Sometimes you just need a thick and creamy, indulgent soup that will warm and fill you up. Chicken noodle is great and comforting and all that, but that’s not what today’s soup is about; we’re looking for decadence and tons of flavor. Which is how this ridiculously addictive slow cooker cheeseburger soup came about. Now, we’ve done a slow cooker cheeseburger soup before, but we thought it was time to update it a bit, in regards to one ingredient in particular.
In our original version we used cheddar cheese, which is yummy and delicious, but doesn’t melt all that smoothly. We wanted an incredibly smooth base for our soup this time, so we decided to use (the relatively controversial) velveeta cheese. Using velveeta makes for a broth that is über smooth, without having to break up stringy bits of cheese or deal with milk fats that are in the process of being broken down. If velveeta isn’t for you, feel free to use any cheese you like, but just know that the consistency of the soup is amazing when you do use it.
Along with the velveeta, we used a roux to give this soup the thickness we were craving. This butter-flour-milk mixture gets stirred in near the end and let us tell you: do not skip this step. It makes the finished soup so yummy – without it, the dish wouldn’t be the same. With cheese and beef as the main ingredients – hello, cheeseburger linchpins – we added other soup staples like carrots, celery and onion to provide a nice depth of flavor and round things out a bit. If you love cheeseburgers or hearty soups as much as we do, then this soup is 100% for you. Try it out and see how much you love it.
Updated Slow Cooker Cheeseburger Soup
Yield(s): Serves 8-10
30 minutes active; 4 hours inactive
Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef
1 (16 oz.) package velveeta, cubed
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 cup carrots, finely chopped
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
4 small potatoes, peeled and diced
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
bacon bits
cheddar cheese, grated
