Cowboy Soup
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Inexpensive, easy to make and ready in under 30 minutes.
- High protein, low calorie makes cowboy soup a highly nutritious meal.
- Control the spice level by simply omitting jalapeños.
- Loaded with beef, potatoes and vegetables making it filling and satisfying.
- Naturally dairy and gluten free.
Cowboy soup is a hearty, satisfying soup loaded with meat, beans, and veggies. Perfect on a cold day, this warming soup is an excellent use of leftover veggies before they go bad. Super nutritious and super healthy, this one is the best of both worlds.
Perfect for sharing or making extra to freeze, this is a soup you can enjoy all winter long. If freezing, portion into freezer zip locks and pull them out when you’re ready to use. Defrost the night before or pulled directly from the freezer into the sauce pan.
Can I make this in the crockpot?
Yes, if you do not want to make this cowboy soup stovetop you can brown the meat on the stove and add to the crockpot, add all remaining ingredients and cook on low for 6-8 hours. If you lose some liquid add additional beef broth. You can also do the same steps and put this soup in the instant pot for 15 minutes. However, you can brown the meat directly in the base of the instant pot on sauté vs. stovetop.
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Sign up for free and be the first to get notified about updates.Stovetop this soup can be made in a soup pot or a dutch oven.
Tracking macros and eating soups
Soups and stews are hard when it comes to measuring and weighing your servings. You would need to separate all ingredients and make each soup individualy for a 100% accurate macro count. For a general macro count, I suggest weighing your final dish and dividing by the number of servings. Weigh your potatoes and fresh ingredients for the most accurate macro count before adding to the soup. It won’t be 100% accurate because varying cook times will lose more or less weight but you will have a general idea.
Optional additions to this soup
You can use any protein for the base of this soup including, ground chicken, rotisserie chicken, ground turkey or sausage. Add additional vegetables like zucchini and spinach to this cowboy soup.
Ingredients and Substitutes:
These are the main ingredients and substitutions. See recipe card below for full ingredients list and instructions for cowboy soup.
Ground Beef: for this recipe I recommend using lean ground beef as to not add too much oil to your broth. I am using 96/4% lean ground beef. You can substitute with chicken, turkey or sausage.
Potatoes: any potato will work in this recipe, included sweet potatoes. You can also omit if desired.
Rotel: one can of rotel adds a lot of flavor to this soup. If you cannot find rotel, use a can of diced tomatoes and a small can of green chilies.
Ranch Style Beans: if you cannot find Ranch Style Beans I would suggest substituting with a can of chili beans.
Frozen Vegetables: I am using a pack of frozen vegetables which includes corn, peas, carrots, lima beans and green beans. You can also use fresh vegetables.
Jalapeno: adjust your spice level with the jalapeno. For mild to no spice omit entirely. For mild use half a jalapeno with seeds removed. For medium use a full jalapeno with seeds removed. For hot use a full jalapeno with seeds.
Beef Broth: I like using low sodium beef broth with this recipe. If you lose too much moisture by over simmering just add some more broth to the dish.
How to make Cowboy Soup
Step 1
Over medium heat add 1 Tbsp. olive oil to the large dutch oven or soup pot. Once hot add the ground beef and break into pieces to cook. Cook over medium until almost completely cooked and no longer pink.
Add onions and garlic to the pot and simmer until the onions begin to turn translucent. Stir often so the bottom does not burn.
Step 2
Add chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper to the meat and mix together well the combine.
Add all the remaining ingredients, stir to combine and bring to a boil.
Step 3
Once boiling lower the heat to simmer and cook covered for 20 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender.
Step 4
Serve and enjoy!
Serving size
This recipe makes 10 servings (approximately 370 grams each see note above regarding serving sizes).
What to serve this soup with
This cowboy soup is great as a standalone dish but you can also serve with a side salad or some fresh garlic bread. Top with sliced jalapenos, cheddar cheese or even some sour cream or greek yogurt.
If you like this recipe be sure to check out some of our other easy meals!
- Vegetarian Hamburger Helper
- Air Fryer Smashed Potatoes
- Garlic Parmesan Chicken Pasta
- Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta with Sausage
Cowboy Soup
📱 MyFitnessPal & MacrosFirst App Users
You can find this recipe and many others on MyFitnessPal and MacrosFirst by searching: Ohsnapmacros – Cowboy Soup
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. lean ground beef 96/4
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 lbs. russet potatoes chopped
- 10 oz. Rotel 10 oz. can Rotel
- 15 oz. Ranch Style Beans
- 12 oz. frozen mixed vegetables 12 oz. of frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 jalapeno seeds removed and chopped (optional)
- 5 cups Beef Broth
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 2 tsp. chili powder
- 2 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
Instructions
- Over medium heat add 1 Tbsp. olive oil to the large dutch oven or soup pot. Once hot add the ground beef and break into pieces to cook. Cook over medium until almost completely cooked and no longer pink. Add onions and garlic to the pot and simmer until the onions begin to turn translucent. Stir often so the bottom does not burn.
- Add chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper to the meat and mix together well the combine. Add all the remaining ingredients, stir to combine and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling lower the heat to simmer and cook covered for 20 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender.
Is this spicy? If so, can I omit green chilies and just add two cans diced tomatoes?
You could but the main heat source is the jalapeños. I’d omit jalapeño and lower chili powder if necessary. The green chilis in the rotel won’t do too much IMO.
Made this soup the other night and actually decided to use my crockpot. Although, it would have been super easy to make on my stovetop as well.
Soup has amazing flavors and is a monthly staple in my home!
I loved this recipe!! I also love how easy it was!! So good and so ready for soup season!!
This soup was amazing! Your recipes never disappoint. I love how much spice and flavor you add-other recipes are usually lacking but yours are always so flavorful and I never have to add any additional spice.
Making again today! Freezes great for other family too. It’s so good and easy – best kind of recipe 😋
Had it for dinner tonight. So good. I added a few tortilla chips, a little grated cheese, a spoon full of sour cream on top. So good. Yum.
Another great meal that the whole family will eat, thanks for sharing macro friendly recipes that my kids will eat too! It’s so nice to not have to fix multiple meals each night! ❤️
i am not sure if i have already commented on this recipe because we use your recipes weekly! but this is a staple in our house! add some sweet heat jalapeños too!
So quick and delicious! It’s made our monthly rotation 🙂
A fast favorite – super easy to throw together. Dinner or for meal prep. Filling and delicious!
Glad to hear it!