A hearty Vegetable Beef Soup with melt-in-your-mouth slow cooked chunks of beef, potato and vegetables simmered in a herb infused savoury broth. You’ll love how the broth of this beef soup recipe is slightly thickened so it’s like gravy and has extra flavour from a secret ingredient!
Vegetable Beef Soup
So many beef soups are watery and dull. Not this one!!! The thing that sets this beef soup recipe apart from the rest is the broth. It’s slightly thickened so it’s more like a thinnish gravy. It’s infused with herb flavour and also gets an extra depth of flavour from the secret ingredient: red wine. Or beer or stout. (They’re all good)
It’s not about boozing up our soup! It’s about adding complexity and character to the soup broth flavour without simmering for hours up hours like we do with Beef Stew and Pot Roast.
Without the wine, the broth still tastes very, very good.
With the wine, it’s stellar! (And in care you’re concerned, the alcohol gets cooked out, just leaving behind flavour.)
What goes in Vegetable Beef Soup
Here’s what you need.
Stewing beef – anything economical, in small bite size pieces (remember, we’re making a soup here, not a stew)
Red wine, stout or guinness – all of these work great here. Red wine gives it a classic beef stew flavour, Guinness or stout will give the soup a more intense, deep flavour like Irish Guinness Stew. I use wine most frequently because I always have some on hand, and because I prefer not to just use part of a can of beer that I wouldn’t choose to drink!
How to make Beef Soup
The key step here is to brown the beef well – aggressively is the term that I use. This adds a ton of flavour to the beef itself and the broth, from the brown bits on the bottom of the pot that dissolves into the broth.
I like to sauté the mushrooms in butter and add them towards the end – but this is optional. Because golden brown buttery mushrooms vs mushrooms just simmered in the broth? There is no contest! (But really, it is optional 🙂 )
Fall-apart slow cooked beef!
I promised you fall-apart beef, and fall apart beef you shall get. And you will see just how tender the beef is in the recipe video below using the most ridiculous method – chopsticks of all things!!
I know, I know, it’s soooo Asian.
But right at that moment while I was filming, it was the first thought that came to me as the easiest way to show it on camera! 😂 I mean, how else can I pry a piece of beef apart using one hand??
What Beef Soup goes with
There’s a ton of veggies in this soup, and you could add even more into the soup. Green beans would be ideal, but they were extortionately overpriced on the day I shot this and I just couldn’t do it.
So it’s an ideal meal-in-a bowl that doesn’t need anything more. But I’m pretty sure no one would say no to a side of quick Cheesy Garlic Bread!!! Or try one of these soup dunkers:
Soup Dunkers
Also, this soup just gets better with time and freezes 100% perfectly. So make a double batch! ~ Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Vegetable Beef Soup (Fall apart beef!)
Ingredients
- 1.5 tbsp olive oil , separated
- 500g/1 lb stewing beef , cut into 1.75cm / 2/3″ cubes (Note 1)
- 1/2 tsp salt and pepper
- 1 onion , chopped
- 3 garlic , minced (1 tbsp)
- 2 celery , cut into 0.8 cm / 1/3″ slices
- 3 carrots , cut into 0.5 cm / 1/5″ thick slices (halve larger ones)
- 4 tbsp flour
- 2 1/2 cups (625ml) beef broth/stock , low sodium
- 1 1/2 cups (375ml) dry red wine, Guinness beer or stout (Note 2)
- 1.5 cups (375ml) water
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp thyme dried
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 2 potatoes (any), cut into 1.5cm / 2/3″ cubes
Buttery mushrooms (optional):
- 1 tbsp (15g) butter or oil
- 200g/ 6oz small mushrooms , quartered or halved
Instructions
- Heat 1 tbsp oil until very hot in a large, heavy based pot over high heat.
- Pat beef dry with paper towels, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Brown beef aggressively in 2 or 3 batches, adding more oil if needed. Remove browned beef into a bowl.
- If pot looks dry, add a touch more oil.
- Add garlic and onion, cook for 2 minutes.
- Add carrot and celery, cook for 2 minutes or until onion is translucent.
- Stir in flour, then slowly pour in beef broth while constantly stirring.
- Add beer, water, tomato paste, bay leaves and thyme, stir well. Then add the beef back in.
- Cover, adjust heat to medium low so it’s bubbling gently. Simmer 1 hr 15 min or until beef is pretty tender.
- Add potatoes and peas, simmer for a further 20 minutes without the lid. Add cooked mushrooms in the last 5 minutes.
- The soup is ready when the potatoes are cooked and beef is very tender (see video).
