Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup

 Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup starts with a rich tomato-filled soup base, cooked ground beef, and aromatics, loaded up with cheese-filled tortellini and a delicious, creamy cheese filling.

Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup

This comforting and hearty soup channels all the best flavors from lasagna into a delicious, thick, and creamy soup.

This Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup begins with a saucy tomato beef base and is loaded up with tender bites of cheese-filled tortellini and a blend of three cheeses. The cheese topping melts beautifully into the soup adding a nice creamy element.

This soup is a total crowd-pleaser and is overall much simpler to make than a from-scratch lasagna!

Let’s talk tortellini

We love small/mini tortellini best in this Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup since it’s easier to eat and less overwhelming. That said, if you have a favorite tortellini, use that in this recipe. Quick Italian lesson: Torta is the Italian word for cake. Tortello means small cake (thinking of something like a ravioli), and the plural is tortelli.  Tortellino are mini tortelli. And the plural of tortellino is tortellini.

Confused yet? Think of it this way:

• Going from largest to smallest: torta, tortello, tortellino.
• And the plural of each is torte, tortelli, tortellini.

While full-sized tortelli will work fine, the larger pasta pieces can be a little overwhelming in the soup. And while I adore a good tortello, they’re just too large for this type of soup. (Tortelli are typically over double the size of tortellini.)

Our favorite readily available shelf-stable tortellini is Barilla® Artisanal Collection Three-Cheese Tortellini. As far as fresh-made tortellini goes, we love Giovanni Rana’s® Classic Cheese Mini Tortellini. They’re a little more tricky to find (depending on your grocery store), but they’re fresh, delicious, and again, they’re small so they incorporate better into the soup.

Cooking the Tortellini Separately

You can cook the tortellini in this soup, but we prefer to cook it separately. Here are a few of the reasons for that:

1. First, not all tortellini (shelf-stable, frozen, fresh) will cook the same in this soup. If you do want to cook the tortellini in the soup, I’d recommend using frozen tortellini so they can cook in the right amount of time. Even with frozen, it’s hard to know exactly when it is done since there is a lot of variation from slow cooker to slow cooker.
2. Next, the tortellini continue to soak up the soup liquid. While the soup is great right after being made, even sitting for 10-15 minutes will result in bloated pasta.
3. Finally, if there is leftover soup, the tortellini soak up all the soup liquid and become even more bloated– resulting in an unpleasant texture. For leftovers, it’s better to store the tortellini separately from the soup. Simply warm the two up separately and spoon the pasta into soup bowls.

Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup Tips

• Salt the water. Make sure the tortellini are well-salted as they cook; the salt is what seasons them. Along with seasoning the water, don’t forget to taste the soup often and add more seasonings as needed. If the soup tastes bland, it may just need a bit more salt and/or pepper!
• Use a good beef stock. The stock makes a big difference flavor-wise in this crockpot lasagna soup. My personal favorite store-bought stock is Swanson® beef stock.
• San Marzano tomatoes tend to be less acidic and a lot sweeter than standard tomatoes. They make a world of difference in the flavor of this soup and are (in my opinion) worth the extra money. Take it one step further and grab fire-roasted San Marzanos to add a subtle smokey and more intense flavor.
• For the marinara sauce, I highly recommend Rao’s® marinara sauce: (not sponsored). This marinara has a deep, intense flavor, tastes homemade, and is thick and hearty. A good marinara sauce makes a huge difference in this recipe.
• Add fresh parsley; it helps to cut through the richness of the ground beef, tomatoes, and cheese while adding some nice freshness.

Recipe Variations

• Use Italian sausage (mild or spicy) instead of the ground beef.
• Add in some crushed red pepper flakes to individual bowls of the soup. 
• Replace the ricotta cheese with mascarpone cheese for an ultra-creamy delicious cheese filling.
• To make the soup thicker, reduce the amount of beef stock and to make the soup thinner, add additional broth.

