What is it about a bowl of hot homemade soup that just makes you feel good – especially if you don’t feel well? We like soup even when we aren’t sick, and we have our favorites that we’ve made for years. Today I want to share the recipe for our vegetable beef soup. Ron’s been under the weather for a few days, and since it was a dreary cloudy day, I decided it was a good day for homemade soup and homemade bread.

I used to be so much better at cooking meals at home when the kids were little, but when Errin became lactose intolerant, that threw a wrench into many of the go-to meals I had fixed for years. Cream of chicken soup was no longer an option, and I was surprised how many recipes I have that use cream of something soup! This, and the fact that Ron and a couple of the kids were extremely picky eaters, I kind of gave up on cooking dinner. I don’t know about you, but every day at about 3:00, I begin a building anxiety about what I would do for dinner! Oh how I wish eating were an option, instead of a necessity! There’s nothing worse than spending hours preparing a meal to sit down and have your kids say, I don’t like this. . . I know I’m not the only mom that deals with this.

Embarrassingly enough, I must admit, we eat out way more than we eat in. With the kids married and gone, it’s so much easier to run and grab something. And even though the kids moved out years ago, I can’t seem to figure out how to cook for two! When I do end up cooking, poor Ronnie ends up eating it for days until it’s either gone or I throw the rest away. This is so hard for me to do because I grew up in the era where we were told, there were starving children in China who would give anything for the food we were refusing to eat! So evidently I deserved to have picky eaters. However, one of the HAPPY foods that is always a hit, is homemade soup! Ron is a master at chicken noodle – he even makes his noodles from scratch, and I specialize in vegetable beef. The trick to great soup is the ingredients you use.

The base for my vegetable beef soup comes from the tomatoes I bottle each year, thanks to our amazing, giving, sharing, self-less neighbor!!! He plants over 50 tomato plants each year for the sole purpose of giving them away! They even have a little shelf they put out by the road that says, “Free Produce”. If that’s not sharing LIGHT, I don’t know what is!!! Home grown tomatoes are so much better than store bought canned tomatoes, but if you don’t have access to the former, the latter is better than not cooking soup at all.

So here’s my recipe for home-made vegetable beef soup.

Leslie’s Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup

· 1 – 1 ½ pounds super extra lean ground beef – I prefer the super extra lean without much added fat. I get mine from Bowman’s in Kaysville, one of the few grocery stores that still has an actual butcher on-site.

· One medium onion finely chopped. I know, it’s not very much fun to chop onions, but they add so much flavor, and even people who don’t like them won’t notice they are in the soup if you chop them small enough. They just kind of disappear.

· One celery heart – these generally come two to a package. I cut the bottom off where it’s all connected, wash it thoroughly, and then chop it up into very small pieces. Another trick to good soup is to use the tender leaves that are part of the center or heart of the celery. Many people throw these away, but you get most of the flavor from these leaves. I chop my onion and my celery with my “Pampered Chef” chopper. One of my favorite kitchen gadget tools – now that is another post in and of itself!

· 3-4 large carrots sliced into bite size pieces. Today I was lazy and didn’t want to cut them up, so I bought them pre-sliced. Sometimes I buy the slivered cut ones, sometimes I buy the julienne cut ones. Today I used the julienne pre-cut ones and they were the perfect thickness.

· 3-5 small to medium sized potatoes cut into bite size cubes – we like the Yukon Gold ones. I peeled them before cutting them up using my favorite peeler from the makers of the “Swiss Army Knife – Victorinox”. I actually got mine from “Smith and Edwards” near Ogden, Utah. If you haven’t been here, it’s a destination place with shopping galore. Their slogan used to be, “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it. We have it, if we can find it.”

· 2 - 15.25 oz. cans of corn – I dump the liquid in as well.

· 4 quarts bottled tomatoes – or the equivalent of canned ones.

· 5-6 handfuls “Homemade Style Country – Egg Pasta” I buy the big bag from Costco – Ronnie makes his from scratch for his chicken noodle soup, but I think this is a close second.

· Salt and Pepper to taste

Start with thawed ground beef. Break it up in the bottom of a large stock pot. Add finely chopped onion, and cook together on medium heat until bottom of pan is browned – not burnt, just browned. This is an important step because it adds flavor!

Add 4 quarts tomatoes and stir.

Add chopped carrots, cubed potatoes, and chopped celery

Cover, and cook on medium heat stirring occasionally until the vegetables are just about soft, but not quite.

If you have a simmering plate for your cooktop, move the pan to that and simmer on low for 2-3 hours stirring occasionally. If you don’t have a simmering plate, just place on your smallest burner, and cook on low, stirring occasionally for about an hour.

Add 5-6 handfuls of pasta noodles and let simmer for 20-30 minutes on low – until the noodles are cooked.

Add 2 cans of corn including the liquid – cook until heated through and you’re ready to ladle it up.

I often use the soup simmering time to make homemade French Bread – or homemade rolls to go with the soup. This recipe makes A LOT of soup!!! So if there’s just two of you, plan ahead to share some with a friend or family member. You won’t just be sharing your soup, you’ll be sharing your LIGHT – and you will make some poor mom’s day who’s had anxiety since 3:00 about what she’s going to put on the table for dinner!

There’s nothing like a hot bowl of soup with a big buttered slice of homemade bread to bring LIGHT to a dark and gloomy day – not to mention the healing properties associated with soup when you don’t feel well.

Love Ya, Les ☺

Family

Soup For What Ails You