South West Hamburger Soup

Hello, everyone, and happy Friday. Yes, it is Friday for those of you who have lost track of the days. Today, we are going look at how to make South West Hamburger Soup, which, up until ten seconds ago, I thought I'd invented. Unfortunately, a quick Google search has proved me wrong. However, whether I invented it or not doesn't matter, except to my ego. What matters is how delicious this soup is. What is even better than the taste is the ingredients I used to make it.

Jump to:

• The Base
• The Garnish
• The Liquid
• The Protein
• Let's Get Cooking
• Spices and Seasonings
• Balance
• Adding the Liquid
• Adding the Remaining Ingredients
• South West Hamburger Soup
• Conclusion
• Recipe

The other day I cooked up some delicious burgers but I'd made more than I needed. There were four hamburgers leftover in the fridge which quickly became three and a half hamburgers thanks to a snacky wife. Either way, I repurposed the leftover hamburgers, used a bunch of other stuff I had lying around and in no time I had a delicious (like exceptionally delicious) and hearty soup.

Now, you can make this soup exactly how it is, and please do, it is so delicious! But you can also use this as inspiration to make your own version using things you have lying around. If you need a little help, check out this post I wrote for my free basic cooking course called Understanding Soup (read this post first!). It has everything you need to get going on your soup-making journey.

Okay, let's look at how to make this amazingly delicious soup.

The Base

Like a lot of soups, this one starts with a base of onion, carrot, and celery or "mirepoix" in French. This provides the soup with a solid foundation to build upon. For this soup, I used two smallish onions, which I peeled and sliced. I also used one fairly large carrot, which I peeled, cut into quarters and sliced. And I used two celery stalks which I also sliced.

With these base vegetables sliced and ready to go I put them in a bowl together, set them aside and moved on to my next ingredients. I should say that with a dish like this I prefer to get all of my food prep done and ready to go before I start cooking. This does prolong the cooking time slightly but it also makes it a less stressful process. This is one of the foundational habits that will make you a better cook overall.

The Garnish

Onions, celery and carrot are not the only vegetables that are going to be added into the soup. They are just the first. Next up is potatoes, garlic and tomatoes.

For the potatoes I used three small russets. You can use russets, Idaho, or Yukon golds if you'd like. I peeled these, diced them into thumb-width pieces, rinsed them, and submerged them in water until I was ready to use them. I also peeled and minced three cloves of garlic.

The tomatoes I'm using for this soup are whole canned tomatoes which is what I prefer in a soup. However, no one wants whole tomatoes floating around in their soup. Having said that, I don't want a tomato puree either. So, I opened the can, dumped the contents into a bowl and hand-crushed them. You can use a potato masher if you want but where is the fun in that?

The Liquid

Along with vegetables, the soup needs some kind of liquid otherwise it isn't a soup. You can use either stock or water for this but the stock will provide more flavour. I should say that stock is very easy to make. You simmer bones with onion, carrot and celery. That's it. But, to do this you need bones and everything which I don't have right now. And, in all honesty, the store-bought stock is convenient and does a fine job.

The Protein

In order to make a well balanced, fully sustaining soup, it needs to have protein. In order to make a South West Hamburger Soup, it needs to have hamburgers. Like I said in the intro I had some leftover hamburgers that I had cooked the other day. This whole soup is built around those leftovers. But, I didn't think the burgers would be enough so I also decided to use a can of black beans in the soup.

For the burgers, I just broke them up into small pieces with my hands. As for the beans, I opened the can, drained and rinsed them and set them aside until I was ready to use them.

Let's Get Cooking

Okay, all of the prep is done and it is now time to cook! I put a large pot on the stove over medium-high heat. Once the pot was hot I added in two tablespoons of olive oil along with the onion, celery and carrot. I cooked these vegetables for about five minutes stirring a couple of times to prevent burning.

The goal here is to soften the onions and celery. Once that was done I added in the garlic and cooked for another two to three minutes.

Spices and Seasonings

Once the garlic started to release its aroma it was time to add in the spices. The full list is in the recipe at the bottom of this post. I added the spices in and sauteed them for about two minutes in order to extract as much flavour from them as possible. Toasting spices in oil before adding liquid is one of the best ways to develop deeper flavour in any soup or stew.

Balance

Next up, I added in the tomatoes. The tomatoes by themselves can be very acidic so there needs to be something to balance that out. For this I added in one tablespoon of brown sugar. At this point I also seasoned the soup with salt and pepper for the first time. I cooked the tomatoes for about five minutes in order to take away that raw tinned tomato flavour. Don't skip this step. Well... don't skip any of these steps but especially not this one.

Adding the Liquid

Once the tomatoes had cooked down a little bit I added in the beef stock along with two bay leaves. At this point I gave the soup a stir, cranked the heat to high, and brought the whole thing to a boil.

Adding the Remaining Ingredients

Once the soup was boiling I added in the remaining ingredients. These were the potatoes, black beans, hamburgers, and corn. I waited for the soup to boil again then I put a lid on the pot, and turned the heat down to low. I let this cook for about twenty minutes. The goal here is just to make sure all the vegetables are cooked.

South West Hamburger Soup

And just like that my South West Hamburger Soup was ready to eat. Just before serving I tasted the soup to check the seasoning. It didn't need any more salt and pepper though yours might. Always taste it before you serve it. I bowled the soup and served it with some crackers.

Conclusion

This soup was one of the most pleasant surprises I have had in the kitchen in a long time, and it is a perfect example of why I always encourage people to get creative with their leftovers. The next time you make burgers, cook a few extra and give this a try -- I think you will be very happy with the result. If you are looking for more ways to make the most of what you have on hand, my post on understanding soup covers all the fundamentals.

Recipe