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Hello, everybody! I’m typing up this blog post from the warm comfort of my in-laws’ house in cold Ontario (although it’s what I would call “pleasantly cold,” not unbearably cold yet). I have SO MANY recipes to share with you but with wrapping up everything for the Convenient Food release next week I just haven’t had time to edit pictures, type up recipes, and put the puzzle pieces of a blog post together! I feel the tide slowly shifting though, so hopefully this Cheeseburger Rice Soup is the beginning of more consistent blog posts and recipes coming your way.
This cheesy, hearty soup is a healthy version of an old church cookbook recipe my mom used to make. The original used a copious amount of Velveeta cheese, which I’ve replaced with real cheese. I made this recipe for a fellowship meal at church and it makes 8 quarts as written, so feel free to halve the recipe if you don’t need quite so much.
Since this recipe combines carbs with fats, it’s a THM crossover. I’m sure some of you will ask if you can use cauli rice to replace the 6 cups of cooked brown rice and turn this into a THM S recipe. Far be it from me to shut down creativity and tell you not to tweak my recipes – because I fully encourage you to tweak my recipes to your own personal tastes (it’s what I do to everyone else’s recipes, after all) – but I highly recommend that you use real brown rice in this recipe for optimum comfort food level and heartiness. Use it as a treat now and then, or enjoy it more often when you reach goal weight. But, if you want to try using cauli rice in place of the brown rice, be my guest. The soup probably won’t be as thick, so feel free to add more cauli rice than the brown rice called for in the recipe. (You would use 6+ cups of cauli rice in place of the 6 cups of water and 3 cups of uncooked brown rice. I would try sautéing it with the vegetables, then add the rest of the ingredients. You may want to decrease the amount of carrots if you want a true THM S since they’re not a non-starchy veggie.) But all this experimentation will be upon your own head. I can only vouch for the recipe as written. 😉
On another very exciting subject, my new cookbook Convenient Food is officially releasing on October 31st! The special $19.99 pre-order price will no longer be available after that date, so order now! You can CLICK HERE to order, see a preview of the book, and watch a very long monologue video of me explaining all kinds of things about the book and answering frequently-asked questions as well as questions you didn’t know you had but should’ve asked. 😛
PS – My Canadian distributors have opened a pre-order on their website, so CLICK HERE to make use of that if you live in the great frigid north!
Just to whet your appetites, here are some of the recipes that will be coming your way here on the blog in the next few weeks:
- Cottage Cheesecake with Sour Cherry Topping
- Low-Carb Clam Chowder
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Mug Cake for One
- Low-Carb Vegetable Beef Soup
If you want to make sure you see these recipes, the best way to do that is to subscribe to my blog via email! Social media outlets can be finicky about showing my posts to people and only a fraction of my Facebook followers see what I post, so make sure you don’t miss these recipes!
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As always, check out the Notes section of the recipe for extra info. Check out the links in and below the recipe to see the products I use and recommend. Some of the links included in the recipe and blog post are affiliate links, which means that if you make purchases through these links, I make a small commission (but your price doesn’t change).
- 6 cups water
- 3 cups uncooked brown rice
- -
- 3 lb. ground beef
- -
- 2 cups coined carrots
- 2 cups chopped celery
- 2 med. onions (chopped)
- -
- 1½ lb. (6 cups) shredded yellow queso cheese
- 4 cups unsweetened almond or cashew milk (not vanilla flavored)
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups reduced-fat sour cream
- 1 cup half and half
- 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon
- 1 tablespoon each garlic powder, parsley flakes
- 2 teaspoons THM Super Sweet Blend
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1½ teaspoons each salt, black pepper
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- To prepare the brown rice I add 6 cups of water and 3 cups of uncooked brown rice (not instant) to a large soup kettle (8 quarts or larger) and cook according to package directions. Do not season.
- Meanwhile, add the ground beef and a splash of water to a skillet and cook the beef completely. Crumble the ground beef, drain the grease/liquid off (reserving a few tablespoons), and set the meat aside.
- Fry the carrots, celery, and onions in the skillet in a few tablespoons of reserved grease/liquid from frying the ground beef. Cover and cook until tender.
- When the rice is finished cooking, add the ground beef and vegetables to the soup kettle with the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Simmer until the cheese melts but do not boil, stirring occasionally. Taste and add more salt if necessary. This makes a very thick, hearty soup like my mom used to make, but feel free to add more liquid to thin it out if you prefer. Serve when the soup is hot and the cheese is melted.
-A little THM Super Sweet Blend helps round out the flavor. Don't worry - the sweetness dissipates as the soup cooks and the end result isn't noticeably sweet.
-I used shredded queso cheese (available from Walmart) in this soup since it melts really well and reminds me of Velveeta, but feel free to substitute with your favorite shredded cheese.
