An easy vegetable beef soup recipe made with ground beef and canned vegetables just like the old-school cafeteria lunch rooms once served!
Post and photos updated December 2025.
JUMP TO RECIPEI grew up eating lunch in school cafeterias. And I'm old enough that our food was prepared fresh every day by some of the sweetest smelling, bear-hug giving lunch ladies who still make me smile when I think about them.
I won't say that all of it was culinary perfection but they did the best they could with the ingredients they were provided and they put just enough love and pride into it to make it taste delicious to us.
One of my all-time favorite meals was Hamburger Soup served with the best soup-dunking sandwiches known to man – peanut butter and honey on white bread!
A few months ago I asked folks on the FB page if they ever had hamburger soup in grade school (most of you had and loved it).
Then I asked if it was served with the peanut butter and honey sandwiches – which launched a bona fide throw-down.
Those who remembered the soup and sandwiches loved it (like I did) but those who had never had the pairing were pretty vocal about thinking it sounded gross. So, quite naturally, all hell broke loose.
All I can tell you is, mix up some peanut butter, Karo syrup and honey then spread it on some white bread AND THEN dunk that sandwich in the soup and I promise you will love it!
I've talked to a few folks who made those sandwiches and they all agree that butter was mixed into the sandwich spread BUT that was because the institutional peanut butter they had was very dry and chalky so they had to mix it with butter to get it close to the texture of peanut butter we're all used to now.
And most will tell you there was no actual honey in the spread. They either used all corn syrup or used a mixture of corn syrup and honey (or pancake syrup). I use about equal parts corn syrup and honey then mix in two parts peanut butter.
OK, onto the soup! I loved this soup so much when I was a kid that I set out to recreate it a few years ago and came up with this recipe.
Trying to make it as close to the original meant using ingredients I wouldn't typically use with my Classic Vegetable Beef Soup but I was trying to be authentic so I used ground beef and canned mixed vegetables (like Veg-All).
If you had this growing up, you have GOT to try it now because I swear it tastes exactly like what I remember! And hopefully you’ll whip up some peanut butter and honey sandwiches to serve along with it!
Post and photos updated December 2025.
Looking for a more traditional vegetable soup made with beef chuck or stew meat?? Be sure to check out my recipe for Classic Vegetable Beef Soup.
Recipe for Hamburger Vegetable Beef Soup
Hamburger Vegetable Beef Soup
An easy vegetable beef soup recipe made with ground beef just like the old-school cafeteria lunch rooms once served!
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 small onion, diced
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 2 cans mixed vegetables (such as Veg-All), undrained
- 1 can petite diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 can water
- 1 large potato, peeled and cubed
- 5 beef bullion cubes (or equivalent amount of granules)
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Instructions
- Brown ground beef with onion, salt and pepper in a Dutch oven or soup pot until beef is cooked through. Do not drain.
- Add remaining ingredients then simmer over medium-low heat for one hour.
- Remove from heat and allow soup to rest, uncovered, 20 minutes before serving.
Notes
I use 80/20 ground chuck when I make this and find the fat and flavor from the meat is perfect in the soup but you can can leaner ground beef if you prefer.
