Beefy Tomato Soup is one of our most popular soup recipes! Ground beef and pasta in an addicting tomato cream sauce, and it’s ready in 30 minutes!
We love making this easy, cozy soup on busy nights or for a comforting weekend meal. All you need is crackers or buttered bread for dipping, and a crisp salad on the side if you get the urge.
An Easy Soup Recipe That’s Done In 30 Minutes!
Because I like to try and use what we have in the house, I opened the freezer, the fridge and all the cabinets to take stock of what we had on hand. Sometimes going back out to the grocery store is just not something I want to do.
I grabbed some ground beef from the freezer, cream cheese from the fridge, onions, basil and garlic from the cabinets and got to work.
Beefy Tomato Soup has become one of our most popular recipe on our site and for good reason. It’s really easy to make, it’s done in less than 30 minutes and it’s so creamy and comforting, everyone gobbles it up.
This soup recipe is another way I like to use spaghetti sauce in recipes as a short cut and a boost of flavor. And probably one of my favorite ways, too. Also a jar of spaghetti sauce is usually something we have in the pantry so it’s an easy ingredient to use in recipes like this.
This beef and macaroni soup gets so thick it’s almost like a beef goulash. Some people have said that it’s similar to a homemade hamburger helper once the noodles soak up all the broth.
How Do You Make Beefy Tomato Soup?
Gather your ingredients together and start by cooking the onion and garlic in olive oil. Next brown the beef, add a few seasonings then pour in chicken broth and your jar of marinara sauce.
You can still make this soup if you don’t have a jar of spaghetti sauce, just substitute a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce if that’s what you have instead.
Give it a stir and let it simmer for 10 minutes, not a full boil, just a simmer. Stir in cream cheese to make it nice and thick, add some fresh basil and finally add in the pasta.
Can You Cook the Pasta Separately For This Soup?
You sure can. If you like your soup to have more broth, cook the noodles separately and add it in the each bowl as you serve the soup.
A lot of our readers love the way that the pasta soaks up the broth the next day (and so do we). You can always add a splash more broth upon reheating if you like. But if you really want to hang on to all that addicting, creamy tomato broth then just add cooked pasta to your bowl before serving.
Variations
We get a lot of comments about the pipette that we use in this soup. We love this pasta shape because all the creamy broth gets all up inside the pasta, so you get all of that flavor in every bite. If you can’t find that pasta shape, use elbow macaroni, shells or any other short tube pasta shape.
Many of our readers say that they add fresh spinach to this soup, or other vegetables like peas and carrots. You can also swap out the ground beef for ground turkey or pork, even some Italian sausage would be great.
Looking For More Soup Recipes?
- Creamy Potato Soup with Italian Sausage
- Split Pea and Ham Soup
- Grandma’s Pasta Fazool
- Homemade Turkey Soup
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Beefy Tomato Soup
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeBeefy Tomato Soup is an easy beef and macaroni soup that your whole family will love! This soup is done and on the table in less than 30!
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 (24 ounce) jar of spaghetti sauce
- 4 cups of chicken stock
- 1/2 cup of cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni, shells or other short-tubed pasta
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped basil, divided
Instructions
- In a large pot heat the olive oil over medium heat.
- Add the onion and garlic to the pot and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring, until the onion softens.
- Add the ground beef to the onions, breaking up with a spoon and cook until no longer pink. Drain any drippings if necessary. Season with the salt, pepper and oregano and stir to combine.
- Pour in the chicken stock and the pasta sauce, stir and bring to a simmer. Simmer the soup for 10-15 minutes, uncovered.
- Whisk in the cream cheese until combined, then add 2 tablespoons of the fresh basil.
- Pour in the pasta, stir and let cook for 10 minutes, covered, stirring halfway through cooking.
- Spoon into bowls and garnish with the leftover basil.
Recipe Notes
Your favorite spaghetti sauce can be used, or even a can of crushed tomatoes with a little more seasoning works!
NOTE: A few of our readers have commented that the noodles soak up all the broth when you reheat the next day. If you want the soup for leftovers with more broth, cook the pasta separately and then add it to each bowl as you heat it up! Alternately you can add another cup of broth to the soup when making.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: American
How many servings does this make?
This soup will serve at least 6 adults.
Looking forward to making this tonight! I just bought all of the ingredients. Question: should I only add 3/4 of a pound of the ground beef? I bought a package that was about 1.25 lb. will adding all of it be too much meat for the soup? just curious. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
In my opinion the more meat the better, I’d go for it! Let me know how you like it!
This has become my go to recipe at least once a month. I cut back on the broth so it’s less soupy, my husband calls it homemade hamburger helper, it’s so awesome! We love it!
I know a lot of people that call it that too! Thanks for letting me know!
