This Easy Cheeseburger Soup is a quick and easy weeknight meal! No drive thru needed for the satisfying cheeseburger flavors you’re craving. The pickles and bacon on top are the perfect garnish. Make this for game day, a chilly night, or anytime you want dinner done in 45 minutes. It’s easy to throw together, and if you’re really wanting to treat yoself, make Aunt Shirley’s Dinner Rolls to go with it! Heaven! Originally published March 21, 2014.
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I was just talking to my friends the other day about how I feel a little bit like the Unsinkable Molly Brown from Titanic. It doesn’t matter how fancy of a dress Molly puts on, people can still smell the low-class on her 🤣 …it me, it me.
I published this recipe for Cheeseburger Soup back in 2014, and it’s still a go-to dinner around here. My kids love it. Here’s the story I told, back when I had little floor crawlers:
The other day I saw something small on my kitchen floor and bent over to pick it up. I’m on a constant quest to keep the floor spotless, because 1-year-old Truman is still in the stage where he puts everything in his mouth.
But then I realized that it was a piece of lettuce. And I was *THIS CLOSE* to putting it back.
We’re bringing “tricking our kids into eating vegetables” to a whooooooole different level over here, guys.
This reminds me of my sister, another Molly, who used to plant bits of peanut butter sandwiches in her dustpan, because her underweight baby only seemed interested in eating the food mess the other kids left below the table. We are definitely cut from the same cloth.
Cheeseburger Soup. What even?
I know, I know, nothing will ever beat a real cheeseburger. But I swear, this soup comes close. The flavors are spot on.
I love it because it’s incredibly simple, just as a cheeseburger ought to be: bread, beef, cheese, maybe some pickles if you’re feeling fancy. Oh, and of course, the SAUCE.
I used to serve this soup without the bun, but over the years I’ve come to realize it’s essential. Instead of an actual hamburger bun, I like to serve it with my Aunt Shirley’s Famous Dinner Rolls. Homemade always wins, you know?
We start out with some bacon, because the only thing better than a cheeseburger is a bacon cheeseburger, amiright?
We are also adding the soup holy trinity: onion, carrot, celery. These magical ingredients are just what make soup soup in my opinion. They don’t mess with the cheeseburger flavor, I promise.
We are using Velveeta to make this soup ultra creamy and cheesy, and that’s not an apology. If you have serious moral qualms about Veleeta, please read this Serious Eats article: What is American Cheese, Anyway? If you are willing to eat meatloaf, you can eat Velveeta! Your soup will never be as smooth without it. But see the recipe notes if you just can’t do it, you can add regular cheddar at the end. But I’m telling you. Give it a chance!
And that’s really all there is to it. My kids request this soup all the time. It’s made with mostly pantry ingredients, and I can get it on the table in 45 minutes. What’s not to love here??
Ingredients for the Best Cheeseburger Soup Recipe
Here’s a quick list of everything you need to make this soup. Scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of the post for a full list!
- onion
- celery
- carrot
- ground beef
- tomato paste
- Lawry´s Seasoning Salt
- parsley (dried is fine)
- black pepper
- flour
- Worcestershire sauce
- yellow mustard
- beef broth (or use Better than Bouillon beef base, love that stuff)
- Velveeta cheese
- iceberg lettuce
- grape or cherry tomatoes
- cheddar cheese (for garnish)
- chopped pickles (relish would work too, for garnish)
- bacon (cooked, and crumbled, for garnish)
How to make Cheeseburger Soup
Let’s get started! First things first: BACON. Chop it right up in the pot with some scissors, no need to get your cutting board dirty.
Chop up your onions and celery. Grate the carrot so it adds lots of flavor with no giant carrot pieces. Cook these up in your bacon grease, then add flour to thicken your soup base.
Once everything is soft and tender add your ground beef right on top.
Here comes the flavor: Worcestershire, mustard, ketchup. Oh, and Velveeta for the cheesiest cheeseburger goodness.
Literally, there’s no better way to cheeseburger when it’s cold outside!
Garnish with lettuce and tomato, chopped pickles, and cooked bacon.
Have it your way
Cheeseburger soup is as versatile as your favorite burger order, so you can mix and match ingredients to suit your cravings. Depending on my mood (and fridge contents!) I like these subs:
- Make it vegetarian. Use a pound of your preferred ground beef substitute (like Impossible plant-based ground beef, or Beyond Beef, or Wegmans “Don’t Have a Cow” crumbles) instead of the regular ground beef. Omit the bacon, of course.
- Sub your meat. Ground turkey works in this too!
- Add mushrooms. Saute up some white button mushrooms or baby bellas and add them as a topping with the lettuce and tomatoes.
- More cheese. If you’re a Swiss burger lover or you’ve got some pepper jack cheese on hand, add a slice or a sprinkling of grated cheese and let it melt on top of the hot soup. Cheddar cheese, Colby jack cheese, it’s all good. The creaminess!!
