Caldo de Res is a rich and hearty Mexican beef soup loaded up with vegetables. Beef bones add a rich, umami flavor to the soup and that flavor gets better over time. Make a big batch of this comforting soup and enjoy cozy, filling meals for days.

Two bowls of beef soup with chunks of vegetables.

Table of Contents

What is Caldo de Res?
Why this Recipe Works
The Ingredients
The Directions
Recipe Tips for the Best Results
Helpful Tools
Some Other Recipes We Are Sure You Will Love

What is Caldo de Res?

If you’ve never had traditional caldo de res, you’re in for a beefy, broth-y treat!

This Mexican beef soup is packed with rich beef flavor and hearty vegetables like cabbage, potatoes, corn, and zucchini.

The flavorful beef broth, deliciously tender veggies, and bold seasonings create a wonderful, homemade, hearty soup that we guarantee you’ll love just as much as the version at your favorite Mexican restaurant!

Dish up large bowls of caldo de res and serve it with warm corn tortillas, elote in a cup or Spanish rice, and your favorite hot sauce for an incredible Mexican-inspired meal. If you want an even richer flavor, stir some mole sauce into the soup.

Why this Recipe Works

This Mexican vegetable beef soup has all the goodness packed right into its name! It is a comforting soup that tastes even better the next day.
Using meaty pieces of meat with bones will give the soup extra flavor and richness. Using meaty pieces of meat with bones will give the soup extra flavor and richness. The marrow-rich bones have flavor that will get infused into the broth.
This Caldo de res recipe combines savory aromatics like onion, garlic cloves, and seasonings that add so much flavor to the bone broth.
The soup simmers with the beef in a large Dutch oven for several hours until the meat is extra tender.
This traditional Mexican beef soup is packed with nutritious vegetables and lean protein.
This hearty Mexican soup is filling and flavorful, making a great meal to serve to a small crowd.

You can serve this soup as a main dish or ladle it into small bowls and serve it as a starter for a Mexican menu that includes tamales and refried beans or charro beans and some Mexican rice.

The Ingredients

While some caldo de res recipes call for beef stew meat, we prefer going with a more traditional preparation. That requires using bone-in beef cuts like beef shanks, short ribs, or even oxtails.

The bones and bone marrow will break down during a low and slow simmer, which adds a richer, umami flavor (and nutrients!) to this Mexican stew.

A quick tip before you start: try to find beef bones that have plenty of meat attached to them. Those beef chunks will fall off the bone and leave you with incredibly tender meat in the soup. You can even use a bone-in beef chuck and toss in a few marrow bones for good measure.

And, if you’re feeling particularly carnivorous, feel free to add some chorizo sausage to the soup for a more intensely flavored, meaty meal.

You will need:

Oxtails, beef short ribs, cilantro, onion, garlic, zucchini, bay leaves, oregano, cumin, thyme, tomato paste, beef broth, carrots, corn, potatoes, cabbage, diced tomatoes.

Beef. Use cuts such as bone-in beef shank, short ribs, or oxtails. If you can’t find bones with plenty of meat attached, add some stew meat to the pot.
Spices. Salt, black pepper, ground cumin, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, and chipotle powder (optional if you like a bit more heat).
Vegetable oil. Use the oil to sear the meat and get a flavorful, caramelized brown crust on it.
Onion
Garlic cloves
Tomato paste. Tomato paste is concentrated tomatoes, and you only need a small amount. Store leftover paste in the freezer.
Beef broth. If you don’t have beef broth, chicken broth will work in a pinch.
Canned tomatoes.
Vegetables. We used red potatoes, carrots, fresh corn (frozen corn will also work), zucchinis, and green cabbage
Fresh cilantro.
Lime juice or lemon juice. The acid balances the flavors.
Lime wedges, thin-sliced radishes and avocado slices for serving

The Directions

This beefy, vegetable stew is a one-pot meal you’ll love! It’s also an easy soup recipe, and while there is a long simmer involved, it doesn’t require too much active prep time.

Here’s a quick look at the process, but be sure to check out the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Browning the beef and sauteeing the onions.

Season the beef. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the beef in batches until it forms a dark brown crust. Cook the diced onion until soft and translucent, then stir in the garlic, oregano, tomato paste, and spices.

Adding the beef and broth to the pot and cooking the beef until tender.

Place the browned meat in the pot. Add the broth, tomatoes, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then simmer the mixture until the meat is tender. See the recipe card below for details.

Shredding beef in one photo and adding the beef and vegetables back to the pot in the second photo.

Transfer the meat to a plate. Separate the meat from the bones and skim the fat off the top of the broth. Return the meat to the soup pot and add the potatoes, carrots, and corn. Cook until they’re almost tender.

Adding zucchini and cabbage to the pot in the first photo and cooking the soup until the vegetables get tender in the second photo.

Add the zucchini and cabbage and cook another 10-15 minutes. Stir in the cilantro and lime juice. Serve the soup with the radish slices, avocado, and a squeeze of lime, if desired.