More Soup Recipes

• Crockpot Chicken Wild Rice Soup with sweet potatoes
• Chicken Curry Soup with Baby Gold Potatoes
• Italian Sausage Orzo Soup with lots of veggies
• Chicken Pot Pie Soup with puff pastry toppers
• Broccoli Potato Soup with sharp Cheddar cheese

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4.74 from 19 votes

Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup

By Chelsea Lords

Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup starts with a rich tomato-filled soup base, cooked ground beef and aromatics, loaded up with cheese-filled tortellini and a delicious, creamy cheese filling.

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 6 hours hours

Total Time: 6 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Ingredients 

USMetric

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ▢ 1 cup finely diced yellow onion (~1 onion)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons minced garlic (~2-3 cloves)
• ▢ 1 pound lean ground beef
• ▢ 28 ounces crushed tomatoes 1 large can
• ▢ 14.5 ounces fire-roasted diced tomatoes one can
• ▢ 6 ounces tomato paste one small can
• ▢ 1 ⅓ cups marinara sauce
• ▢ 1 teaspoon white sugar
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoons dried basil
• ▢ ½ teaspoon fennel seeds optional
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• ▢ 1½ teaspoon fine sea salt (or to preference)
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ▢ 3 cups beef broth or stock (I love Swanson beef stock)
• ▢ 12 ounces frozen cheese filled tortellini 1 package (See Note 1)
• ▢ 4 tablespoons fresh flat leaf Italian parsley, optional
• ▢ Cheese Toppings: freshly grated Parmesan cheese (½ cup), freshly grated mozzarella cheese (1 cup), mascarpone OR ricotta cheese (an 8-ounce container) (we love mascarpone!)

Instructions 

• ONION, GARLIC, and GROUND BEEF: In a large skillet over medium heat, drizzle in the olive oil. Once the oil is shimmering, add the onion and garlic; cook, stirring frequently for 3-4 minutes. Press to the edges of the skillet, increase the heat to high, and add the ground beef to the center of the skillet. Brown the ground beef, crumbling and incorporating the onions as you cook. Cook until the beef is browned. Drain off any grease (if needed) and transfer the mixture to a slow cooker.
• SLOW COOKER: (No need to drain any of the cans) Add in the crushed tomatoes, petite diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and marinara into slow cooker. Add in the sugar and seasonings - the dried basil, fennel, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Add in the beef stock or broth. Stir.
• COOK: Cover the slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 5-7 hours.
• TORTELLINI: About 15-20 minutes before you are ready to serve the soup, prepare the tortellini according to package directions. (Don't forget to salt the pasta water when cooking the tortellini; I add in 1 teaspoon salt to every 4 cups of water.) Drain thoroughly.
• CHEESE: Meanwhile, stir together the mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, and ricotta. Set aside.
• SERVING: Taste the soup for any additional seasonings needed (remembering the Parmesan will add some saltiness). Ladle soup in bowls and spoon cooked tortellini into individual bowls and stir. Add a few spoonfuls of the cheese mixture into each bowl and top with a sprinkle of freshly chopped parsley. Enjoy! Store leftovers separately.

Video

Recipe Notes

Note 1: Tortellini: While any tortellini works, our favorite readily-available shelf-stable tortellini is Barilla Artisanal Collection Three-Cheese Tortellini. As far as a fresh-made tortellini goes, we love Giovanni Rana's Classic Cheese Mini Tortellini. They're a little more tricky to find (depending on your grocery store), but they're fresh, delicious, and small so they incorporate better into the soup. If you'd like to cook the tortellini in the soup (instead of separately), you'll want to get frozen tortellini that cooks in about 3-5 minutes and add it in about 20 minutes before serving. You'll likely want to add additional beef broth/stock since the tortellini will really thicken things up.

Nutrition

Calories: 421kcal | Carbohydrates: 50g | Protein: 31g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 68mg | Sodium: 2089mg | Potassium: 1236mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 1460IU | Vitamin C: 29mg | Calcium: 203mg | Iron: 8mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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