This chunky meat soup will be your next favourite choice for a cozy meal at home in the colder season. Nothing beats a bowl of hot soup on a cold winter day. Let me introduce my hearty meat soup, a rich chunky soup where ground beef shares the broth with peppers, onion and cavolo nero (lacinato kale). Ah, yes, Italian kale – you may know it from minestrone. Guess we can call this meat soup minestrone with beef.

The base for this soup is beef stock, and my meat of choice is lean ground beef. Any stock works as the base of this hearty meat soup, if you have chicken or vegetable broth it will work just as fine. I also like to add some tomato paste, as it really lifts the flavour of the paprika and gives body to the whole dish.

Meat replacements in the form of soy or quorn mince work just as well as meat, I have personally tested to make this exact recipe with quorn. I understand that a recipe called hearty meat soup will hardly attract a vegetarian, but if you’re here to get inspiration and meat is not part of your diet, this mince soup is very easy to turn vegetarian – even vegan with plant-based creme fraiche.

Hearty meat soup ingredients

Here is an overview of the ingredients needed to make this beef soup. For detailed quantities, please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

In the picture, a couple of ingredients are missing. The reason for that is that I simply forgot them, I will not lie. The two ingredients are:

• Olive oil, for sautéing the onion and the beef mince.
• Tomato paste, which could be omitted if it’s the only thing you don’t have at hand, as it plays a secondary role here. But if you have it, or need to shop for this soup anyway, I recommend to add it, as it really makes the final product full-bodied.

How to make ground meat soup

Start off by chopping up the onion into a fine dice. Heat the olive oil in a heavy duty pot (I used a Dutch oven) and add the onion. Sauté on medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the onion softens.

Add the meat and slightly increase the heat. Move the meat around often in order to distribute the heat throughout and preventing it to clump up into meatballs. When the meat looks cooked through, stir in the spices: salt, paprika (sweet and hot) and dried thyme. I start off with a half teaspoon salt to flavour the meat, but I am cautious not to add too much if the broth that we will be adding is very salty.

While the meat is cooking, core the bell peppers and cut them into a dice. Peel the potatoes and cut them into the same size dice as the peppers. Add diced veggies into the pot and stir. Pour in the stock and if added from cold, keep the heat on medium high to bring it to a boil. If adding it hot, you can lower the heat just to keep a gentle simmer.

Add the tomato paste and stir to incorporate. Lastly, cut the cavolo nero leaves lengthwise along the middle to remove the tough stems and then coarsely chop crosswise and add to the pot. Stir and cover the pot leaving just a small crack for the steam to escape and let gently simmer on low heat for one hour.

Cavolo nero chips

Unless you have harvested your cavolo nero from your own garden, it’s likely you will have more than the 4 leaves needed in this recipe. A great way to use it up and minimise food waste is to make cavolo nero chips to enjoy on their own or to top the soup with.

Just like for the soup, you want to first remove the stems from the middle of the leaves by cutting them lengthwise. Once that’s done, chop the leaves and add them to a bowl. Pour 1 tbsp of olive oil and vigorously massage it into the leaves with your hand. Spread out the leaves onto a baking tin lined with parchment paper, add a sprinkle of salt flakes on top and bake in the preheated oven at 150C (300F) for a maximum of 10 minutes.

Take out the chips just before they turn brown. Even if they still feel somewhat soft, they will crisp up as they air dry. But if you overbake them and get them to turn brown, they will taste bitter, so keep a close eye on the chips while they’re baking.

How to serve this hearty meat soup

This ground meat soup is excellent as it is as it’s a balanced meal that will keep you full while also providing a generous dose of vegetables. Choose lean beef with a fat content no higher than 5% and omit the creme fraiche if you need to keep the calorie count lower. A handful of croutons, preferably from wholegrain bread, is probably the best way to make it the most complete.

Sometimes I like to have a smaller portion of soup and complement my meal with something else. This is particularly true when I’m having a smooth blended soup, because I want to pair it with something that has more texture. But even a chunky one like this meat soup can go well with a little starter, like eggplant bruschetta, mushroom crostini or baked goat cheese. Or just buttered toast, really.

If you choose to only go soup, make yourself a large plate, stir in a generous dollop of creme fraiche and top it with a big handful of cavolo nero chips. This soup calls for a medium-bodied red wine. Moderate acidity (good with tomato), smooth tannins (don’t choose anything too big or too bold as it may overpower the dish and badly collide with the hot paprika) and a slightly spiced finish. If you have access to Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, add it to your shopping list.

Did you make this hearty meat soup recipe? Let me know in the comments below. If you’re planning to try it another time, pin this recipe to Pinterest. Please consider subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Instagram and on Pinterest. Thank you.

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