Two bowls of Mexican beef and vegetable soup.

Recipe Tips for the Best Results

Searing the meat and bones before simmering will add extra flavor to the soup, don’t skip this step.
If you don’t have bone-in beef cuts, you can make this soup with chunks of beef stew meat. However, we really recommend using bone-in beef. The bone marrow and connective tissues break down, which gives you a soup with an even richer beef flavor.
We recommend using homemade beef broth for this caldo de res recipe since some store-bought beef broths can taste fairly bland. If you’re using store-bought broth, you can add a little bit of beef bouillon.
Serve this soup with lemon wedges or lime wedges. A squeeze of the fresh citrus juice will balance out the flavors with the added acidity.
If you can’t find corn on the cob, you can add a cup or two of frozen corn kernels.

A big bowl of caldo de res with all of the fixings is my idea of a good meal! Best of all, this hearty soup goes so well with a number of sides, including chips and corn salsa (or homemade guac), jalapeño cheddar cornbread, homemade tortillas, or simple white rice.

Helpful Tools

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Some Other Recipes We Are Sure You Will Love:

This Mexican cornbread casserole is one of our favorite comfort foods! Corn, black beans, bell peppers and tender pork cook together in a skillet and a buttery cornbread layer tops it off.

Chipotle black bean soup is hearty and flavorful vegetarian soup with the perfect amount of heat from the adobo-style chipotle chiles. It’s a one-pot, meatless meal that is also budget-friendly.

Our old-fashioned oxtail soup recipe makes a delicious soup filled to the brim with flavorful goodies. Tender beef and a long-simmering base of red wine, beef broth, and herbs gives this soup an intense depth of flavor.

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A large bowl of Mexican beef soup with vegetables and garnished with cilantro and limes.

Caldo De Res (Mexican Beef Soup)

Caldo de res is a flavorful Mexican beef soup with vegetables. Large chunks of vegetables and tender morsels of beef make the soup a full meal. It is comforting, hearty, and filling.

It's one of those soups that gets better as it sits, so don't hesitate to make a big batch and enjoy it over the course of a few days.

If you're feeling particularly carnivorous, you can add some chorizo sausage to the soup.

Using beef bones will add a rich, umami flavor to the soup. You can use beef shanks, short ribs, oxtail, or a mix. Try to find bones that have plenty of meat attached to them. You can even use a bone in beef chuck and toss in a few marrow bones for good measure.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time: 25

Cook Time: 3

Total Time: 3 25

Servings: servings

Calories: 598kcal

Author: Dahn Boquist

Ingredients

2 pounds bone-in beef such as beef shanks short ribs, or oxtails
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion diced
8 garlic cloves minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1-½ teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
¾ teaspoon chipotle chili powder optional
6 cups beef broth
1 can 15 ounces diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
10 ounces red potatoes cut into 1-inch pieces
3 carrots cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 ears of corn cut into 1-inch chunks
1 to 2 zucchinis cut into 1/2 inch pieces
½ head of cabbage cut into bite size chunks
¼ cup minced fresh cilantro
¼ cup lime juice or lemon juice

Garnish

2 limes sliced into wedges
6 radishes thinly sliced
1 avocado sliced

Instructions

Make the Base for the Soup

Season the beef with salt and pepper.
Heat the oil in a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat (the pot should hold at least 7 quarts). Working in batches, add the beef and sear on all sides until it has a dark brown crust. Transfer the beef to a plate and set aside.
Add the diced onion to the pot and cook for 3 minutes or until it is soft and translucent. Stir in the garlic, oregano, tomato paste, cumin, chipotle powder, if using and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
Transfer all the beef back to the pot. Add the broth, diced tomatoes, and bay leaves. Stir well and scrape up any brown, cooked on bits that may be stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce the heat to a low simmer (small, gentle bubbles). Place the lid on the pot and cook for 2½ to 3 hours or until the meat is very tender.

Finish the Soup

Use a wide spoon to skim off any foam on the top of the broth. Use tongs to transfer the meat and bones to a plate. When it cools enough to handle, separate the meat from the bones and discard the bones along with any fat and grizzle. Skim the fat off the top of the soup in the pot, then return the meat to the pot.
Add the potatoes, carrots, and corn. Cover the pot and cook for 15 to 25 minutes or until the potatoes and carrots are nearly tender. Add the zucchini and cabbage. Cover the pot again and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until all the vegetables are perfectly tender.
Remove the caldo de res soup from the heat and stir in the cilantro and lime juice. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if needed.
Serve the soup with fresh radish slices, wedges of lime, and slices of avocado.

Notes

Searing the meat and bones first will add extra flavor to the soup.
If you don’t have any bone-in beef cuts, you can make this soup with chunks of stew meat. However, using bones will give the soup a richer flavor as the bone marrow and connective tissues break down.
Some brands of store-bought beef broth can taste fairly bland. If you aren’t using homemade beef broth, you may want to add some beef bouillon.
Finishing the soup with lemon or lime juice will balance the flavors with the added acidity.