-I'm sure some of you will ask if you can use cauli rice to replace the 6 cups of cooked brown rice and turn this into a THM S recipe. I highly recommend that you use real brown rice in this recipe for optimum comfort food level and heartiness. Use it as a treat now and then, or enjoy it more often when you reach goal weight. But, if you want to try using cauli rice in place of the brown rice, be my guest. The soup probably won't be as thick, so feel free to add more cauli rice than the brown rice called for in the recipe. (You would use 6+ cups of cauli rice in place of the 6 cups of water and 3 cups of uncooked brown rice. I would try sautéing it with the vegetables, then add the rest of the ingredients. You may want to decrease the amount of carrots if you want a true THM S since they're not a non-starchy veggie.) But all this experimentation will be upon your own head. I can only vouch for the recipe as written. 😉
-This soup does freeze OK. It looks really weird when you get it out of the freezer and let it thaw, but once you heat it up it becomes soup again. The rice is a little softer than when it's fresh, but it's still good.
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Queso just means cheese in Spanish. Just thought I’d throw that out there. The recipe sounds great!
Yeah, I know, but it’s a specific cheese that’s sold at Walmart. 😉
I made this last night with ground Moose meat for our church lifeteam. It was delicious and no one would have guessed it was “healthy”! I halved the recipe and still had some leftovers. Perfect for Fall!
Hello, I bought everything for the soup but I also got an Instant Pot for my anniversary and would love to know if you have any suggestions to fix it in there. I was thinking if I just browned the meat then throw everything else in there and cook and hope for the best, but don’t want to ruin it too. Any ideas? Thanks!!
Hi Brittany! I’ve never used an Instant Pot so I’m afraid I don’t know if it would work or not. Since there are multiple steps with cooking the rice and cooking the meat and vegetables (and you also don’t want the cheese and sour cream to get too hot), it seems a bit risky to me. But then I’ve never used one!
Hi Briana, I live here in Canada, and the only Ontario I know of is here in Canada, so if it’s the one in Canada, then welcome 🙂 I SO wanna buy your new cookbook, but my husband works for Canada Post and unfortunately he may be one of the ones to go on strike any day now and/or all of Canada Post across Canada may get locked out, so we need to be careful with how we spend our money right now. Anyhoo, my question is what kind of rice are you calling for in this recipe? I usually buy/use the kind that cooks in about 17 min (brown). Thanks so much for all your great recipes and I know it’s old news now lol, but congrats on your marriage! 🙂
Yes! Ryan is from Bancroft, Ontario, Canada, and we had a lovely time with his family! I use regular brown rice that takes about 45-50 minutes to cook. I haven’t had good luck with the instant brown rice that takes less time to cook (it’s always hard and crunchy for me for some reason), but feel free to use whatever rice you like and just cook for the amount of time needed. 🙂
Made this for company two nights ago. 4 people had allergies, so I used coconut milk and instead of the queso cheese (which our Walmart does not carry) I used fiesta blend in the regular half, then left out the half and half and used Daiya cheese in the allergy half. Everybody loved it. It tasted SO good, even though we used deer hamburger instead of beef. We had enough for 12 people with left-overs for 6 even though everybody had seconds. Try it! You’ll like it!
Thanks so much for sharing your tweaks, Jenni! I’m so glad you all enjoyed it!
Hey Briana! This looks so yummy! I’m not familiar with queso cheese – would shredded cheddar work instead? Thanks!
Maybe it’s only sold in the south? I found it at Walmart with the other shredded cheeses. Cheddar should work fine.
Good evening Brianna! This is a soup I have made over the years (the unhealthy version) and so it’s great to see this one! Unfortunately I am not near goal weight so I can’t have it yet, fooey 🙂 Maybe in a year from now, eh?
You can still have an occasional crossover even when you’re not at goal weight! It can actually help shake up the metabolism. 🙂 I like to make crossovers for fellowship meals so I don’t have many leftovers but can still enjoy it once myself. My husband didn’t mind taking care of leftovers in his lunches either.
Hi Briana,
I love your blog and recipes, however, i have had to stop using them because i cannot calculate the serving sizes, sodium, fats, proteins, carbs and calories per serving. Is there anyway you could start including the nutritional info for those of us needing that info?
I don’t usually calculate nutrition info on my recipes since the healthy eating lifestyle I follow doesn’t require it and I like to embrace that freedom (Trim Healthy Mama), but MyFitnessPal is a super easy way to find nutrition facts! If you sign up for an account, under the Recipes tab there’s a place where you can just add the link to a recipe and it will pull up the ingredients for you to confirm, then generate the nutritional info! 🙂 I’ve considered adding nutritional info and for right now I don’t feel that it jives well with my goal for this blog, but that could change in the future.
Welcome to Ontario! I hope that the leaves are in full colour where you are, and that you have a wonderful visit with your extended family.
Thank you, Kathy! There are some colorful leaves left on the trees, but I think we missed the peak by a few weeks. We’re having a wonderful time though, leaves or not!
Looks yummy! Plus I literally was just telling my husband this weekend we needed to figure out an on plan clam chowder so can’t wait for that post and to get my book, early Christmas!! Thank you ❤️