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!!!)
Awwe Nagi, love the beach! This will be next week’s special for the cafe in our NorCal winter:)
It’s a bit of a myth that alcohol cooks out of food.
If you were to simmer a dish like this uncovered on the stove for 2.5 hours, around 95% of the alcohol would evaporate.
Given this cooking time, you’re looking at around 40% of the alcohol still being present in the dish at the table.
The good news, for anyone concerned, is that the amounts of alcohol in use here are not really enough to get anyone tipsy, much less harm them. Cooking wine typically has around 17% A.B.V. and 375 ml is equivalent to about two glasses. Since half or more will cook out, this is less than a glass split five ways(five servings).
Still delicious though.
Wonderful. Makes a nice, rich broth and the meat was tender. This is definitely a keeper.
Made this soup today with no deviation from the recipe. It is full of flavor and hearty. Highly recommended. Definitely will be making it again and again.
My husband and son said, “keep this recipe” after serving it. Modifications: no celery, no peas. Added canned green beans (drained). Only 1 potato. Used a red wine. Only cooked 1 hour – until carrots and potato were soft. Very hearty tasting, not watery. Loved!
It’s Fantastic!! This soup is Delicious, Hearty, Satisfying. We Loved it.
Definitely a keeper!! THANK YOU!
I LOVE this recipe! I make this all of the time. I am gluten free and dairy free and this is such a great recipe! Only thing I do different is add the potatoes almost right away. Otherwise I can’t get them soft!
This was the best beef stew I have ever made… I used leftover steak and beer. It was terrific! Thank you!
What is the serving size? I’m probably just missing it.. I was guessing a cup
EXCELLENT!
This soup was delicious. My husband went back for seconds. I followed this recipe to the t and used wine and Gluten free flour and came out amazing!! I also followed the suggestion and served it with garlic bread. It was a gloomy and cloudy day and this soup made the day. Thank you Nagi!
This soup was delicious. My husband went back for seconds. I followed this recipe to the t and used wine and Gluten free flour and came out amazing!! I also followed the suggestion and serve Keith garlic bread. It was a gloomy and cloudy day and this soup made the day. Thank you Nagi!
Delicious! Just what my family was craving. I added a bag of mixed frozen veggies and thickened the broth a bit to make it more stew like. Will make this again!
Can someone help! The meat was not falling apart. At all. And I’m an amazing cook. I’m thinking about separating the meat next time and not allowing it to simmer with the rest of the soup? Idk. I got stewing beef. Not sure what i did wrong.
Here are my tips for tender beef: Cut the meat into bite size pieces, no bigger than 1×1 inches. Before searing the meat, tenderize it with baking soda. Add about 1/2 tsp baking soda for 1lb of beef, mix them together in a bowl, let rest on counter for 30 minutes. Rinse the beef well (you don’t leave the baking soda on) and pat really dry before searing. Hope that helps!
This came out wonderful. I did not have all the exact ingredients, but most. So, I used what I had. For example, I did not have tomato paste, but did have V-8 juice. I had bones left over from making prime rib, so I seared those and added them. Also, I had made an ethnic dish that required using dehydrated mushrooms. I used the water from rehydrating the mushrooms for the water in the recipe, in addition to the buttery mushrooms. The comments I got included, “This is the best beef vegetable soup I have ever had.” This hit the spot for those family members and friends who had been skiing all day. Thank you for a great recipe.
Made this the other day and it was perfect. Full of veggies, tasty, and the beef lived up to the promise of being fall-apart. Thanks for a great recipe !
used a merlot instead of beer. it was excellent. My family loved it. Had some nice crusty French bread with it for the perfect winter meal.
Making this for the second time today. Only two weeks for the wife to say…hey can you make that healthy veggie soup again? 😂 Followed the recipe to the tee except subbed the water for more stock and wine. Winner, winner, beefy veggie dinner.
My favorite beef stew. Only change I made was adding the peas just before serving and giving them a minute or two to warm. Wish I’d doubled the recipe.
Great recipe. Thicken very nice. The wine was a bit too much. I was looking for more of a classic. But I will make again. With less wine possibly only 1/2 cup and use beef stock for the rest.