- Adjust salt and pepper to taste (I like lots of pepper in this!).
- Ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with crusty bread if desired. Try quick Cheesy Garlic Bread or super easy Irish Soda Bread!
Buttery Mushrooms (optional):
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes until browned. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Recipe Notes:
- Red wine – any dry, full bodied red wine. Cab Sauv and Merlots are ideal.
- Guinness Beer and Stout are dark beers, labelled as such on the cans. You should find these at most liquor stores. Use some, drink some – or tip the whole can in an simmer for longer with the lid off!
- Non alcoholic sub – add 400g/14 oz can of crushed tomato, 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce. This will add alternative flavour to compensate.
Nutrition Information:
Originally published May 2019. Updated for housekeeping matters March 2020, no change to recipe.
More chunky, hearty soups
Life of Dozer
This is what a doggy smile looks like.
(And we’d be smiling too if we had Life of Dozer!!!)
Absolutely loved this soup, thankyou Nagi!
I was taught to always fry off tomato paste before adding liquid as it takes the tang away from the the tomato and I did it in this recipe too. 😉
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Made this last night with just a couple changes. Added a Parmesan rind for flavor, along with a bit of Worcestershire sauce. I also added ditilini pasta instead of potatoes. I did use wine. It was the best beef soup I’ve ever had. Eating today for lunch, still great! Next time I may add barley in place of pasta. Wonderful recipe, thanks so much!!
Took me quite long to make, but so worth it! I did not put mushrooms, peas or potatoes in, but I added butternut, parsley, cauliflower, babymarrow a bit of cream and apricot jam. So good
Took me quite long to make, but so worth it! I did not put mushrooms in, but I added butternut, celery, parsley, cauliflower, babymarrow.
I made this tonight. I had leftover beef from another dish. I still made this soup and it was delicious 😋. I can’t wait to eat it tomorrow. It will be even better.
I made this tonight. It’s a very filling and hearty soup that’s a wonderful winter warmer. Filled with the goodness of beef and a variety of vegetables, the soup is delicious and nutritious. I used the canned chopped tomato and Worcestershire sauce substitute for the Guinness or red wine. The substitute worked a treat. My family really enjoyed this soup, served with some shop-bought garlic bread. I’ll definitely be making this yummy soup again. Give it a go, this recipe is very nice! Thank you, Nagi, for the inspiration.
I made this tonight for the first time. We all loved it. The meat was so tender
Must… stop… eating… this. It’s too delicious!
I followed the advice of others and added the potatoes just after the soup went on the stove. Also stirred in a cup of pre-cooked McKenzie’s soup mix at the end to give it more of a hearty stew vibe. Made the mushrooms too—very nice! A generous grind of pepper adds a lovely warming kick. The pre-diced stewing beef falls apart on the spoon.
It always takes me longer to make than the recipe suggests, but it’s absolutely worth it.
A lovely dish, might give it a whirl in the Instant Pot next time. Thanks, Nagi!
Yet another winner. So delicious, thank-you Nagi
We have recently moved and lm still coming to terms with the different stove. All pilots seem to be too hot for the simmer mode. Soup was ok but had an after taste so thinking either simmer too rapid and burnt the bits to the bottom or my 2 sticks of celery were too big should have just used the one. 🤷♀️ hubby liked it but he would say that anyway ☺️
I love this recipe and have made it several times.
One of the very best, tastiest beef soups I have ever eaten!
It’s very hard to find a recipe that all members of my family like, but this one blows the rest out of the water as everyone LOVED it! So easy to make and just plain delicious. Thanks Nagi!
Goodness this soup is delicious! The beer gave it a lovely flavor. I did however have to cook my potatoes a bit longer than the recipe said but I do think it was the type of potato. Then after our first portions there wasn’t much liquid left which was no problem as I added a cup of broth and simmered for a few min. Thank you for another amazing recipe. Yours are by far the best.
Made this for the first time today. Kept true to recipe, using a dry red wine and also the buttered mushrooms. Really good, thick and hearty! Yielded over 2 litres so I’ll be freezing some of this for another day. Will definitely make again.
Made this tonight with a can of stout and a pound of sirloin (since we’re doing lean meat for health reasons) and it was silky and flavorful. The mushrooms sautéed in butter were my guilty pleasure.
I make it exactly to the recipe. My family begs me for it.
Delicious! I used an arm roast since we have a freezer full of beef. Hubby wanted me to add corn and green beans. Turned out to be an amazing bowl of comfort. Love your recipes and dog pics!!
Delicious!! Next time can I use a combination of red wine AND Guinness?