In under 45 minutes, you can have a hearty and delicious keto hamburger vegetable soup on your table! This keto hamburger vegetable soup is quick and easy to make. It is also incredibly flavorful and filling! Combining ground beef with fresh veggies and an awesome seasoned broth creates a winning combination of flavors that can’t be beat. Vegetable Soup has always been a favorite of mine. Growing up in the south, Vegetable Soup was a staple at our house. Hearty and filling, it is comfort food at it’s finest. With that in mind, I created this Keto Vegetable Soup with Ground Beef recipe and it does not disappoint.
This keto Tuscan soup is the perfect recipe to make the most of basic ingredients with very little effort required. It's a good choice for any meal plan, too! You'll have a healthy and hearty soup that makes enough to feed a family (or feed you for days). I hope you enjoy this Tuscan-style beef and vegetable soup! It's savory and hearty and spiced to perfection, just enough heat to warm you up on a cold day. Soup season = best season, right?
Simple, low-carb ingredients with only two steps make this an easy go-to recipe.
Ingredients and Substitutions
This recipe is flexible, allowing for substitutions based on your preferences and what you have on hand.
- Beef: Use 80/20 or 80/10 ground beef, and skim off the fat to prevent the soup from becoming greasy. You can use anything from a 73-93% mixture for this recipe. You could also substitute ground turkey for this soup if you’d like. Just make sure you drain the grease from your meat well. Short on time? Toss in a bag of frozen meatballs and make it a one-step recipe! Grass-fed ground beef for protein and fat. There are certain cuts that are great for braising. Chunk steak, round steak, or blade steak work well. You can also just pick up a package of pre-cut stew meat. You'll need to trim some of the fat, but it still saves time.
- Vegetables: Cauliflower makes this soup nutritious and hearty. This recipe uses onions, red bell peppers, carrots, zucchini, and red cabbage, but this is not set in stone. You could use some mixture of Daikon radishes, kale, green cabbage, summer squash, eggplant, soybeans, spinach, asparagus, bok choy, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, celery, celery root, collard greens, parsley, endive, butternut squash, escarole, kohlrabi, mushrooms, mustard greens, okra, pumpkin, radicchio, scallions, spaghetti squash, green beans, tomatoes, turnips, and hot peppers. I love the combination of diced green and red peppers for this soup. You can use any color or combinations of bell peppers you’d like for this recipe. I think diced yellow onions add the perfect flavor for this dish. If you’d like, you can substitute white onions. For my veggies, I added chopped cauliflower, green beans, and zucchini. You can add or substitute any low carb vegetables that you’d like.
- Soup Base: Beef broth and a can of tomatoes make a rich and beefy broth. Use a can of Rotel tomatoes with added green chiles and spices if you like! Diced tomatoes, vegetable broth, tomato paste, and tamari add taste and texture to this dish. You can use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth or use a combination of both if you’d prefer. If you use no-salt added broth and diced tomatoes to this keto-friendly Beefy Minestrone Soup, you'll need to add a bit more salt.
- Seasoning: DIY your own Italian seasoning and have extra on hand for casseroles beef sandwiches. For seasonings, we add some parsley, basil, garlic powder, and oregano. You can always add additional salt and pepper to taste.😉The spices in the recipe are meant to infuse the flavor of spicy Italian sausage into the grass-fed ground beef. If you're opting to use Italian sausage instead of beef, then you'll only need dried oregano, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper (omit the cayenne, paprika and Italian seasonings).
- Optional Add-ins: Feel free to add cabbage, mushrooms, peas, corn, zucchini, or keto veggies. Chopped bell peppers taste great, too. Add some salsa or a few red pepper flakes for a spicy kick.
Cooking Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium high heat, add ground beef, green peppers, red peppers, onion, salt, and pepper. Cook until meat is no longer pink, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks. When ground beef is done, drain the fat.
- In a large stockpot, add ground beef mixture, diced tomatoes, vegetable broth, tomato paste, tamari, parsley, basil, garlic powder, and oregano. Stir to combine ingredients.
- Add cauliflower, green beans, and zucchini. Stir to combine.
- Over high heat, bring mixture to a boil.
Alternatively:
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- Add 2 tbsp of olive oil to a heavy bottom pot and turn the heat on to medium-high. Add the stewing beef that’s been cut into smaller chunks, and brown in batches if necessary.
- Add the onion, garlic, and celery and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent.
- While this is cooking, prepare the kale. Wash it thoroughly and remove the leaves from the stems. Roughly chop it.
- Put the low-sodium beef broth, a whole 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes, tomato paste and kale into the pot with the beef, onions, and carrots.
- Simmer over low heat, covered, for about 20 minutes or until the beef is tender.
- Add the remaining veggies and your favorite Italian seasoning blend, and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes.
- Season with 1 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper, or to taste.
Serving and Storing
Garnish each bowl with a dollop of sour cream for a creamy soup or add a sprinkle of bacon bits and shredded cheddar cheese. Dip or crumble in some tasty mozzarella cheese crisps as a delicious topper.
Keep leftover soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Reheat on the stovetop. This soup freezes well. For freezing, portion into zippered bags or freezer-safe containers for up to a month. Chill the soup overnight in the fridge. Pour it into freezer-safe containers in single or family-size portions. Date the top with a Sharpie, and freeze for up to three months (or longer). To reheat, thaw in the fridge overnight, and heat it slowly on the stovetop. Or, transfer it to a microwave-safe dish and microwave it in 1-minute intervals until it is heated through.
Pairing Suggestions
This is an awesome stand-alone soup recipe that works well for a lunch or dinner option. You can choose your favorite keto salad and make this into an incredible soup and salad meal. Combine this soup with some keto cornbread or biscuits and you’ll have a complete and satisfying meal. You can also pair this soup with your favorite keto sandwiches. Like spice? This dish is pretty much a meal-in-a-bowl, but you can sneak some extra veggies into your day (and some extra fiber) by enjoying a salad with this dish. I’ve also been known to feast on my famous Crack Cauliflower or other veggies with this soup, too.
There are some very tasty low carb options for crackers and bread out there. Highkey makes a good almond flour cracker, or you can make your own with a recipe from Wholesome Yum.
Additional Tips
Vegetable soup freezes great! You can store it in the freezer in freezer-safe storage bags or any freezer-safe container. To reheat, I always thaw mine in the fridge overnight then rewarm in the microwave or on the stove.
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Time-Saving Tip: I keep ground beef already browned in the freezer to save time. I buy several pounds at once and brown them all. Next, I divide and freeze in freezer-safe storage bags. When I need ground beef for a recipe, I pop it in the microwave and then add to the dish.
Nutritional Information
This Keto Vegetable Beef Soup recipe has just 7g net carbs per bowl. Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is calculated with the assistance of a third party service. Values are approximate, can’t be guaranteed, and should be considered as estimates only. Values differ according to types and brands of foods used. When used in a recipe, erythritol has been removed from the carb count as it is a sugar alcohol. Erythritol carbs (sugar substitutes) are not included in the carbohydrate counts as they have been shown not to impact blood sugar, and they have zero calories and zero carbs.
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