Cooking Video for Kids: Crowd Pleasing Hamburger Soup with Pickles!

This recipe is my kids’ ultimate favorite, but a big tip: It’s ALL about the pickles!!!

Cheeseburger soup (or “hamburger soup” as we call it now since we add cheese at the table b/c one of us is dairy-free) truly tastes like a bowl full of cheeseburger, but you don’t need 3 pounds of meat to feed a family!

This is a huge recipe and you’ll definitely eat it for multiple meals.

If your kids are learning sharp knife skills, soup is a GREAT way to practice, and everyone loves leftovers right now since we’re all home to eat them!

Kid-Friendly Soup

The whole family really helped here:

• 14-year-old Paul demos his chef’s knife skills with many veggies! He worked hard!!!
• 8-year-old John browns the beef and stirs the veggies
• 11-year-old Leah diced the pickles and helped assemble the soup as well (“Get Level with Liquids” for the broth)

Can’t view the video? Watch it here on YouTube.

Hamburger Soup Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 large or 2 medium onions, diced
• 3–4 stalks celery, diced
• ~4 medium carrots, diced
• 2 lbs. potatoes or turnips, diced (~6 medium, unpeeled is fine)
• 2–4 cloves garlic, minced, or 1/4–1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1–2 tsp. salt, to taste
• 1/8–1/2 tsp. pepper, to taste
• 2 c. home-cooked kidney or white beans (or 1 can), or cooked lentils
• 4+ c. beef or chicken stock (up to 8 cups)
• 1/3 c. tomato sauce or 2 Tbs.tomato paste
• 1/2–1 Tbs. honey or molasses, optional
• 1/4 c. yellow mustard (prepared)
• Optional: 1–2 c. grated cheddar cheese (I prefer sharp)

Directions

1. Crush garlic and allow it to sit to activate its health benefits.
2. In a large pot, brown beef over medium heat. Add onions and celery and cook until translucent.
3. As you chop them, add the carrots and potatoes/turnips, then stir in the crushed garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook 1-2 minutes, stirring often.
4. Add the beans or lentils, stock, and tomato sauce/paste.
5. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 10-15 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
6. Stir in optional sweetener and mustard; taste to see if more salt is needed.
7. If adding cheese, turn off the heat and stir in cheese until melted.
8. Serve with chopped dill pickles, cooked and crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, sour cream, and any other “burger” toppings you enjoy, like raw onion, green olives, mushrooms, avocado, etc.

Kid-Friendly Soup Recipe Notes

• With only 4 cups broth, the soup will be thick, very much a “stoup.”
• Goes great with biscuits or homemade rolls (why not homemade hamburger buns?).
• Soups are VERY versatile with vegetables, so if you don’t have something this recipe calls for, swap it out with something else. As long as you have the mustard and pickle juice, it will taste like a cheeseburger. 🙂

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