This Ground Beef Vegetable Soup recipe is hearty, nutritious, and an incredibly easy one-pot meal. It's loaded with seasonal vegetables and is Whole30, Keto, and paleo friendly.
Soups are in season now that we're well into fall. It's a good thing that soups are delicious, versatile, and are great vehicles for nutrition.
They're also pretty simple to make and most don't require gourmet or obscure ingredients not found in your local grocery store.
This hearty Ground Beef Vegetable Soup is loaded with nutrition and naturally "thickened" with low carb vegetables.
This soup can be made in under 35 minutes from start to finish. It's a one-pot wonder and that means less to prepare and less dishes to wash.
❤Why you'll love this soup
- Easy Dinner Idea: With just 35 minutes and very little prep, you'll have nourishing dinner on the table!
- Versatile: Use your favorite seasonal veggies to load this healthy soup with maximum nutrition.
- Adapts to all dietary needs: This soup is so easy to modify to fit the health needs of the whole family.
- Easy to bump up nutrition: With just a few simple tips you can make elevate the nutrition even more.
💭Good to Know: The generous veggies, ground meat, and savory broth makes this hearty soup a complete meal. Serve with crusty bread on busy weeknights!
🍲Ingredients
This easy hamburger soup has very simple ingredients.
You can follow this easy dinner recipe as written in the recipe card or you can cook from the heart and use whatever vegetables you have available to you.
- ground beef: organic, grass-fed ground beef is ideal - I love using my Wild Pastures ground beef.
- onion: yellow, white, or red onion will work
- vegetables: any combination of fresh vegetables like carrots, celery, bell pepper, green beans, asparagus (you'll need a total of approximately 4 cups of vegetables).
- spinach: or dinosaur kale or baby kale
- garlic and lemon juice: to add great flavor
- canned tomatoes: jarred is ideal to avoid can liners but organic canned diced tomatoes will work too; use fire roasted tomatoes for the most delicious tomato-based broth
- bone broth: beef broth is best for this soup but chicken broth will work in a pinch
See recipe card for exact quantities.
💭Make it Nutrient-Dense: Sub ¼ pound of ground beef with ground liver for extra nutrition.
📖What vegetables to use in Hamburger Soup?
This beef and vegetable soup is packed with seasonal vegetables and those can very depending on location and seasonality. But a good rule of thumb is to use approximately 3 to 4 cups of different veggies.
One word of caution when making soups with lots of vegetables: have a general idea of cooking time for various vegetables. With the exception of root vegetables, veggies in soup should not be mushy when served.
- Green beans and asparagus can be used interchangeably in this soup, depending on what is available. Just trim them to bite size pieces.
- Bell peppers, green beans, broccoli, and other softer vegetables should be added towards the end of cooking time.
- Celery can be diced like carrots but if you don't care for celery (like my teenager), try celery seed. It's celery flavor without the texture.
- Leafy greens like kale, spinach, collards, or sorrel are all great last minute addition. It adds great variety to the soup and boosts nutritional content.
💭Pro tip: If really pressed for time, swap fresh veggies with a bag or two of frozen mixed vegetables.
🚫Dietary Substitutions
Soups are great at building flavor as you make them, even with necessary modifications.
- Low Carb and Keto Hamburger Soup: be sure to use vegetables with low carb count like broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini, spinach, cauliflower, and bell peppers.
- Whole30 and Paleo Ground Beef Soup: use dairy-free cooking fat like avocado oil, lard, or ghee. Also, make sure tomatoes don't have any sweeteners or additives.
💭Helpful Tips
- Same size veggies: make sure all veggies are cut into bite-size pieces that can fit on a soup spoon.
- Cut prep time: don't care for chopping? Use frozen vegetables that are already cut into bite-size pieces
- Celery haters: don't like celery? Use celery seed instead - it adds so much flavor without the texture that some kids don't like.
- Nourishing soup: use properly prepared bone broth and add a little ground liver for extra nutrition. See my beef bone broth recipe here.
- Save the leafy greens: for just until you are ready to serve so it keeps it's bright green color.
👩🏽🍳Step-by-Step Instructions
The complete printable recipe is below in the recipe card for your convenience.
This hamburger vegetable soup recipe calls for these ingredients: ground beef, yellow onions, carrots, celery (or celery seed), bell pepper, green beans or asparagus, crushed tomatoes, spinach, garlic cloves, bone broth and salt and pepper.
