The cold weather is here and one of the best ways to warm up is with a big bowl of soup.
I love making homemade soup this time of year. Hamburger Soup is a very easy option and I love it’s versatility.
We also like to serve our soup with sweet cornbread, what about you?
(Make sure you check out all of my easy recipes for the perfect dinner solutions for busy families.)
Let me show you how simple this is to make.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 T olive oil
- 2 (32 oz) containers of beef broth
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- handful of baby carrots, diced (I used about 8 or so.)
- 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 c frozen corn
- 1 c frozen green beans
- 1 c uncooked pasta
- 1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies (like Rotel), undrained
- 2 c water
- 1/2 t fresh thyme
- 1/2 t fresh oregano
- salt and pepper to taste (do this according to your liking)
In a large cooking pot add the olive oil and garlic over a medium heat.
Toss in the onion, carrots and celery. Cook until the onion is translucent stirring often. This will only take a couple of minutes. Make sure you’re stirring- you do not want your garlic to burn.
Toss in the ground beef and use a large cooking spoon to crumble it and spread evenly throughout the bottom of the cooking pot.
Once the beef is brown add the potatoes, beef broth and canned tomatoes. Cook over medium to medium-high heat until the potatoes are tender. This will take about 30 minutes depending on how large you dice your potatoes. This is a good time to get your cornbread going in the oven.
Once the potatoes are tender, add in the corn, green beans and pasta. I know, a lot of starch. My mother would freak out if she knew I fed my kids potatoes, corn and pasta all in one meal. Feel free to omit any of the starch you don’t want in the soup. I just could not part- I love them all in my soup!
Add the 2 cups of water, thyme and oregano as well as salt and pepper. I do Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. I will let the soup cook, still over medium to medium-high heat, until the corn and green beans are no longer frozen. This only takes about 15-20 minutes. Then I get a clean spoon and taste the brothy goodness. Does it need more salt? Add a little more until you get the salt to your family’s liking. I bet I end up adding 2 tablespoons total of Kosher salt. Feel free to use a clean spoon in between tastings.
And it is as simple as that.
Your cornbread will be ready. Use a ladle to add the soup to bowls.
Add some butter to your cornbread. Yum!
For two of my boys who think soup is too hot, I drain the broth and serve it to them on a plate kind of like it is a casserole.
Enjoy!