- Fancy it up. See serving suggestions immediately below for how to gussy up this soup and send it off to the dinner table in style (or just serve it as an easy dinner just the way it is).
- Give it a kick. Add a little hot sauce!
Serving cheeseburger soup
I serve this soup as a one-and-done kind of dinner, but here are a few ideas for giving your meal a little somethin’ somethin’.
- Brush some sesame seed buns with butter, cut them into 1.5 inch pieces, toast them in the oven, and serve your bun croutons on top of the soup.
- Make Aunt Shirley’s Dinner Rolls or Easy One Hour Dinner Rolls and serve them with the soup. Cheeseburger ain’t no cheeseburger without a bun.
- Throw some frozen french fries in the oven and serve them on the side (or on top!!?? yum).
- Top each serving with half a toasted, buttered sesame seed bun, like a little hat for the soup (and of course, dip it in).
Storing and reheating your soup
This cheeseburger soup can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, but definitely store the garnishes separately. That way you can add it last minute and get more crispy-crunchy goodness. You can also freeze the soup for 2-3 months! It does really well in the freezer!
More warm and cozy soups
If cheeseburger soup has you swooning, just wait until you dive into these other warm and cozy soups!
- Sausage and Kale Soup (Zuppa Toscana) >> based on the famous Olive Garden soup, I could eat this stuff for days
- Easy Broccoli and Cheddar Soup Recipe >> better than Panera and ready in about 30 min
- Creamy Potato Soup >> truly the best cream of potato soup I’ve ever had
- Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Apple and Heavy Cream >> an easy, healthy, warm vegetarian soup to warm you up this winter
- Creamy Tomato Soup >> this list wouldn´t be complete without a tomato soup recipe and this one is stellar
- Slow Cooker Creamy Vegetable Soup from The Recipe Rebel
- Creamy White Bean Soup with Kale, Rosemary & Lemon from The First Mess
- Chicken and Wild Rice Soup from The Schmidty Wife
Blast from the past
I posted this recipe way back in 2014. I found the recipe on a blog called Savoring Sarah, which is no longer active. I’m revisiting the recipe in 2025, and have made some adjustments to bring it up to my current standard. But the bones of the recipe is the same. Here is the old photo! Oh how time flies!
Cheeseburger Soup
Ingredients
- 6 strips bacon
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 stalks celery, chopped small
- 1 large carrot, peeled and shredded
- 1 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
- cracked black pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 pound ground beef, the leaner the better
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 1 tablespoon Better Than Bouillon Beef Base
- 4 cup water
- 8 ounces Velveeta cheese*, half of a small block
- 1/2 head iceberg lettuce, shredded, to garnish
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup chopped pickles, to garnish
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, to garnish
- Shirley's Famous Dinner Rolls, to serve with soup
Instructions
- Cook the bacon. Use kitchen shears to cut bacon into small pieces. Place all the bacon into a 6 quart pot or dutch oven. Cook the bacon over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until it is as crispy as you like it. Remove to a paper-towel-lined plate and set aside. Leave the bacon grease in the pot. (Turn off the heat, unless your veggies are already chopped.)
- While the bacon cooks, chop the veggies. Chop 1 small onion. Chop 2 stalks of celery into a fairly small dice. Peel one large carrot and shred, using a box grater. Or you can shred using a food processor. Heat up the bacon grease over medium heat, and add the onion, celery, and carrot to the pot.
- Spices. Add 1 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt and 2 teaspoons dried parsley. Add cracked black pepper to taste. Saute for about 5 minutes, until the onions are soft and translucent.
- Flour. Sprinkle 1/4 cup flour over the veggies in the pot and stir together.
- Add 1 pound ground beef to the veggies. Break it up and cook completely, until no longer pink, another 5-10 minutes. (If your beef was very fatty, take a moment to ladle out some of the grease.)
- Add 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon yellow mustard, and 1 tablespoon Better Than Bouillon Beef Base. Stir it into the ground beef.
- Add 4 cups of water. Chop 8 ounces of Velveeta into 1 inch cubes, and add to the soup.* Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Scrape the bottom of the pot to stir up all the browned bits. Stir until all the Velveeta is melted.
- Once the soup boils, lower the heat to medium and continue simmering for another 20-30 minutes with the lid off.
- Serve the soup in bowls topped with cheeseburger garnishes: bacon, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and a sprinkle of cheddar cheese.
- Don't forget to serve this Cheeseburger Soup with buttery soft dinner rolls!
Would this be good with ground venison?
Oooh good question Jen! I say try it and let us know how it turns out! I think if you like venison burgers, you’d probably like venison in this soup. Great idea for using up the deer in the freezer, thanks for sharing :-)
Made it with venison! Hides any venison taste! Super lean.