This Beefy Tomato Soup is our most popular soup recipes! This comforting soup is loaded with beef and pasta simmered in a tomato cream broth!
If you like making soup as much as we do, try ourCopycat Campbells’ Tomato Soup! Or if you’re looking for a low carb soup, then try thisPork Egg Roll Soup or our Low Carb Sausage Vegetable Soup!
An Easy Soup Recipe That’s Done In 30 Minutes!
Because I like to try and use what we have in the house, I opened the freezer, the fridge and all the cabinets to take stock of what we had on hand. Sometimes going back out to the grocery store is just not something I want to do.
I grabbed some ground beef from the freezer, cream cheese from the fridge,onions, basil and garlic fromthe cabinets and got to work.
Beefy Tomato Soup has become one of our most popular recipe on our site and for good reason. It’s really easy to make, it’s done in less than 30 minutes and it’s so creamy and comforting, everyone gobbles it up.
This soup recipe is another way Ilike to use spaghetti sauce in recipes as a short cut and a boost of flavor. And probably one of my favorite ways, too. Also a jar of spaghetti sauce is usually something we have in the pantry so it’s an easy ingredient to use in recipes like this.
This beef and macaroni soup gets so thick it’s almost like a beef goulash. Some people have said that it’s similar to a homemade hamburger helper once the noodles soak up all the broth.
How Do You Make Beefy Tomato Soup?
Gather your ingredients together and start by cooking the onion and garlic in olive oil. Next brown the beef, add a few seasonings then pour in chicken broth and your jar of marinara sauce.
You can still make this soup if you don’t have a jar of spaghetti sauce, just substitute a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce if that’s what you have instead.
Give it a stir and let it simmer for 10 minutes, not a full boil, just a simmer. Stir in cream cheese to make it nice and thick, add some fresh basil and finally add in the pasta. Or don’t, we’ll answer that question below!
Can You Cook the Pasta Separately For This Soup?
You sure can. If you like your soup to have more broth, cook the noodles separately and add it in the each bowl as you serve the soup.
And if you’re planning on making this beef and macaroni soup ahead of time, you should definitely cook the pasta separately so it doesn’t get too thick on you when you go to reheat it.
Because we like this soup recipe thick and creamy, we put the pasta right in there so as it cooks it soaks up some of the broth. We don’t often have leftovers of this soup when we make it so getting too thick on us isn’t an issue.
Maybe it’s the creamy, delicious broth. Maybe it’s the beef and noodle combination. Or maybe it’s because it’s so easy to make!
This Beefy Tomato soup recipe has become a fan favorite since we posted it way back in 2015! It seems like everyone loves it and I hope you do too!
5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 80 reviews
Author:Dan
Prep Time:15 minutes
Cook Time:20
Total Time:35 minutes
Yield:6 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Beefy Tomato Soup is an easy beef and macaroni soup that your whole family will love! This soup is done and on the table in less than 30!
Scale
Ingredients
3/4 lb. ground beef
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
1 (24 ounce) jar of spaghetti sauce
4 cups of chicken stock
1/2 cup of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni or short-tubed pasta
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil, divided
Instructions
In a large pot heat the olive oil over medium heat.
Add the onion and garlic to the pot and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring, until the onion softens.
Add the ground beef to the onions, breaking up with a spoon and cook until no longer pink. Drain any drippings if necessary.
Add the salt, pepper and oregano to the beef and stir to combine.
Pour in the chicken stock and the pasta sauce, stir and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.
Whisk in the cream cheese and then add 2 tablespoons of the fresh basil.
Pour in the pasta, stir and let cook for 10 minutes, covered, stirring halfway through cooking.
Spoon into bowls and garnish with the leftover basil.
Recipe Notes
Your favorite spaghetti sauce can be used, or even a can of crushed tomatoes with a little more seasoning works!
