This Hamburger Potato Soup recipe is a quick and easy meal. Loaded with ground beef, potatoes and vegetables, it’s budget friendly and hearty enough to satisfy any healthy appetite.
Serve this soup with a fresh green salad and a pan of Cheesy Cornbread for a perfect meal.
What You Can Expect From This Recipe
Simplicity: Sometimes the most simple ingredients make the best meals. And you’re going to love that the simplicity of this soup doesn’t skimp on flavor.
History: This recipe has been in our family for as long as I can remember, my Aunt always called it Autumn Soup. It’s an easy stove-top weeknight friendly recipe that’s hearty and satisfying.
Behind every good soup recipe you’ll find Mirepoix. This ground beef soup with potatoes starts with the customary soup ingredients, a mirepoix mixture of celery, onion and carrots. Mirepoix is a customary base of diced vegetables that are lightly cooked to enhance and add a layer of flavor to many soups, stews, sauces and braises.
Hearty: Hamburger and potatoes are the “meat and potatoes” of this soup. Fundamental ingredients that make it hearty and so appealing. And with a tomato base, the color is gorgeous.
Feeds A Crowd: Who doesn’t love a big bowl of soup when the calendar indicates it’s Autumn and the weather has turned cool. And especially if that recipe makes a large batch. This Hamburger and Potato Soup will wow your family. And it will wow you because it makes enough for left-overs and freezes really well.
Let’s take a look.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Most hamburger soup with potatoes recipes I see are for a heavy creamy version. Keeping the ingredients fresh and simple make this soup a healthier option.
- Canned Tomatoes: Choose a brand that indicate they’re small diced tomatoes. I always reach for Red Gold Petite Diced. The smaller chop breaks down better and quicker in soups and stews.
- Oil: Choose a neutral oil. Vegetable and canola oil are good choices here.
- Beef Broth
- Hamburger: Choose a lean ground beef for this recipe. A 93-7% is recommended. If you use an 80-20% you’ll need to drain the grease after browning.
- Potatoes: Choose a lower starch potato like Yukon Gold or red-skinned potatoes. The texture will hold up much better than a high starch potato. Plus, the skin of Yukon Gold and red-skinned potatoes are thinner and more pleasing to the palate. The benefit being that you don’t need to peel them. And that really saves time. Save those high starch Russet potatoes to make fluffy Baked Potatoes.
- The Mirepoix Mix: Celery, onion and carrot.
- Seasonings: Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, dried basil and a bay leaf.
Pro Tip Knife Skills: Always keep the hand that’s gripping the knife clean and dry. A wet hand could cause slips resulting in nicks or worse a nasty slice on your hand.
Ingredient Substitutions
- Seasonings: Switch out the bay leaf and basil with a tablespoon of my Soup Seasoning Mix. It’s a mix I use for 15 Bean Soup, but it works great for any beefy, savory soup.
- Broth: I highly recommend sticking with beef broth for this recipe. The rich flavor profile just makes sense. But if all you have on hand is vegetable or chicken broth, either will work ok.
Step by Step Instructions, It’s So Easy!
This Simple Hamburger Potato Soup makes a large batch. Choose a large soup pot or 6-quart Dutch oven.
- Step 1: Add oil to a Dutch oven and heat over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add carrots, celery and onions. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Step 2: Add the ground beef and cook until almost all the pink is gone from the meat.
- Step 3: Add the beef broth stir well to loosen the meat bits from the bottom of the pan. Add remaining ingredients, except the tomatoes. Bring to a simmer, cover pan and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Step 4: Add tomatoes and simmer 10 more minutes. Remove bay leaf and serve.
Questions You Might Have
This is a great make-ahead soup recipe. You can make it a day in advance and gently reheat stovetop.
100%. All of the ingredients in this soup are naturally gluten free. So many recipes I see for ground beef and potato soup start with a flour and cream roux. This is a brothy version without cream.
This is a very hearty and filling soup. I like to serve it with a few Oyster Crackers sprinkled on top. But if you’re looking to make it a big meal, bread and salad are always perfect partners for a soup dinner.
Recipe Variations
I highly recommend you stick with the ingredients as presented in this recipe. However, here are suggestions if needed.
- If you want to lower the carb content, swap out potatoes for cubed butternut squash. Which would give the soup more of an Autumn soup feel.
- Don’t eat beef? Try making this soup with ground turkey.
Storage
- This soup will keep in the refrigerator, in a sealed container for up to 4 days.
- The beauty of this soup is that it freezes very well. I like to store it in freezer safe zip-lock style bags. You can lay them flat in the freezer to optimize storage space.
- Quick Lunch Idea:Try using smaller freezer bags for individual servings. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then empty into a bowl for a quick microwave re-heat.
Tips For Success
- As I mentioned above, use a low fat ground beef mixture. If you use lean ground beef, you won’t need to drain the grease once the beef has browned. But if you want to use an 80/20% blend, it will work fine. Just drain any excess grease before continuing with the recipe.
- Garnish with chopped chives or chopped parsley to give it another layer of color.
This old fashioned Hamburger and Potato Soup gets rave reviews every time I serve it. And because its an easy soup, I’m always asked for the recipe.
This is a great pot luck idea, and a dream if you’re participating in a meal train for a neighbor or friend in need.
More Easy Soup Recipes
Your Fall meal plans will love these quick soup recipes.
And don’t miss my category for Soup Recipes, you’ll find lots of great recipes, including the most popular soup recipe on my site for Anthony Bourdain’s New Mexico Style Beef Chile. Rich robust and crowd pleasing.
Hamburger Potato Soup
Equipment
- 1 Soup Pan or Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoon Neutral Oil Canola or vegetable oil work well here
- 1 cup Chopped Onions
- 1 cup Carrots rough chopped
- 1 cup Celery rough chopped
- 1 pound Lean Ground Beef
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper
- 4 cups Beef broth
- 1 pound New Potatoes rough chopped. About 8 new small potatoes.
- 1 Bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- 2 cans chopped tomatoes undrained, 14.5 ounce cans
Instructions
- Add oil to a Dutch oven and heat over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add carrots, celery and onions. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Add the ground beef and cook until almost all the pink is gone from the meat.
- Add the beef broth stir well to loosen the meat bits from the bottom of the pan. Add remaining ingredients, except the tomatoes. Bring to a simmer, cover pan and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and simmer 10 more minutes. Remove bay leaf and serve with some crusty bread.
Notes
Tips For Success
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- Use a low fat ground beef mixture. If you use lean ground beef, you won’t need to drain the grease once the beef has browned. But if you want to use an 80/20% blend, it will work fine. Just drain any excess grease before continuing with the recipe.
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- Garnish with chopped chives or chopped parsley to give it another layer of color.
Nutrition
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Hamburger and Potato Soup … It’s What’s For Dinner
Why Trust My Recipes? I am a Culinary School Graduate and a lifelong student of home cooking. I hope to inspire you try to cook as often as you can. I’ve been cooking for 50 years, and my recipes are tried and true tested and tested and then tested again before published. To read more take a look at my About Page.
Made this tonight. Added some canned corn and some cut up fresh green beans. It sure hit the spot on this very cold winter night!
Wonderful! We love this soup and so glad you do too. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a note and review.
Lea Ann, I love the simple comfort of this soup. A few basic ingredients and a good soup is born.
Velva
I’ve never had this soup before, it sounds good and reminds me of a flavorful stew.
Quick, easy, and delicious- what’s not to like about this soup.