WOW! your photos are amazing and this dish looks heavenly! Pinning!
Thank you Lauren!
Looks great, do you think this could be cooked in a crock pot if the pasta is added at the end of cooking?
I’d say you’d have to at least brown the beef first before adding it to the crock pot but you should definitely try it! Let me know if you do…
This is really the best looking soup!
Thank you Ashley!
Looks so good. My kids will love it!
So if I wanted to add some veggies into this…. what kinds do u think would work?
Hi Kelly, we’ve actually added a box of frozen chopped spinach that we thawed out and drained. It was delicious! Or I think peas would work too. You could really add anything you like!
Hi Kelly,
I added diced green peppers, tomatoes and celery.
I keep forgetting to rate this amazing recipe! Everyone I have made up for just raves about it. It’s so quick and easy with such a great burst of flavor. Question though that I just thought of tonight? Is there any reason why we don’t use beef broth instead of chicken? I was thinking about trying that but don’t know if it would throw everything off. What are your thoughts Dan? And thanks again for an excellent recipe!
You can use either! We’ve made it both ways, I think we originally grabbed chicken broth because we have it in stock all the time.
Any recommendations for a dairy free option in lieu of sour cream?
Hi Kim! It’s actually cream cheese in the soup, not sour cream. As far as a dairy free option, I’m not really sure…I know that you can use tofu (pureed) to thicken soups but it won’t give you the same flavor as the cream cheese. But I can tell you that this soup is going to be delicious all on it’s own, even without adding the cream cheese so I would just leave it out!
Lactose free cream cheese, Kite Hill almond cream cheese
We use Chaokoh Coconut milk..
I like to precook the pasta, shock it in cold water then add to any soup that I happen to be making. This kind of helps the pasta stop cooking and turn the soup in progress into a mushy noodle mess .
That’s a good way to do it too – this soup doesn’t really get mushy by putting the pasta directly in but with more brothy soups I totally agree with you!
I am wondering if I can leave the cream cheese out it was good but the children like a real broth y soup
Dan do you drain the fat after browning the ground beef? Or is the half pound a small enough amount that the fat just adds flavor?
Pam I think you’re exactly right. It’s small enough that I think it’s ok not to drain in, especially if you’re using lean ground beef.
This soup was so easy & Awesome! Thank you for this recipe. I used sausage (sweet) – 4 opened links & had some chicken stock & some veg stock…threw in with the rest & wow is this delish! I’d recommend whisking the cream cheese in some hot stock separately before adding as I had to fish out some of it & whisk it properly then add for body & flavor.
Does this use cream cheese or sour cream?
Joe, it’s a 1/2 cup of cream cheese.
Could you use ricotta cheese for the cream cheese?
It’s not going to give the soup the same creamy consistency but you can definitely use it if it’s what you have!
The recipe ACTUALLY said “cream cheese” “1/2 cup of cream cheese, at room temperature” in fact …. in the text!!!
Sorry, don’t normally respond to comments, but this was too stupid to be stupid. Or possibly this individual was just desperate for a reply..
My 3 year old is going to devour this. Great recipe. Thanks!
Thanks Jules, I think it’s a perfect recipe for a three year old, pasta and beef, what’s not to like? Hope you enjoyed it!
My girls made this for dinner tonight since it’s such an easy recipe (I was just “helping)…and it was delicious! We all loved it! Tasted like lasagna in a soup. Thanks for the great recipe. I’ll be adding this to my “rock star” cookbook! ; )
This was delicious! I made it tonight. I used a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes. Will make again. It’s so easy to make too!
Thanks Lisa! I’m really glad you enjoyed it!
Is one serving 2 cups? I made this and it was delicious!
It’s about 2 cups, yes! Thank you so much!
Sounds like a delicious soup. I’ll just use a couple of cups of my home made marinara though. :)
Thank you – and that sounds perfect!
Could I leave out the cream cheese? I am not a fan of it or sour cream, yogurt or anything like these.
I would at least add heavy cream to get the creamy consistency this soup is famous for! But if that isn’t to your liking either then yes, you can leave it out.
Thank you for this recipe. My family loves this simple and filling meal. We adapt it a little and add a pound of ground beef and 2 to 2.5 cups of elbow Macaroni since they like it to be thicker and less of a soup consistency. We’ve enjoyed this meal 2 weeks in a row and will make it a family staple. God bless your efforts and for your heart to share wholesome, delicious meals for families.
Thanks so much Dria! I love to hear that we’re in families houses at dinner time, it’s the whole reason why I do this!
I followed your exact recipe and LOVED iT!! i like my food with a little spice so I added crushed red peppers to my serving and it made it even better! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Crushed red pepper is a great addition, I’m going to try that myself! Thanks Elizabeth!