Food and Recipes Recipes Busy Day Soup 3.0 (1) 1 Review No chopping and no peeling! This busy day soup recipe brings a hearty and savory meal to your table with ease after a long day. By Micah A Leal Micah A Leal Micah Leal is a chef and recipe developer with more than 5 years of professional experience in restaurants and bakeries such as Husk Restaurant and Harken Cafe & Bakery in Charleston, South Carolina. Micah Leal is an enthusiastic chef with a special interest in the food science and culinary histories that shape the recipes people make today. His reputation for making recipes accessible and thoughtfully teaching difficult kitchen techniques is informed by his experience as a pastry chef as well as his background as a high school teacher. He has also developed nearly 200 recipes for southernliving.com and Southern Living Magazine. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Updated on January 31, 2023 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Micah A. Leal Active Time: 15 mins Total Time: 25 mins Servings: 6 Jump to recipe It takes little creativity to discern why this soup bears its name. The most hands-on cooking you have to do is browning the meat, but the rest of the recipe is simply dumping in the remaining ingredients and letting it boil for a few minutes. The base of most soups is made from sautéed onions, celery, and carrots, but to speed up the process after a busy day, this recipe calls for a package of dry onion soup mix instead. The advantage to using this soup mix is that it lends a ton of mouthwatering savory flavor to the meat without the labor of endless chopping and cooking. By adding the packet to the browning meat, you ensure that all of the spices in the mix are able to permeate the soup by infusing the fat from the ground beef with rich flavor. After that, it's a matter of a simple addition of vegetable broth, water, canned fire-roasted tomatoes, and a bag of frozen vegetables. Some pasta noodles are thrown in to bulk up the soup with some much needed starch, and after the pasta is done cooking in the flavorful broth, the soup is ready to serve. No chopping and no peeling—this soup brings a hearty and savory meal to your table with ease after a busy day. Ingredients 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1 pound ground beef 1 (1-oz.) package dry onion soup mix 1 quart vegetable broth 2 cups water 2 (14.5-oz.) cans fire-roasted tomatoes 1 (12-oz.) package frozen mixed vegetables 2 cups dried pasta noodles (such as gemelli) Directions Heat oil over medium-high in a Dutch oven or large pot. Add beef and break up with the back of a spoon until browned, about 6 minutes. Add onion soup mix; stir to combine. Add broth, water, tomatoes, and vegetables. Stir to combine and wait until boiling. Add pasta; boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and serve. Rate it Print