Kendra's Treats

I’ve always liked soups, but it had never been something that I made often until this winter. I’m blaming it on the polar vortex. Because what’s better on a cold day than a hot bowl of soup?? (Bonus points for only one dirty dish too!)

There are lots of easy, healthy soup recipes out there. I was looking for soup recipes that used ground beef when I found this recipe for skinny cheeseburger soup. It caught my eye because it was different from other cheeseburger soup recipes I had seen in the past. Rather than being creamy, this recipe was tomato based and it was topped with cheese, ketchup, mustard, and dill pickles. I was skeptical that this would taste like a cheeseburger. Quite frankly, I was skeptical that this would taste good at all. I mean, it was just such a novel concept for me…but I ventured off into the unknown and gave it a try.

It really did have that “cheeseburger” taste! I always eat my burgers with ketchup, mustard, and pickles, but if you are like Jordan and take your burgers plain you may not go for this soup. I convinced him to add the toppings anyway, because without the toppings it tastes a lot like hamburger vegetable soup…and he didn’t really like it. So, if you like easy, healthy soups AND you like ketchup, mustard, and pickles on your burgers you should give this recipe a try. Enjoy!

Skinny Cheeseburger Soup

1 pound extra lean ground beef
~1/2 cup frozen chopped onion (or fresh)
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
1 tsp garlic powder
1-1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
4 cups reduced sodium chicken stock
1 cup skim milk
2 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
2 cups potatoes, peeled and diced

Ingredients for Topping:
shredded cheddar cheese
ketchup
yellow mustard
dill pickles

1. In a large nonstick pot or deep pan, brown the ground beef. Stir to break up into a crumble. Remove from heat, pour into a colander to drain any fat (there shouldn’t be much with extra lean ground beef). Set aside.
2. In the same pot, add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic and basil. Saute for about 5 minutes until vegetable are soft. Stir in the browned beef and flour, stirring to coat the meat. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in the broth, milk, tomatoes and potatoes. Bring to boil, turn heat to simmer, cover and cook for about 30 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
3. To serve: Ladle soup into individual bowls. Top each with 1 tablespoon cheese and a little ketchup, mustard and chopped pickle. These toppings really add to the cheeseburger flavor! Serves 6 (~1-1/2 cups each).
*adapted from Skinny Kitchen