A stovetop soup of ground beef, potatoes and diced vegetables, made creamy with a separately whisked milk sauce and finished with two and a half cups of cheddar.
Twenty minutes of prep, thirty-five of cooking, two pans. Eight servings, with pickles, bacon and green onion on top if you want the full effect.
Why This Recipe Works
- The milk sauce is built in its own pan and stirred in. Whisking flour into a pot that already contains beef, broth and potato cubes is how you get lumps — separating it removes the risk entirely.
- Half-inch potato cubes rather than the inch used in slower recipes. This is a thirty-five-minute soup and the potatoes have only twelve to fifteen minutes of simmering, so they are cut smaller to match.
- Yukon Golds specifically: waxy enough to hold their cubes through a simmer, starchy enough to soften at the edges and add body.
- The beef comes out of the pot after browning and goes back in at step 5. That keeps it from breaking down further while the vegetables simmer, so it stays in recognisable crumbles.
- Freshly shredded cheddar rather than bagged. Anti-caking starch on pre-shredded cheese is one of the two usual causes of a grainy cheese soup, and two and a half cups is a lot to risk.
The Sauce Inside The Soup
This is really two recipes in one pot: a beef and potato soup, and a cheese sauce made separately and stirred into it. The second one is where the technique is.
The roux
1 minute over medium3 tbsp unsalted butter, 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
Cooked together for a minute before any liquid arrives. That minute is what takes the raw taste out of the flour — skip it and the finished soup has a faintly pasty edge nothing else will mask.
The milk
Until lightly thickened2 cups whole milk, slowly
Whisked in gradually rather than poured. Adding it in a stream while whisking is what keeps the roux smooth; all at once gives lumps that will not whisk out.
Into the soup
The thickened milk mixture, then the browned beef back in
The soup goes from brothy to creamy in one stir. Making this separately rather than whisking flour into the pot is what guarantees no lumps in eight servings of soup.
The cheese
Low heat, do not boil2 1/2 cups freshly shredded cheddar, gradually
Heat reduced to low first, then handful by handful. This is the largest quantity of cheese in the batch and it needs the gentlest handling — the recipe's own instruction is not to boil.
Then tasteTwo tablespoons of chopped dill pickle, marked optional and genuinely worth it. It is the single ingredient that makes the bowl taste like a cheeseburger rather than a cheese and potato soup, and its acidity cuts two and a half cups of cheddar.
Ingredient Notes
- Ground beef
- A pound and a half, browned to 160°F and drained, then held aside until step 5 so it keeps its texture.
- Yukon Gold potatoes
- A pound and a half in half-inch cubes. The small cube is deliberate — this soup gives them only twelve to fifteen minutes.
- Freshly shredded cheddar
- Two and a half cups, from a block. This is the largest cheese quantity in the batch and the most exposed to going grainy, so the shredding matters more here than anywhere.
- Chopped dill pickles
- Two tablespoons, marked optional. They are what make the bowl read as a cheeseburger; without them it is a very good cheese and potato soup.
- Broth, chicken or beef
- Four cups, either — the recipe offers both. Beef broth leans savoury and darker, chicken keeps the cheddar more forward.
How to Make It
Brown the beef to 160°F
Cook the ground beef in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until it reaches 160°F. Transfer to a plate and drain the excess fat.
Soften the vegetables
Add the onion, carrots and celery to the pot and cook 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds.
Simmer the potatoes
Add the potatoes, broth, salt, pepper and Worcestershire. Simmer 12 to 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
Make the milk sauce separately
In a saucepan melt the butter, whisk in the flour and cook 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook until lightly thickened.
Combine, and return the beef
Stir the milk mixture into the soup, then return the beef to the pot.
Add the cheddar off the boil
Reduce the heat to low and add the cheddar gradually, stirring until melted. Do not boil.
Finish with pickles and toppings
Stir in the optional chopped pickles for cheeseburger tang and serve with the desired toppings.
Success Tips
- Whisk the milk into the roux in a slow stream rather than tipping it in.
- Give the roux its full minute before any liquid touches it.
- Cut the potatoes to half an inch so they are tender in the time the recipe allows.
- Turn the heat right down before the cheddar goes in, and add it in handfuls.
- Do not skip the pickles if you want it to taste like the name.
Serving Ideas
With bacon and green onion on top, and something crunchy alongside. Soft rolls are an obvious and successful choice given what it is imitating.
Storage and Reheating
Refrigerate
Refrigerate up to 3 days. It thickens as it cools and loosens again with a splash of milk.
Freeze
Not recommended. A roux-and-cheese soup with potato in it separates and goes grainy on thawing.
Reheat
Gently on the hob with a little extra milk, stirring, and never to a boil.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make the roux in the soup pot to save washing up?
You would be whisking flour into a pot already full of beef, broth and potato cubes, which is exactly how lumps form. The separate saucepan is a small cost for a guaranteed smooth result.
My soup went grainy when the cheese went in.
Either it was too hot or the cheese was pre-shredded. Reduce the heat to low first, add the cheddar a handful at a time, and grate it from a block.
Do the pickles really belong in soup?
They are marked optional but they are the point of the dish. Two tablespoons of chopped dill pickle bring the acidity that a cheeseburger gets from the same place, and they cut through two and a half cups of cheddar.
My soup is thinner than expected.
Usually the milk sauce was not cooked long enough to thicken before it went in. Give it a few more minutes in the saucepan next time — it should coat the back of a spoon before it joins the pot.
