Have homemade soups ready with just a pop of a jar with this easy method for canning vegetable beef soup.
This easy recipe uses up whatever you on hand for a nourishing and delicious meal that is sure to come in handy on busy days.
Skip the expense and dubious ingredients of store bought canned soup by making your own home-canned soups with this simple, tasty, and nutritious recipe.
Lean Meat
Lots of fat isn’t recommended for home canning. It can ‘crawl’ up the sides of the jar and prevent a seal. It is for that reason that we use a lean meat or trim most of the fat from the beef used.
In the recipe photographs, we used a beef brisket that had been trimmed well and cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch cubes.
Use what ever you have on hand or find a deal on. Sure you could buy stew meat but honestly beef cubes can be made out of most any cut at home for a fraction of the price.
Ground beef would most definitely work, just brown well to render the fat and drain the fat before adding the vegetables to the soup pot.
A Mix of Vegetables
Worry less about specific vegetables and more about using fresh produce you have on hand for this recipe.
Truly, this is a great way to use up odds and ends of the fresh vegetables from the garden or farmer’s market.
Green beans, carrots, corn, large onions, a bit of garlic, potatoes, even chunks of sweet potatoes, chunks of winter squash, it can all be used. Do NOT use summer squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash or any other vegetable that does not have instructions for canning that vegetable by itself, as per the Nation Center for Home Food Preservation.
If you recently canned some dried beans and have extras, that were soaked and boiled but not canned, toss them into your soup.
Use your favorites for a final soup recipe that will be unique to you and your homestead.
Season Lightly
Definitely add a bit of salt and pepper as you prepare homemade vegetable soup, but we recommend going lightly on other seasonings.
You could definitely add a couple teaspoons of dried Italian seasoning or other favorites. The canning process can make sage bitter, however; so we recommend skipping that.
In the end, make the soup rather bland here in the beginning and then season more heavily as you reheat and serve it.
The Broth
There are a number of options here and you can use whatever best suits your budget and taste buds. It will not effect the canning time at all.
Use plain water for an economical but still good soup. The water will be nicely flavored during the pressure canning process.
Homemade or even store bought beef broth will provide a deeper flavor and is of course nutritious.
If you like tomato soup, use tomato juice as the broth. Though admittedly that might be a bit strong for some. In the photographs, the liquid broth is 50/50 tomato juice and water.
A combination of water, beef broth, and/or tomato juice can definitely be used and again is a great way to make a high-quality soup from whatever ingredients you have in the garden and pantry.
Keep an extra pot of boiling water on hand so that if the broth in the stock pot runs short, you can top off jars with that water.
A Few Time-Saving Tips
Caning soup with beef in it takes a long processing time – 75 minutes for pints, 90 minutes for quarts – and that doesn’t include the steam venting, coming up to pressure, and cooling down to zero pressure time. Sadly that time can’t be changed, the time is necessary to keep your home food preservation work safe to eat.
However, you could do a few things ahead of time to break up the task a bit.
Consider chopping the meat ahead of time and having it ready to can later. You can do this well in advance by chopping and freezing in freezer safe containers. Then thaw in the refrigerator before you plan on canning soup.
Alternatively, simply chop the meat and place in the fridge overnight to can the next day.
Chop the vegetables a day or two in advance and keep in the fridge to process later with the meat.
Canning Method
It is recommended that vegetable-meat soups be canned with the hot pack method rather than raw packed. Admittedly, this can feel like an extra step but for safety sake, make sure your soup is boiling before putting into your hot jars.
Homemade soups are giant mixtures of low-acid ingredients and must therefore be pressure canned. There is no safe way to do this in a boiling water canner – please do not try. There is absolutely no reason to risk botulism food poisoning. A pressure canner is a worthwhile investment in realizing your self-sufficient and preparedness goals.
Be sure to follow the directions of your specific pressure canner for the safest possible experience.
Storage
Store your sealed jar in the pantry just like any other canned good. The rings should be removed. It is recommended that home canned food be eaten up within 1 year of preserving.
As always, don’t any jars in which the seal has popped or in which the lid is bulging or there appears to be mold inside.
If a jar fails to seal, put in the refrigerator and eat up within 1 week or place into a freezer container and freeze for up to 6 months.
How to Serve
For the most basic quick dinner imaginable, open a jar and heat in a small pot on the stove. Once hot, serve with some crusty homemade bread for a rustic and filling meal that comes together in mere minutes.
Make the soup more hearty by adding some cooked rice or noodles to it and warm through prior to serving.
Add more seasoning and taste your soup prior to serving. Feel free to top with crackers or croutons, even a sprinkle of grated cheese.
Heat the soup up in the morning and pack in a thermal bottle for a hot lunch that is sure to keep a body working well or studying hard all afternoon.
Now that you’re comfortable with home-canning tasty soups, be sure to check out recipe for ham and bean soup, too!
Tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page. We always appreciate your feedback. You can also save the recipe for later by pinning it or clicking on the heart in the lower right hand corner.
Canned Vegetable Beef Soup Recipe
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Prepare pressure-canner according to manufacturer’s instructions.
- Have jars, lids, and canning rings ready.
- In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium-high heat.
- Brown the beef evenly. If necessary, do in batches, removing browned beef to a plate before completely.
- Drain off any excess fat.
- Add the vegetables to the soup pot, cover everything with boiling water. Just enough liquid to keep the meat and vegetable submerged.
- Bring the entire pot to a rolling boil, stirring frequently.
- Using a slotted spoon, ladle the beef and vegetable mix into jars, filling them half full.
- Top off the jars with the boiling water, leaving 1-inch headspace.
- Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace as necessary.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Place lid and rings on jar.
- Vent steam in the canner according to the manufacturer instructions. Close vent.
- Process both pint and quart jars at 10 pounds of pressure (adjusting for elevation). Pint jars should be processed for 75 minutes, quart jars for 90 minutes.
- After time has expired, turn off heat, let canner return to zero naturally. Remove from canner.
- Let jars cool before completely. Check for seals.
- Remove rings from sealed jars and store.
- Any jars that didn’t seal can be refrigerated and used up within a week or frozen for use later.
Nutrition
Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Recipe Source
Your Choice Soup recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Low Acid Canning Combinations from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. Rubbermaid, Inc. 2024. Page 126
Made this soup and came out very good
I am currently cooking a large crockpot full of homemade vegetable beef soup. Can the leftovers (fully cooked) be canned and if so how does the fact it’s fully cooked effect the processing time?
It does effect the processing time – that remains unchanged. One thing to consider is that fully cooked and then pressure canned make effect texture in a way that is too soft but you won’t know until you try.
I made this this weekend. It turned out great. It was a wonderful way to use our garden harvest. Thanks!
So glad you liked it!
This made 14 24 oz jars, canned with enough for 2 servings that wouldn’t fit in the canner. All I can say is “WOW”. I get over how good it is and I’m sure it will be better over time.