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!!!)
This is wonderful! A favorite recipe now.
I am so glad you enjoyed it Beth! N x
Such an amazing recipe! I’ve made it 8-10 times, so delicious! It would be helpful to have weights or measures for the veggies.
This Vegetable Beef Soup is absolutely delish, and the beef is fall apart! I made the recipe exactly as stated, I used red wine and it was so good. Next time I’ll try Guinness, to see which way I like it better. Definitely a hit at my house! 👍🏻
That’s a tough testing job you’ve given yourself! 😂 N x
I made this for dinner tonight, it was absolutely delicious! My husband loved it! Will definitely be making this again.
Loved this recipe! Was hit with a big snow storm here in Central Virginia, and didn’t have potatoes….swapped out with sliced water chestnuts! Perfect! Sadly, no left overs because it was devoured.. another winner!
Forgot the stars! Would add more if available!
This was delicious! Even my husband, who is an awesome cook and total foodie, loved it. Thank you!
Forgot my rating
Made this today and definitely didn’t disappoint! So good and flavorful. It did take longer than called for for the potatoes to be tender (Yukon Gold) so next time think I’ll do Nagi’s tip to put them in the microwave for 4 minutes. Will have to double the recipe next time as it was that good. Thanks Nagi.
Made this for dinner tonight on a cold evening here in Colorado. It was delicious with wine, although next time I might choose a different bottle than the Cabernet Sauvignon I chose..
A truly outstanding recipe; my wife and kids all loved it. Used red wine and think that is what really bumps this recipe ahead of others I’ve tried. Also added some cabbage and broccoli. Saving as my new fav veg-beef soup go-to.
I made this for a cold winter night. It was awesome! My other beef soups were not this creamy. Added some leeks to use them up but otherwise as the recipe was written. Will make this again!
Made this recipe either leftover pieces of prime rib. Delicious! Made your no knead bread to go with.
I made this tonight and loved it. So good!!! I put red wine in and my homemade beef stock and the veggies! The only thing that I left out were the peas because they tend to get mushy if in the broth for too long. It was a fun project, and I truly enjoyed it. Would definitely make it again.
Nagi id love to make this! Do you think you could do it in a slow cooker?
Amazingly good. I’m making it to freeze for lunch and dinner. Thanks for the recipe
Can you make this in the crockpot?
I made the Hearty Beef Vegetable soup 2 weeks ago. It was a huge hit. I was asked today to make it again next week💕
This was delicious!
I have two days to cook up several dinners for my family which they can simply warm up. I found your website and I have every ingredient at hand for your recipes that I will start to cook tomorrow beginning with your vegetable beef soup which I can just about taste. Thank you🤗
You know, I have to be honest with you. While I was cooking it I didn’t think it would come out right, because I’m used to adding my ingredients in a different order, BUT it was AMAZING!
I added more of the veggies and doubled the sauce ingredients as you suggested and it’s just so good! We used beef shoulder and I have never tasted meat so tender.
It smells amazing and looks and tastes delicious.
Five stars! I made this for the the first time today. It is hands-down the best beef vegetable soup I’ve ever made. I used red wine and omitted the mushrooms. Instead of adding plain salt to taste, I subbed in some Better Than Bouillon beef base to taste. I did add a teaspoon of brown sugar for a bit of umami flavor (I didn’t taste any sweetness but it immediately made the flavors pop). Thanks, this is a keeper!