Tennessee Soup–an easy dump and go beef and vegetable soup with a barbecue sauce boost! Make it fast in the Instant Pot or low and slow in the Crockpot.
Tennessee Soup
Today’s recipe is a beef soup that has no browning or sauteing steps! It’s fast to put together. For example, I used dry minced onions so I wouldn’t have to chop an onion and I used frozen hashbrowns so I wouldn’t have to peel and dice potatoes. The beef stew meat doesn’t even need to be browned…and it’s ultra melt-in-your-mouth tender. The ingredient that gives this recipe a fun twist is the barbecue sauce. It adds some tang and sweetness. Don’t forget the shredded cheese on top…it just brings everything together.
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Carrots
- Celery
- Dry minced onion
- Water
- Better than Bouillon Beef Base
- Diced tomatoes
- Black pepper
- Garlic powder
- Worcestershire sauce
- Barbecue sauce–like memphis bbq sauce
- Beef stew meat
- Olive oil–or vegetable oil
- Flour
- Kosher salt
- Smoked paprika
- Hashbrowns
- Cheddar–or another type of cheese
Steps
Add carrots, celery, onion, water, bouillon, tomatoes, pepper, garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce into Instant Pot. Scoop the barbecue sauce on top (don’t stir it in).
In a ziploc bag or a container with a lid add the beef, oil, salt, paprika and flour. Close the container and shake until beef is coated well. Dump the beef on top of the barbecue sauce and don’t stir.
Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the soup button to 20 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes (or longer) and then release the pressure. Remove the lid.
Stir in the hashbrowns until warmed through (you may want to use the saute setting).
Ladle into bowls and top each serving with a bit of shredded cheese. Eat and enjoy!
Notes/Tips
- Serve with cornbread and honey butter, French bread or breadsticks.
- Instead of buying beef stew meat you can also buy a chuck or rump roast and cut it into cubes.
- To save some peeling and chopping try using baby carrots.
- If you’d rather use potatoes instead of hashbrowns you can. Peel and cube 2-3 medium russet potatoes and add them into the pot along with the carrots and celery.
- If you don’t have any beef stew meat you can also brown a pound of ground beef and add it into the pot (leave out the flour).
- If you’d like to make this gluten free then use gluten-free worcestershire sauce and leave out the flour (use 2 Tbsp of cornstarch instead).
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Other recipes you can make with beef stew meat are 12th man chili and Connecticut casserole.
- This Tennessee soup recipe is adapted from Big Oven.
More Tennessee Recipes to Try…
Instant Pot Tennessee Sausage Cheese Dip
Better than just the typical Velveeta Rotel Dip! This dip adds something more with sausage and a secret ingredient.
Instant Pot Tennessee Meatloaf
A southern meatloaf recipe that will become your family’s favorite recipe! The sauce is to so addicting. You can make this recipe in the Instant Pot or the slow cooker.
Tennessee Mountaintop Subs
Hoagie rolls with brown-sugared bacon, turkey, mayo, lettuce and tomato. The bacon is cooked in a special way that makes it taste so good!
Tennessee Hashbrown Casserole
Tennessee Hashbrown Casserole has cheddar, hashbrowns, peppers, sausage and a creamy sauce. It’s the ultimate hashbrown casserole!
Instant Pot Tennessee Chicken
Chicken tenderloins in a sweet and sour barbecue sauce made in record time with your electric pressure cooker.
Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.
Tennessee Soup (Instant Pot or Crockpot)
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
An easy dump and go beef and vegetable soup with a barbecue sauce boost! Make it fast in the Instant Pot or low and slow in the Crockpot.
Ingredients
- 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 ribs celery, sliced or diced
- 1 Tbsp dry minced onion
- 2 cups water
- 1 Tbsp Better than Bouillon Beef Base
- 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/3 cup barbecue sauce
- 1 pound beef stew meat
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/8 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 cups frozen hashbrowns
- Shredded cheddar, for topping
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions:
- Add carrots, celery, onion, water, bouillon, tomatoes, pepper, garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce into Instant Pot. Scoop the barbecue sauce on top (don’t stir it in).
- In a ziploc bag or a container with a lid add the beef, oil, salt, paprika and flour. Close the container and shake until beef is coated well. Dump the beef on top of the barbecue sauce and don’t stir.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the soup button to 20 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes (or longer) and then release the pressure. Remove the lid.
- Stir in the hashbrowns until warmed through (you may want to use the saute setting).
- Ladle into bowls and top each serving with a bit of shredded cheese. Eat and enjoy!
Slow Cooker Instructions:
- Add carrots, celery, onion, water, bouillon, tomatoes, pepper, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce and barbecue sauce into slow cooker. Stir.
- In a ziploc bag or a container with a lid add the beef, oil, salt, paprika and flour. Close the container and shake until beef is coated well. Stir the beef into the slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
- Stir in the hashbrowns until warmed through.
- Ladle into bowls and top each serving with a bit of shredded cheese. Eat and enjoy!
- Category: Soup
- Method: Instant Pot or Slow Cooker
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
This recipe sounds delicious and I plan on giving it a try as soon as possible. The one question I would like to ask before giving it a try is, do the canned tomatoes need to be drained or does the entire can go into this recipe? I did not see anywhere in the written instructions nor did the recipe card mention anything about this.
Hi Brooke, the tomatoes plus the juices will go in!
I tried this recipe and it turned out a disaster! The stew meet I bought was whole, not already sliced or diced, and I hit the soup button for the time that was specified (20 minutes) and it wasn’t even close to done. I had to put on the meat button to even try to cook my meat. N then the meat was over cooked.
So your meat was a roast? I’m confused.
How can you give this one star when you didn’t use stew meat! Stew meat is cut in small pieces and something big and not cut up will of course take MUCH longer to cook! This one star is for YOU, not the recipe!
I didn’t have canned tomatoes so I used tomato sauce and strained tomatoes. I also used paprika as I dislike smoked paprika. I think sour cream might be good on top of the cheese. It was very good! 😋
yes sour cream is a great idea!
when cooking this in a crockpot. should the hashbrowns be thawed?
They can be but don’t have to be…they are so small they cook pretty quickly
Can this be done in a crock-pot. I had a instant pot and hated it. I’m old school oven or crock-pot.
For sure, you can! The crockpot instructions are listed in the recipe card (scroll down)
If I decide to use ground beef instead of beef stew, should I lower the cook time? I suspect the 20 mins is to get the stew meat good & tender, but I could be wrong.
oh you are right! I would only pressure cook 5 minutes.