This Hamburger Soup Recipe is full of beefy flavor, veggies, potatoes and, of course, ground beef. This hearty soup is both easy and inexpensive to make.
Poor Man’s Soup, or Hamburger Soup, is a simple ground beef stew recipe that is both cheap and affordable to make as well as filling to eat. You may even find that you have a lot of the ingredients in your home right now, making it even more frugal. This hamburger soup is a hearty and healthy way to feed a family on a budget.
If you’ve never had poor man’s soup, I urge you to try it at least once because it’s different from your traditional soups and actually very flavorful and delicious. Not only that, but the recipe is designed to be very simple and easy to make. With this recipe using mostly frozen or canned ingredients, you hardly have any work to do!
Another great benefit of this delicious hamburger soup is that it’s very fast to come together. While some soups want you to let them simmer for hours to let the flavors develop, this one doesn’t! It’s a great soup recipe to pull out on a busy night when you don’t want to cook or are too busy to make a full “in-the-oven” recipe. A quick, fast, easy, and cheap dinner recipe that feeds the whole family is a hard one to find but this soup check’s off all of those boxes making it a winner!
What’s In Hamburger Soup?
- Ground Beef: I will walk you through browning the ground beef here or if you happen to have some pre-browned in the freezer, that will work well, too!
- Canned Beef Broth: or better than bullion, or bullion cubes. Just whatever you usually use for beef broth.
- Au Jus Seasoning: a must for the flavor!! You can look up homemade versions of this if you’d rather skip the packet.
- Dried Minced Onion: If you have a fresh yellow onion on hand that you’d like to substitute here, go for it!
- Diced Potatoes: we are looking for a small dice, that way it doesn’t take forever to cook through. Some people have said they like to use diced frozen hashbrowns for the convenience here, sometimes the hashbrowns get a little mushy so I prefer to use fresh potatoes. You have both options though!
- Frozen Mixed Peas & Carrots: I just buy the frozen mixed bag at the store to get both peas and perfectly diced carrots together.
- Butter
- Flour
How to Make Stovetop Hamburger Soup
This will probably be the easiest soup you will ever make! We will start out by browning your ground beef, if needed. If you have some browned and frozen. you can just pull it out of the freezer and skip this step.
To brown the ground beef, use a spatula to break up the ground beef over medium-high heat until the beef crumbles have browned and are no longer pink. The ground beef should reach an internal temperature of 160°. Drain off any excess grease.
Add in the beef broth, au jus packets, minced onion, and diced potatoes. Simmer for 5-7 minutes, until those potatoes are tender. Then add in the frozen peas and carrots and boil for an additional minute or two.
Lastly, to thicken the soup we will create a paste of butter and flour and then melt it into the soup, allowing it to boil and thicken slightly. (think of this as like a backwards roux!)
How long does ground beef soup last in the fridge?
Store you leftover soup in the fridge, in an airtight container. It will keep for up to 4 days. To reheat, either zap it in the microwave or warm it up on the stovetop again. The soup may thicken a bit after it has been refrigerated, feel free to add a splash or two of water if needed to thin it down again.
Can you freeze hamburger soup?
Yes, you can! Let your soup completely cool and then place it in a freezer-friendly Ziploc bag or a freezer friendly airtight container. Then keep your soup in the freezer until you’re ready to thaw, heat, and eat.
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Hamburger Soup
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 4 14 oz cans beef broth
- 2 pkg au jus mix
- 1 1/2 tbsp minced onion dried
- 2 cups diced potatoes
- 2 cups frozen mixed peas & carrots
- 3 tbsp butter melted
- 3 tbsp flour
Instructions
- Brown the ground beef in a large pot. Drain off any excess grease.
- Add the beef broth and bring to a simmer.
- Once simmering, add the au jus packets, minced onion, and diced potatoes. Simmer for 5-7 mintues, until potatoes are tender.
- Add frozen peas and carrots and simmer for another minute or two.
- In a small bowl, stir together the melted butter and flour to create a paste.
- Add the paste to the simmering pot on the stove and stir until the stew has thickened.
Nutrition
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Melinda says
Easy, versatile, and delicious. Something I could eat every single day!
Karli Bitner says
Thank you Melinda, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I appreciate the feedback.