Step 1. Cook onions
Heat avocado oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat on stove top. Add diced onions and cook until translucent.
Step 2. Brown ground beef
Push the onions to the sides of the pot and add ground beef to the center. Cook for approximately 10 minutes, breaking up the meat.
Step 3. Add flavorings and liquids
Add minced garlic, celery seed, diced tomatoes, broth, and sliced carrots and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook for 10 minutes or until carrots are tender.
Step 4. Rest of veggies
Add prepared bell peppers, green beans or asparagus, and sea salt and cook for 5 minutes on medium-low heat.
Step 5. Finishing touches
Turn off heat. Add spinach and squeeze lemon juice. Stir to combine and check for salt and pepper and adjust as needed.
💭Pro tip: To keep the leafy greens a vibrant color, save to add them until just before serving.
🔪Helpful Tools & Links
Below are some affiliate links that may be helpful to you as you make this hamburger soup recipe. You can find some of these items cheaper at your local store but it helps to have a link so you know what you're looking for.
- Tools: chef knife, cutting board, dutch oven
- Ingredients: real salt, black pepper, avocado oil, celery seed, organic pure lemon juice,
- Storage Supplies: wide-mouth mason jars for leftovers, glass snap containers
🥗Serving Suggestions
This vegetable beef soup is already a complete meal. Add some garlic bread and you have an easy meal that will become a regular for the entire family.
♨️Storage and Reheating Instructions
To store: Leftover hamburger vegetable soup can be stored in an airtight container or a small saucepan.
Storage containers: These glass snap containers are perfect for leftovers.
To freeze: This soup can be frozen in freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
To reheat: Gently reheat on medium heat in a stainless steel soup pot until warmed through. Add another handful of spinach to add brightness before serving.
💬FAQs
Yes, this soup can be made with frozen ground beef. Follow these steps:
1) As the onions are cooking, place sealed package of ground beef in a bowl of room temperature water (this will help the sides to start thawing immediately).
2) When onions are translucent, add partially thawed ground beef and start chipping away at it as it's slowly cooking.
3) Flip it and scrape the cooked bits and continue to gently cook until semi-cooked through. Close the lid and allow the steam to speed the thawing.
4) Continue to cook, flipping and scraping off the cooked meat until it's almost fully cooked.
Looking for more healthy soups? Here are some ideas:
Did you make this? Please leave a ⭐ rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comments. Thank you!💚
Printable Recipe
Ground Beef Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil (or lard, tallow, ghee)
- 1 cup yellow onion, diced (approximately 1 medium onion)
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 cup carrots, sliced (approximately 2 medium-large carrots)
- 2 teaspoons garlic clove, minced (approximately 2 small garlic cloves)
- 1 teaspoon celery seed optional
- 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
- 2 quarts beef bone broth
- 1 cup green bell pepper, diced or chopped (approximately 1 green bell pepper)
- 1 ½ cup green beans and/or asparagus, cut into 1-½" pieces
- 1 teaspoon sea salt see notes
- 2 cups spinach, packed or another leafy green like baby kale, collards, chard
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice approximately ¼ of medium lemon
- salt and pepper, to taste as needed
Instructions
- Heat 2 tablespoons of avocado oil in a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until translucent (approximately 5 minutes).
- Push the onions to the sides of the pot and add ground beef to the center. Try to keep the ground beef contained to the center but then it will get mixed with the onions as you stir and break it up. Cook for approximately 10 minutes, until there is almost no more pink in the meat.
- Add sliced carrots, minced garlic, celery seed, crushed tomatoes, and bone broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook for 10 minutes or until carrots are tender.
- Add bell peppers and green beans or asparagus, and sea salt and cook for another 5 minutes on medium-low heat.
- Turn off heat, add spinach or another leafy green and squeeze lemon juice. Stir to combine and check for salt and pepper. Adjust if necessary. Serve hot.
Notes
- Use 3-4 cups of variety of seasonal vegetables.
- Amount of salt will depend on the salt content of your broth and tomatoes. Start with 1 teaspoon and adjust as needed.
- Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days in the refrigerator. Gently reheat on medium-low on stove top.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided for your convenience by an online calculator. It should not be considered as a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice. See our complete Nutritional Information Disclaimer.
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This post was originally published September 2019 but has since been updated to include helpful information.
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