*NOTE – A few of our readers have commented that the noodles soak up all the broth when you reheat the next day. If you want the soup for leftovers with more broth, cook the pasta separately and then add it to each bowl as you heat it up!
If you are adding meat to a soup, sear or brown it in a sauté pan before you add it to the soup. This adds a deeper savory flavor to the whole soup. This trick is especially useful for things like chicken and sausage, which can sometimes get bland and rubbery while floating in a brothy soup.
You can use beef bouillon cubes to enhance flavor as well! I like to braise bones with tomato paste until well done and golden brown and then use those to make a beef broth with carrots, celery, garlic and a combination of thyme, and rosemary and bay leaf. Boil it all together for 3–4 hours at a low simmer!
You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute. For the best results, never add flour or cornstarch directly to your soup. If you do, it will clump up on top. Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool.
To ensure you get it just right, make sure the soup is nearly cooked before adding the pasta. Smaller pasta shapes soak up broth readily so ensure you serve the soup as soon as it's cooked. Alternatively, you could cook the pasta separately and add to the soup at the last moment.
- Black pepper: Brings out the robust flavors of beef. - Cumin: Provides an earthy and slightly nutty taste to beef dishes. - Oregano: Works well with ground beef and adds a Mediterranean touch. - Mustard seeds: Adds a mild tang and complements the richness of beef.
In general, cooked meat flavor develops as a result of interactions between amino acids, peptides, reducing sugars, vitamins, and nucleotides or their breakdown products during cooking from the lean component.
"If your broth is lacking in savory richness, try adding roasted onion, tomato paste, mushrooms, seaweed, soy sauce, or miso. These ingredients add umami flavor and depth to broth," she says. The choice of ingredient depends on the recipe, though.
Beef tastes great when seasoned with oregano, rosemary, sage, garlic or a combination of these seasonings. Poultry gets an added burst of flavor with spices like paprika, lemongrass and saffron. Fish can be made more flavorful with dry mustard powder, thyme and turmeric.
To season it, we recommend starting with our Vegetable Soup Mix. It contains celery salt, parsley flakes, garlic powder, sea salt, summer savory, marjoram, thyme, black pepper, turmeric and sage, which are all excellent with root vegetables, so you can incorporate things like carrots or potatoes into the soup.
Garlic and onions make everything tastier! While the soup is cooking on the stove, sautee onions and garlic, adding them into the soup towards the end of cooking. Or for an aromatic that'll give a refreshing flavor, add chopped ginger into the soup while it's still cooking, stirring it in to blend the flavors together.
- Adding baking soda to tomato soup and tomato sauces helps balance the acidity of the tomatoes. Tomato flavors really shine, and your sauce or soup will not curdle if you add milk. - Adding ¼ teaspoon of baking soda to 1 cup of tomato sauce or soup will make flavors sparkle and become less acidic.
Spaghetti is one of the most popular pasta types to go into soup. Commonly found in Minestrone and Cream of Chicken, it's simple, can be trimmed to various lengths, and adds sustenance without taking up too much space.
If you're making a soup that calls for pasta, you generally only need to use approximately one-third or half of the box of dried pasta. Prepare the soup and add the dried pasta directly to it after the soup has cooked for half the time recommended in the recipe instructions.
These mixes are just blends of herbs and spices we have come to associate with meat. Combine sage, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, celery seed, allspice, and black pepper to make your own “poultry” seasoning.
"If your broth is lacking in savory richness, try adding roasted onion, tomato paste, mushrooms, seaweed, soy sauce, or miso. These ingredients add umami flavor and depth to broth," she says. The choice of ingredient depends on the recipe, though.
The best way to ensure a flavorful soup is to brown the beef and onions in the beginning. If the soup tastes bland at the end of cooking, add more spices and herbs. After adding, allow the soup to cook a little longer so the flavors to meld together.
Introduction: My name is Dan Stracke, I am a homely, gleaming, glamorous, inquisitive, homely, gorgeous, light person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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