Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 1 hr Rest time: 30 mins Total time: 2 hrs
Makes: 4-5 servings
This hearty cheeseburger soup is filled with nutrient-dense animal-based ingredients like ground beef, bone broth, raw cheese, and pickle juice.
What you need to make Cheeseburger Soup
Ingredients:
For the soup:
- Ground beef
- Raw cheese (ASHLEY20 for 20% off)
- Bone broth (I recommend chicken, but beef would also work)
- Grass-fed ghee (or butter) (for pan-frying)
- Kabocha squash (or sweet potato)
- Long carrots
- Pickle juice (from the bottom of the pickle jar)
- Fresh dill
- Sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
- Yellow onion (optional, but highly recommended if tolerated)
To garnish (optional):
- Raw cheese (ASHLEY20 for 20% off)
- Fresh dill
- Pickles
- Bacon
Equipment:
- Cooking pan
- Cooking pot
- Vegetable peeler
- Vegetable grater (optional, for shredding cheese)
How to make Cheeseburger Soup
Chop, boil, and mash the kabocha.
Skin your kabocha squash with your vegetable peeler, remove the seeds, and chop into large chunks. I made them about 3/4 inch x 3/4 inch – some pieces larger and others smaller. The size doesn’t matter much since you will be cooking and mashing them anyway. Just make sure they’re not too big.
Fill your cooking pot with enough water to cover the kabocha squash and bring to a boil. Don’t add the kabocha squash yet.
Once the water is boiling, add the chopped kabocha squash. Boil until soft, about 15 minutes or so.
Once the kabocha squash is soft enough to mash, remove the pot from heat and drain the water.
Using your masher, mash the kabocha squash, leave it in the cooking pot, and set it aside.
Prepare and cook the beef, carrots, garlic, and onion.
Skin the carrots with your vegetable peeler. Chop them into bite-sized pieces or whatever size you prefer. I left most of mine as medallions or cut the medallions in half.
Chop the yellow onion (if using) into bite-sized pieces or whatever size you prefer.
In your cooking pan, add the ghee and bring to medium heat.
Once the ghee is melted, add the chopped carrots and onions into the pan. Cook until both start to get soft, about 5-7 minutes.
Add the ground beef to the pan and cook the beef through until it is brown.
Add the beef mix to the mashed kabocha squash.
Once the beef mix is done cooking (the carrots and onions may not be fully cooked through at this point; that is fine), add it to the cooking pot with the mashed kabocha squash and mix.
Add the bone broth, fresh dill, and sea salt.
Finely chop the dill.
Add the chopped dill, bone broth, and sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off) to the cooking pot.
Note: if you go through tons of salt in your household like we do, check out this salt purchasing hack that will save you money + make things more efficient. We started this last year, and I’m so happy we did!
Mix well, place the cooking pot back on the stove, bring to medium high heat, and bring to a boil.
Add the shredded raw cheese and pickle juice.
Using your vegetable grater, shred the raw cheese (ASHLEY20 for 20% off).
Once the soup is at a boil, add the raw cheese (ASHLEY20 for 20% off) and pickle juice. Mix well.
Bring the heat down to medium and allow the soup to simmer and thicken, about 20-30 minutes. You’ll know the soup is done when the carrots are soft.
Once the soup is done, allow it to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Top with garnishes (if using) and serve.
Scoop the soup into individual bowls and top with desired garnishes – more fresh dill, raw cheese, pickles, bacon, or whatever you like.
Store in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
Note: after sitting in the fridge, the texture will thicken up even more. I really enjoyed the soup with the thicker texture. Also, oddly enough, I noticed that the more the soup sat, the more coconut undertones came through and it began to taste like a Thai soup. I am not exactly sure why this is, although I found it to be very tasty!
Tips to make the best Cheeseburger Soup
- After sitting in the fridge, the texture will thicken up even more. I really enjoyed the soup with the thicker texture.
