This recipe is a riff on my favorite Crockpot Beef Stew. (If the Instant Pot is your preferred appliance, be sure to check out its cousin Instant Pot Beef Stew too.) Compared to my original beef stew, this homemade soup has a few more vegetables and a little less prep. Most of the action happens in the slow cooker while you aren’t paying attention, so you can get back to more pressing matters—like trying your hand at an at-home baking project (No Knead Focaccia anyone?) or diving into that organizing project you’ve been meaning to start for months (I choose the first option).
This easy vegetable beef soup makes a hefty six servings, and it saves and reheats well.It’s a low-cost and low-maintenance dinner, and you can even freeze it for future servings.As it cooks, it smells and tastes like pure comfort, in the way that only homemade vegetable beef soup recipes can.After one bowl, everyone at your table is likely to ask for another.
You’ll want to hold onto this old fashioned vegetable beef soup recipe. Like the favorite, budget-friendly soups that have come before it—15 Bean Soup, Crockpot Lentil Soup, and Whole30 Chili to name but a few—it is an ideal answer to your comforting-yet-wholesome cravings. It’s also EASY! While it may taste like you’ve been lovingly tending to it all day on the stove, it only takes 10 minutes (!!) to prep. I won’t tell if you won’t.
How to Make Vegetable Beef Soup
Whether you make this vegetable beef soup for two or for a crowd, it’s certain to be a hit! If you grew up reluctantly eating your grandma’s vegetable beef soup (likely a crockpot vegetable beef soup with tomato juice), I urge you to give this version a try. Instead of tomato juice, canned vegetables, and a general lack of flavor, this soup has immense depth of flavor and hearty vegetables.
The Ingredients
Chuck Roast. Boneless chuck roast is the ideal choice for this soup, as it will become tender during cooking. You can also use beef stew meat in this recipe. See below for more tips on selecting beef for this soup.
Beef Broth. Beef broth gives this soup liquid and helps flavor and tenderize the meat. Using low sodium beef broth will keep your soup from becoming too salty. Vegetables. Since this is a hearty beef vegetable soup, I added loads of colorful veggies. I used onion, garlic, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, celery, tomatoes, and peas. For variety, we also love to make this slow cooker vegetable beef soup with cabbage and frozen vegetables.
Tomato Sauce + Paste. How do you make vegetable soup taste delicious? These two ingredients are the answer! Tomato sauce and paste are an easy way to make vegetable soup taste even better and give it deep flavor.Worcestershire. For a rich, savory vegetable beef soup broth.Seasoning. A pinch of salt, pepper, oregano, and smoked paprika is the perfect combination of spices for vegetable beef soup. The smoked paprika gives it an especially robust flavor.Sugar. A tiny pinch balances the acidity of the tomatoes.
The Directions
Selecting Beef for Vegetable Beef Soup
It can be challenging to know what kind of beef is good for soup. See below for my best tips for selecting beef for soup:
What Cut of Beef is Best for Vegetable Beef Soup? For this easy vegetable beef soup, I’ve found that purchasing a single piece of chuck roast is the best choice. It tenderizes perfectly during the slow cooking process, has lots of flavor, and you can cut it into equally-sized pieces for even cooking.If you prefer, you can use stew meat instead. The benefit of stew meat is that it comes precut, making it a time saver.What Cut of Beef is Stew Meat? The cut of beef used in stew meat can differ, which is a downside of using it. Typically, some of the stew meat will be cut from the shoulder, but there will also be a variety of other cuts. For this reason, I like to cut my own beef for stew from a single type so all the pieces cook in the same amount of time.
Storage Tips
To Store. About 4 days is how long homemade vegetable beef soup will keep in the refrigerator. Refrigerate the soup in an airtight storage container.To Reheat. Gently rewarm leftovers in a large pot on the stovetop over medium-low heat, adding splashes of broth as needed. You can also reheat this soup in the microwave until hot.To Freeze. Freeze leftovers in an airtight freezer-safe storage container for up to 3 months. Let thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
Recommended Tools to Make this Recipe
Programmable Slow Cooker. Great for making vegetable beef soup. Ladle. The best way to fill your bowls and storage containers with soup.Sharp Chef’s Knife. Great for chopping vegetables for this soup! One of the most important tools to have in your kitchen.
For a hearty warm-up, serving of vegetables (that does not feel overtly like eating vegetables), and picky eater-approved dinner, this crockpot vegetable beef soup has arrived.
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