Hamburger Soup Recipe (stove top or slow cooker) - The Recipe Rebel (2024)

This Hamburger Soup recipe is hearty and comforting for chilly days! It’s loaded with vegetables, ground beef, potatoes and can be cooked on the stove top or the crock pot! Includes how to recipe video

Love hearty, healthy soup recipes? Try my Cabbage Roll Soup, my Chicken Gnocchi Soup or this Easy Taco Soup recipe next!

Soup season is back in full swing here on The Recipe Rebel and I couldn’t be more excited!

So far we’ve added this rich and creamy Potato Soup, this flavorful Italian Sausage Soup, and this Chicken Tortellini Soup to the mix — all instant favorites with many of you!

This easy Hamburger Soup recipe is well-loved but getting some updated photos — it’s hearty and chunky, but still has enough juices to justify slicing up that crusty bread. I promise you won’t regret it!

It’s old school comfort food at its finest.

This Hamburger Soup is naturally gluten and dairy free, but be sure to wash your vegetables and check all of your labels before serving someone with food allergies.

If you’re not concerned about allergies or food sensitivities, feel free to stir in a little cream at the end or add a sprinkling of cheese. I know that’s the way we like it here!

What do you put in Hamburger Soup?

Aside from the obvious — the hamburger or ground beef — basically, anything you want 😉

In my Hamburger Soup recipe, I start with the basics: onion, celery and carrots.

Then I add in some diced tomatoes, potatoes, and seasonings and finish with some frozen veggies for good measure, because I much prefer frozen peas over canned and you don’t really get them fresh these days.

See a detailed list of ingredients and possible substitutions below.

Hamburger Soup ingredients:

• Lean ground beef: I always use lean ground beef in soups because we don’t want all that extra fat floating around. You can swap this out for ground pork, chicken, turkey or Italian sausage if you prefer.
• Onion: onion adds a ton of flavor! If you don’t have any onions, you can swap this for onion powder or dried onion, but fresh is best.
• Tomato paste: tomato paste gives richness and flavor to our broth. You can swap it for a tablespoon of ketchup or a bit of tomato sauce as well
• Seasonings: feel free to get creative with the seasonings! I stick to the basics here, but there’s no reason you can’t experiment a little.
• Potatoes: I love potatoes in hamburger soup, and I love that they don’t get too mushy when this soup sits in the fridge all week (unlike pasta and rice). If you prefer, you can swap these out for dry pasta or dry rice, but you will want to increase the liquid as well.
• Carrots and Celery: carrots and celery add nutritional value and delicious flavor to this soup! You can add in other or additional vegetables, such as mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, corn, and more.
• Diced tomatoes: diced tomatoes add some sweetness to balance out the savory, beefy flavor. If you don’t like the chunks, you can opt for tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes instead.
• Broth: I always use low sodium broth so that I can adjust the salt to our tastes. If you only have regular broth, you will want to reduce the added salt. You can also use beef broth, though I prefer the mild flavor of chicken or vegetable in this soup.
• Frozen peas: Frozen peas add a nice pop of color and fresh flavor to this soup

How do you make Hamburger Soup in the crock pot?

This soup, like most soups, are easily made in the crock pot as well.

Unfortunately, you will need an extra pan to brown the ground beef with the onion, but after that you can dump the beef, onion, and all the other vegetables and seasonings right into the slow cooker to cook.

You can even do this the night before and have no prep in the morning! The only vegetable that cannot be prepped ahead are the potatoes.

Let it cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours to ensure all the vegetables are tender.

Can I make it ahead?

This soup, like many others, are perfect for making ahead as the flavors only intensify after sitting. It’s even better the next day!

This soup can be made ahead and refrigerated up to 4 days.

Can you freeze Hamburger Soup?

You can freeze this soup, but keep in mind that the texture of the potatoes will change, therefore you may not want to.

If you’re cook with frozen and thawed potatoes, simply cool to room temperature and then pour into a freezer safe container (be sure to leave room for expansion).

Or, you can pour into a large freezer bag (or do smaller bags for individual servings), seal, then freeze flat. I prefer to do it this way as it freezes and thaws more quickly and is easily stacked in the freezer.

Looking for more easy soup recipes? Try these:

• Chicken Rice Soup: Stove Top or Slow Cooker
• Easy Minestrone Soup
• 25+ Instant Pot Soup Recipes
• Sausage Tortellini Soup
• Creamy Italian Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

And I’m going to stop there, because I’m embarrassed about exactly how many soup recipes I’ve added to The Recipe Rebel this year — it’s been a bit of an obsession!