Lasagna Cheese Soup

Seasoned Cook's Note:

Hearty, Cheesy and Just Plain Good!! The crusty croutons with stringy cheese along with tomatoes and beef is "to die for". A wonderful entree for soup night! Very popular! Easy to prepare! Note: Add 1 cup of water to allow for noodles to cook in soup.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 (14 ounce) chicken broth
• 2 (14 ounce) diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 ounce) tomato sauce
• 2 teaspoons italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 1/2 cups lasagna noodles, broken
• 1 (4 ounce) italian seasoned croutons (optional)
• 2 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:

1. In large 5 quart saucepan, brown ground beef and onion. Drain.
2. Stir in chicken broth, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, italian seasoning, worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, brown sugar, salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil and turn back to simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
3. Add broken lasagna noodles and simmer until noodles are tender for approximately 20 minutes. Stir in parmesan cheese.
4. Ladle soup into bowls and top with croutons. Sprinkle with mozarella cheese and serve immediately.

Reviews

[Jackshoe]

I used 1lb of ground beef and 0.5lb of sausage (I didn't want left over ground beef), for the diced tomatoes I added one can of "basil, garlic and oregano" and one can of "garlic and onion" because I thought they would add some more flavor. I like to think that it did. I also forgot to pick up "pasta sauce" but it turns out I had about 12 oz of Newman's Own Organic Tomato Basil Sauce hanging out in the fridge and used that. Because I used the Basil Sauce I nixed the sugar as the sauce is pretty sweet as is. Many reviewers said that lasagna noodles took almost an hour to cook, and I didn't want to wait that long so I used mixed vegetable spiral pasta. These cooked up in about 30 minutes and worked great. Lastly I used Kraft Italian 5 Cheese Mix instead of just plain mozzarella to add more variety of flavor. I also just added most of the cheese into the soup and mixed it in. Turned out to be more of a "stoup" than a soup, but was fantastic! I added the croûtons but would skip them next time, they didn't add much and the soup was so thick and chunky already it didn't need them.

[mandabacca]

Yum, I really think I prefer this over traditional lasagna! In my opinion, the Italian croutons really complete this... wouldn't skip them! :) I added my broken lasagna noodles right away and my simmer time was 30 minutes. I added a cup of extra broth during cooking, and next time I might add an extra can of broth... it is sooo easy to just add a little water or broth as it cooks (and when you reheat it) to get this just the consistancy you like it. This made 10 1 cup servings (plus a little extra) for me. I am freezing 1/2 of it... hopefully that will work out well, we'll see! Thanks for this tasty recipe! :)

[Just_Ducky!!]

We really enjoyed this soup. I used my own tomato meat sauce that I already had frozen and then threw it all in the slow cooker. I put the noodles in too early I think though because it soaked up more of the liquid than I wanted, next time will definitely have to do it only an hour ahead at most or precook them as some other did and throw in after. I had plenty of leftovers so froze them and used them a week later by turning them into lasagna basically since it was too thick to be soup anymore and took to a pot luck meal. Rave reviews from everyone. Very tasty and an easy meal, either as a soup, or let it go thick into an easy lasagna, either way it was yum :), thanks for posting. Made for TOTM's Soup-Fest 2011 tag game. :-)