Hamburger Vegetable Soup (Freezer Cooking) - Intentional By Grace
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Hamburger Vegetable Soup – Freezer Cooking

This post is written by contributing writer, Joanie from Simple Living Mama.

Hamburger Vegetable Soup (Freezer Cooking) - Intentional By Grace
Crisp, cool mornings and chilly nights make me crave a good soup. I absolutely love hamburger vegetable soup. It reminds me of my childhood. My Nana would often whip up a pot of this delicious soup for our family dinners on Sundays after church. The taste always takes me back to those days when our entire family would gather for a hearty meal.

I’m currently pregnant with my third baby and have learned that freezer cooking before baby’s birth saves a lot of time and worry after the baby is born. So I decided to make a huge pot of my hamburger vegetable soup. Half of it went into our bellies for dinner and the rest went into the freezer. I know this will be a welcome meal on a night that I just don’t want to cook, but want some comfort food.

Hamburger Vegetable Soup is a cinch to make and so versatile!

Begin by browning the ground beef in a stockpot. I like to add my onions and garlic to the pot while the meat is cooking.

I had some grease to drain off, so I drained it and placed my ground beef and onion mixture back into the pot. I then added some thyme, salt, and pepper.

At this point, I poured in my beef broth. Homemade beef broth from grass fed cows is best, but I didn’t have any on hand! If you use pre-made broth, at least look for a brand that does not contain MSG.

The tomatoes make the soup, in my opinion. I added in a large can of diced tomatoes.

Now here is where you can have some fun. You can add any vegetables you want to this soup and it will be delicious. Because I was trying to cook with my two little helpers, I just used a medium bag of frozen mixed vegetables that contained carrots, corn, peas, and green beans. If you have fresh veggies on hand that need to be used, then by all means use them!

I love potatoes in my hamburger vegetable soup, so I added two peeled and diced potatoes. If you’re planning to freeze this, be aware that some people do not like the texture of potatoes that have been frozen. It doesn’t bother us.

I brought the soup to a boil and then let it simmer on the stove for about an hour. This is a soup that tastes better and better the longer it sits. We ate some for dinner, and then I froze the rest in a gallon-sized freezer bag. It’ll be perfect for a chilly night during my postpartum haze!

 

You can freeze just about any soup. I would just avoid freezing soups that have pasta in them. Some people also recommend not freezing soups made with milk or cream because you can have separation issues. If you do freeze a soup made with milk or cream, try not to bring it to a boil when reheating it.

Here is a list of some of my favorite soups to freeze:

Split Pea Soup

Butternut Squash Soup

Three Bean Soup

Ham and Potato Soup

What is your favorite soup to cook or freeze?

This post is part of our freezer cooking series. See all the posts in this series here.

This post is linked to Healthy 2Day, Pennywise Platter, Simple Lives Thursday, Homemakers Challenge, Your Green Resource, Full Plate Thursday.

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17 Comments

  1. This sounds fantastic! I really love soup and I think my favorite soup to make is probably Chicken Minestrone. It’s got tons of vegetables, and like your recipe, I use whatever I have on hand. It’s filling and perfect for cold nights.