Soup Series: Hamburger Soup

Hey everyone! I’ve got a tasty little blog post for you to check out but first, I wanted to share a little backstory on this whole soup series thing I’ve been doing. From the time I was a little kid one of my favorite memories has always been spending time in the kitchen cooking with my parents. Both have their “signature dishes” and have perfected many family favorites together, including homemade pizza, gorp (sounds gross, tastes amazing), roasts, pork chops and sauerkraut, and best of all – lots and lots of soups and chowders. Many of the soup recipes I feature here are my take on soups we’ve loved for many years. This particular recipe is one that I’ve been eating as long as I think I could eat solid foods. It’s savory, satisfying and full of veggies so you can feel good eating it too! You can use canned or frozen veggies or, and this is my favorite – is when I can get the fresh veggies from our grocery store or produce stand.  This batch included green beans and potatoes from a local farmer – they not only taste better, but it feels good to support the community too! Another option is to use ground turkey or chicken – which changes the flavor slightly, but is still so good! So enjoy one of my very favorites: hamburger soup!

What You Need

• 1.5 lb ground beef (browned and drained of extra grease)
• 2 large russet potatoes, diced
• 4 stalks celery diced
• 1 onion diced
• 1 tbsp garlic (or approx. 2 cloves diced)
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 can of corn (you could use fresh too – delicious!)
• 1 large can of petite diced tomatoes
• 1 small can of tomato sauce
• 8 cups of either beef stock or I used 8 cups of water + 3 beef bouillon cubes
• S+P to taste
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning

You can use just one pot for all of this – saving time on cleanup! Start by browning the beef with a tiny bit of olive oil, and make sure to drain off the excess grease at the end. To the meat, add your onions, garlic and celery along with salt + pepper; allowing the veggies to soften for about 5 minutes. Then everything else goes into the pool: the stock or water, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, carrots, tomato sauce and seasonings. I usually let this come to a hard boil, then turn it down to about medium heat and cook for about 45 minutes to an hour until the vegetables are tender (pay special attention to the potatoes – those take the longest to cook properly.) I also make sure to test the seasoning along the way – sometimes more salt is necessary depending on if you use fresh veggies versus cans.

This is the perfect soup for “all day food” – a term we use when I make a batch around 10:30am and it gets eaten for lunch and whenever someone wants a few more bites. Sundays are pretty much always this way in our house, it’s easier for everyone and convenient when we have Sunday drop-ins.

I am a firm believer that food and cooking are therapeutic, which is why I love spending so much time in the kitchen. I know that when Dane is older – we’ll cook together and I hope that we can instill our love of food in him. What meals are meaningful and nostalgic in your family? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

Have a fantastic afternoon, friends!