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
My daughter looked at the photo and said “Please let’s make it” well we did and, oh boy, it was sooo delicious, like lasagne soup :-) I used a jar of passata for the tomato base, small chunks of beef instead of mince. This will be a staple on cold winter days in Helsinki where we live. Thanks Dan
I’m so glad you liked it Caroline – and your daughter too! It’s a great one for cold days – I love your swap outs, too!
This was delicious!! I followed the recipe to a T and it came out amazing, everyone went back for seconds! I wasn’t able to find that exact brand of pasta sauce, so just used our favorite and we loved it. Thanks very much for this great recipe, will definitely become a regular in our house!
Thank you Kelli! I’m so happy your family enjoyed it – it’s nice to have at least a few dinners that everyone likes right?
What other meat can be used instead of beef? Lamb?
What other meat can be used instead of beef? Lamb?
You could use lamb if that’s what you like, obviously the flavor will be different but go ahead and give it a try! You could also use ground chicken or turkey or even sausage.
Hi! Looking forward to making this soup tonight! I usually cook with 85/15 (percent fat) ground beef.
What would you recommend for this recipe?
Heather, sorry if I miss you last night! I’d say that you can use whatever meat you have on hand – it really does’t matter for this soup! If it’s a fattier blend then you might just have to drain some of the grease of before you continue. Hope it worked out for you!
Thanks Dan! I My menu changed and I will be making this tomorrow…I think my kids are going to love it!
Your welcome Heather – let me know how it goes!
OMG… Made this tonight. No onion or garlic used. Substituted with onion/garlic powder(husband won’t eat).
It was soooo good & the husband liked it(he’s a picky one). I did 1 pound ground beef & 2 cups pasta. I’m telling you, it is a must try. I’m adding to my regulars.
Wendie – thanks for letting me know, it’s a favorite with our family too! I’m glad you and your husband liked it, I’m a former picky eater myself…
Kicked off soup season at our house with this recipe and it was a winner all around. Added carrots with onions and a little red pepper flake, but otherwise followed completely. Kids gobbled it up. Great recipe that’s so easy and yummy!!
Thanks so much Danni! I’m glad you liked it as much as we do! Love the addition of the red pepper flakes :)
Hi, I want to make this for my one year old, what can I use if I want to skip ship bought pasta sauce? I was thinking of just adding tinned chopped tomatoes with the stock?
Thanks in advance.
You can use a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes – we do it all the time!
I don’t have a jar of Francesco Rinaldi Traditional can I use a different pasta sauce?
Yes, definitely, You can se whatever sauce you have!
Made this last night and it was so easy and flavorful! My husband is already asking when I can make it again. He also asked if I could possibly add some parmesan cheese and mushrooms on the next go round! I’ll keep ya posted on how it comes out!
Mushrooms would be a great addition to this! And the more cheese the better…let me know how it turns out!
Thanks for all the feedback Audra! And I totally agree with you about the turkey, if you get a really lean ground beef (95%) it really isn’t that much different when it comes to being healthier so I tend to stick with a really lean beef. And you can use any pasta sauce that you like, I’ve even made this with a can of crushed tomatoes and a little more seasoning and it still turns out good! Glad you enjoyed it!
Loved the soup! I made the dish tonight with ground turkey and neufchatel cream cheese to make it a smidge healthier. The cream cheese made the soup. While I liked the ground turkey, I do think ground beef adds a flavor that you just can’t get (even with all the seasoning in the world) from ground turkey.
I couldn’t find the pasta sauce you were talking about or a pasta sauce without salt on my Kroger shelf, so I picked up the Hunts 100% natural can of pasta sauce which worked really well.
I love all things onion, I ended up adding raw finely chopped onions to the top of the soup… I bet Parmesan would be great to add to the top as well (the kind you get from Trader Joes that’s shaved instead of grated).
Thanks for sharing!
Amazing dish
Just made it and loved it
Thanks a lot!!!
Thanks Anna – glad you enjoyed it!
This is truly one of the best tomato soups I have ever tried. My boyfriend requests I make this weekly! I even made it twice in one week! Thanks for posting!!
So glad you like it Laurie (and you’re boyfriend;) we make it all the time too!
Could one make this even easier for a lunch maybe use POTSTICKERS ie, veggie or otherwise?
Sure Billie, You can add whatever you want! I’m not sure that potstickers would be easier than just throwing pasta in but it sounds great!
Hi Dan, This looks delicious and can’t wait to try it. I do have a quick question, You said if you do not have fresh basil you could you dry, I was just wandering how much you would use? I have everything but the fresh basil and I want to make this ASAP. Thanks so much and this looks so good. :)
Joann, yes, the fresh basil really makes the flavor stand out but if you only have dried then you only need about 2 teaspoons. I would add the dried basil in with the onions in step 2. Enjoy!