Other favorite dinner ideas:
Cobb ‘Salad’ with Duck Fat Ranch Dressing
Cheeseburger Soup
Cheeseburger Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 cup raw cheese, shredded
- 2 cups bone broth (I recommend chicken, but beef would work too)
- 1 tbsp grass-fed ghee
- 3 cups kabocha squash (or sweet potato)
- 4 large carrots
- 1/2 cup pickle juice (from the bottom of the pickle jar)
- 5 tbsp fresh dill
- 1/2 tbsp sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
- 1 small yellow onion (optional, but recommended)
Instructions
- If you’re interested solely in the recipe, skip this bullet point and keep on reading. For those interested in sourcing nutrient-dense food, low-toxic household products, and discounts on brands that may support your AB journey, you may find value in my product guides. Head over to this page if you’d like to check them out. All are free (and always will be).
Chop, boil, and mash the kabocha.
- Skin your kabocha squash (or sweet potato) with your vegetable peeler, remove the seeds, and chop into large chunks. I made them about 3/4 inch x 3/4 inch - some pieces larger and others smaller. The size doesn't matter much since you will be cooking and mashing them anyway. Just make sure they're not too big.
- Fill your cooking pot with enough water to cover the kabocha squash and bring to a boil. Don't add the kabocha squash yet.
- Once the water is boiling, add the chopped kabocha squash. Boil until soft, about 15 minutes or so.
- Once the kabocha squash is soft enough to mash, remove the pot from heat and drain the water.
- Using your masher, mash the kabocha squash, leave it in the cooking pot, and set it aside.
Prepare and cook the beef, carrots, garlic, and onion.
- Skin the carrots with your vegetable peeler. Chop them into bite-sized pieces or whatever size you prefer. I left most of mine as medallions or cut the medallions in half.
- Chop the yellow onion (if using) into bite-sized pieces or whatever size you prefer.
- In your cooking pan, add the ghee and bring to medium heat.
- Once the ghee is melted, add the chopped carrots and onions into the pan. Cook until both start to get soft, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the ground beef to the pan and cook the beef through until it is brown.
Add the beef mix to the mashed kabocha squash.
- Once the beef mix is done cooking (the carrots and onions may not be fully cooked through at this point; that is fine), add it to the cooking pot with the mashed kabocha squash and mix.
Add the bone broth, fresh dill, and sea salt.
- Finely chop the dill.
- Add the chopped dill, bone broth, and sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off) to the cooking pot.
- Note: if you go through tons of salt in your household like we do, check out this salt purchasing hack that will save you money + make things more efficient. We started this last year, and I'm so happy we did!
- Mix well, place the cooking pot back on the stove, bring to medium high heat, and bring to a boil.
Add the shredded raw cheese and pickle juice.
- Using your vegetable grater, shred the raw cheese (ASHLEY20 for 20% off).
- Once the soup is at a boil, add the pickle juice and.
- Bring the heat down to medium and allow the soup to simmer and thicken, about 20-30 minutes. You'll know the soup is done when the carrots are soft.
- Once the soup is done, remove it from heat and allow it to cool for 20-30 minutes.
- When it is cooled but still warm, add the raw cheese (ASHLEY20 for 20% off).
Top with garnishes (if using) and serve.
- Scoop the soup into individual bowls and top with desired garnishes - more fresh dill, raw cheese, pickles, bacon, iceberg lettuce, yellow mustard, or whatever you like.
- Store in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
- Note: after sitting in the fridge, the texture will thicken up even more. I really enjoyed the soup with the thicker texture.
What I used for this recipe:
Other favorite dinner ideas:
Cobb ‘Salad’ with Duck Fat Ranch Dressing
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Ashley Rothstein develops tasty, whole food, animal-based recipes that include a moderate amount of “minimally toxic” plant foods. To fix her own health issues, she bounced around between the carnivore, keto, and paleo diets for a few years. After experiencing and studying each diet philosophy, she learned she feels her best by merging the three and following an animal-based diet. As a glut at heart, she likes to channel her creativity and create meals that are healthy but also satisfy her inner gluttonous spirits.
This looks delicious. I rarely buy or eat pickles – is there anything I could substitute for the pickle juice? Thank you!
Author
You can just leave it out.
Hi, we can not get raw cheese in Canada. What do you recommend to replace it with?
Author
Pasteurized cheese will work fine.
My family and I loved this recipe! The only thing I changed was I used butternut squash for the squash. Even my 3 year old son said “Good job mama.” Thank you for all of your recipes!