Vegetable & Ground Beef Soup
Frequently called “Hamburger Soup” in many recipe blogs, this is simply a beef and vegetable soup, made with ground beef and cooked in a crock pot. It’s simple to assemble, nearly goof-proof and makes for a delicious, hearty soup for dinner.
I guess this is kind of funny. My Number One fan was extremely excited to discover this recipe from one of the many food bloggers that she follows, FoodieCrush, called Hamburger Vegetable Soup. She made it for dinner one night and I actually ended up liking it more than she did. I think she was really in the mood for a beef stew, disappointed that this was not a thick soup, and it isn't. She even modified the recipe to eliminate the call for an additional 2 cups of water. But I'll share an idea with you in the recipe card notes below that will help to make a thicker broth for this soup. If, however, you really want a beef stew, go to the Kitchen Tapestry recipes for Crock Pot Beef Stew.
There are scores of recipes like this one online, all using the moniker of "Hamburger Soup." I hate to tell these folks that this soup isn't made with hamburger, its made with ground beef. A hamburger is also made with ground beef. Ground beef is the ingredient. It doesn't become a hamburger until it is shaped into a patty and cooked, then, it’s a hamburger. The confusion came years ago, when commercial butchers decided to call ground beef "hamburger meat" to tell cooks what it was they were supposed to do with it, as if anyone couldn’t have already figured that out. Over time, the term “hamburger” became synonymous with “ground beef,” — but that doesn’t make it correct.
I know, this is all so much semantics, but as a writer as well as a cook, I think words matter for the sake of being clear and accurate. Or as My Number One Fan might say, "Be aggregate!"
Vegetable & Ground Beef Soup
Frequently called “Hamburger Soup” in many recipe blogs, this is simply a beef and vegetable soup, made with ground beef and cooked in a crock pot.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs 80/20 ground beef
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 ribs celery, diced
- 1-1/2 cup baby carrots, cut into "coins"
- 1 14.5-oz can petite diced tomatoes (like, Hunt's)
- 1 11-oz can fresh-cut corn (like, Del Monte Summer Crisp Golden Sweet)
- 1 14.5-oz can green beans, drained (like, Del Monte Fresh Cut)
- 2 cups new potatoes, largely diced
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 4 14.5-oz cans beef broth (like, Swanson's)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp marjoram
- 1 tbsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp dried tarragon
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 10-12 grinds freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Sauté the ground beef in a large skillet over medium high heat until no longer pink, about 7 minutes.
- Add the onions and celery, and sauté another 5-7 minuted until the onions are translucent.
- Combine the beef, onions and celery with all other ingredients in a crock pot.
- Cook on high for four hours, then reduce to low and cook an additional five hours.
- Remove the bay leaf before serving.
Notes
- Pre-heat the crock pot by fill with hot tap water and set the unit on high for 30 minutes.
- You can thicken up the soup if you wish by making a "slurry" of 4 tbsp flour in 1/2 cup hot tap water, thoroughly mixed together. Stir this into the crock pot in the last hour of cooking.
