A delicious recipe for Easy Vegetable Beef Soup made with ground beef. This recipe uses common ingredients and it can be easily doubled if you're feeding a crowd or want leftovers for lunch. With a serving of vegetables and protein, this hearty soup is a healthy and satisfying meal.
Easy Vegetable Beef Soup Recipe
It's safe to say I have a thing for vegetable beef soup recipes. One of the all-time reader favorite recipes, that happens to have hundreds of 5 star reviews, is this Hamburger Vegetable Soup.
This easy to make vegetable beef soup, that's made with ground beef, is a one pot recipe that is total comfort food and made with some easy ingredients like frozen vegetables, dried seasonings, and lean ground beef.
Ingredients Needed
This quick version of vegetable beef soup has two secret ingredients that sound odd (trust me!) but they give this soup so much flavor. You will only need simple ingredients like frozen vegetables and ground beef to make this soup.
- Ground Beef - I always use lean 93/7 ground beef and I still drain it. Even with the lower fat ground meat you will still have some liquid pool up as it cooks. I just drain it off before adding the other ingredients.
- Beef Broth - The recipe calls for the full-salt version of beef broth and you need it! This soup relies on the hearty flavors from the beef broth, and the two "surprise ingredients".
- Frozen Vegetables - You need frozen mixed vegetables + frozen corn. Put them out on the counter to thaw before you begin chopping the onion and cooking the ground beef. This way they are slightly thawed and will cook during the simmering time.
- Soy Sauce - This is the first surprise ingredient! Traditionally you see this in Asian & Chinese inspired dishes but the salty flavor it adds goes perfectly with this soup. I use the reduced-sodium soy sauce. If you use the full salt soy sauce you might find the soup a tad too salty or not. Depending on your salt preference.
- Molasses - I know. I know. Totally weird. But it adds a thick, dark, slightly sweet flavor to the soup and it's amazing. It's even worth buying molasses just for this recipe (that's what I did anyways). There really is no substitute but if you must, try using dark brown sugar or even dark corn syrup. But again, I've never substituted this ingredient so I can't promise the results if you choose to.
How To Make Vegetable Soup With Ground Beef
You only need one pot to make this recipe!
Ground Beef : Brown and crumble the ground beef with the chopped onion, garlic powder, and basil. Drain the excess grease from the pot.
Soup : Add the remaining ingredients like beef broth, tomato sauce, frozen vegetables, molasses, and soy sauce.
Simmer : Bring the soup to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and let it simmer for at least 20-30 minutes before serving.
Tips For Success
Here are a few of my tips for making this recipe a success in your own kitchen.
- Drain Ground Beef Grease : Make sure you drain the ground beef after cooking it. All that extra grease in the soup will give it an oily film over top.
- Let Simmer : Make sure you let the soup simmer for 20-30 minutes so the flavors can develop. This soup is so much better after it's had time to simmer all together.
Variation & Substitution Ideas
There are a few ways that you can change up this hearty soup recipe. Here are a few ideas and things I have done.
- Switch Out Protein : Instead of ground beef try using ground turkey or ground chicken.
- Frozen Vegetables : Use any frozen vegetable you like!
- Tomato Sauce : I have used tomato sauce w/ garlic, basil, oregano when I've made this recipe. Instead of using plain classic tomato sauce, try using a seasoned tomato sauce.
- Seasonings : Feel free to add additional seasonings if wanted. Fresh garlic can be used, add some Italian seasoning, add salt & pepper depending on taste preference. Lots of ways to adapt this recipe to whatever you want.
Easy Vegetable Beef Soup FAQ's
- Serving Suggestions
- I love to serve this recipe with my One Hour Rolls recipe. They're so buttery and soft!
- You can also serve it with Cornbread or some Easy Breadsticks.
- Can I Freeze Vegetable Beef Soup?
- Yes! This soup freezes perfectly. Make sure it's cooled to room temperature. Store the soup inside a freezer-safe container (I use a gallon-sized Ziploc bag) and freeze for up to 1 month.
- When ready to eat, you can thaw and warm it up in a soup pot on the stove. Put the frozen soup inside the slow cooker. Or let the soup thaw in the fridge overnight.
- You may have to add some additional beef broth when reheating frozen leftovers or leftovers.
- How To Store Leftovers
- Leftovers can safely be stored in an air-tight container, in the fridge, for 3-4 days.
- I think it's easiest to warm up leftovers in the microwave, but you can also put them into a pot and heat up on the stove top.
More Soup Recipes With Ground Beef
Quick Vegetable Beef Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 ¼ cups beef broth
- 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
- 1 ½ cups frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 ½ cups frozen corn
- 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon molasses
Instructions
- Place frozen vegetables out on the counter to thaw slightly. This ensures that they will cook within the simmering/cook time of the soup. *I just leave them out while I chop the onion and cook the ground beef.
