if you did, please leave me a comment. Also, if you have a question about this recipe, I’d love to hear from you!
Also, don’t forget to share this post on social media and pin it on Pinterest!
Other Recipes To Try:
How to Make a Deliciously Easy Rice Pudding With Coconut Milk
Halloween Sugar Cookies – How to Make These Easy Treats For Your Next Party