- In a large soup pot, over medium-high heat, cook & crumble ground beef, onion, garlic powder, and dried basil until beef is no longer pink. Drain.
- To the same pot, add the beef broth, tomato sauce, slightly thawed vegetables, soy sauce, and molasses. Stir together and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce hear to medium-low and let simmer for 15-20 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
Notes
Nutrition
Can this be made in the crock pot as well?
Yes, be sure and brown the ground beef first before adding it into the crock pot.
Hi, Have you ever added potato?
Thanks
No I have not but it would be delicious! I'd be sure to cut the potatoes into small chunks so that they can cook fairly quickly. Enjoy!
I have made this recipe twice and followed it exact except I do add 2-3 Yukon gold potatoes and it just makes it that much more delicious!
this came out fantastic, I used diced tomatoes and a can of tomatoe sauce. fresh beans from the garden , a potatoe diced and a handful of elbow macaroni. my husband wouldn't eat it any other way
Fast, hearty and a family favorite. The surprise ingredients are the ones that merge all the flavors and enhance them perfectly.
I made this tonight and it didn’t seem like a lot of food. Do I need to add water to it? I think I did something wrong
This was so good! I made a double batch with hopes of having leftovers for lunch the rest of the week.............
there were no left overs. my husband and our 3 growing kiddos ate it all ( I was lucky to get one bowl ) will be making this again soon.
I love this! Worst thing ever is when you're looking forward to leftovers and there are none. So sorry! Thanks for your comment and I am happy your family loved it.
I made a vegan version of this today by replacing the ground beef and beef broth with impossible beef and vegetable broth. It turned out great!
Can I use slow cooker for this recipe ( vegetable soup ) if so what’s temp & how long ? Deborah
Cook and crumble the ground beef and then add all the ingredients in the slow cooker. Cook on LOW heat for 5-6 hours would be my guess. Let me know if you try it!
What about v8 juice instead of tomatoes and broth
Yes that would work great in this recipe! I love V8 in soups.
Made this twice already because I like putting lots of veggies in my meals. This soup is hearty and filling with lots of green beans and sweet corn kernels. This recipe will be in my dinner rotation every other week in cool weather.
I love hearing this! Thanks so much for your comment and rating.
Why do u prefer frozen vegetables vs canned ?
I don't. I use both frozen and canned in lots of different recipes. You can use either one in recipes.
It was very good. It was something easy that I could throw together while my 5 children were getting homework done. We are a soy free family so I substituted soy for coconut aminos.
Hi Jennifer, did I miss something? I don’t see where the recipe called for anything “soy”….. I don’t understand. Thanks!
Please disregard the message I sent previously, I now see that Jennifer was talking about the soy sauce. My most humble apologies. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
This soup was amazing! We added fresh garlic, 8 oz of tomato sauce, 4 cups of beef broth, and one large diced russet potato instead of the extra corn. I also left out the molasses and we topped the soup with parmesan. Absolutely wonderful!
I added some sliced cabbage and it added an additional depth of flavor.
Easy to make and very tasty
Thanks for the recipe
I bet I have made this 10 times, we love it and almost always have everything on hand when I don't want to run to the store. Tonight, I realized I didn't have a can of tomato sauce, so I used some spaghetti sauce. I shall see in about 30 minutes if this is was a good substitute.
I omitted the soy sauce. It would of made it too salty for me. Still very tasty.
I had put together my own version of vegetable soup. It was SOOO bland! Added your secret ingredients (soy sauce and molasses). It turned out FABULOUS!!! I made17 quarts.
Yay! So glad it could help. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks! Came out perfect. I put some Bouillon and a dash of brown sugar. My fiancé said it was the best soup he has ever had.
Glad you liked it! I love the idea of adding brown sugar!
I made this tonight, it was sooooooo delicious. I didn’t have molasses so I put a tablespoon of brown sugar in it. I made a few changes but not
Many. I doubled the batch for starters to make sure we had left overs Ha ha.
I used 2 full cans of beef broth
4 8oz cans of tomato sauce
Half onion
Teaspoon of red pepper for a kick
Added some Lima beans and extra frozen veggies
Will definitely go in our rotation
Glad to hear it will join your recipe rotation! Thanks for sharing what worked for you!
This soup is amazing. I craved it so much I made it again the next week. The soy sauce and molasses added that something I would have never thought of. The second time I put in 1/3C Ditalini pasta. Made it more hearty.Thanks again.
Oh I love to hear that! Thank you for sharing!