Any fans of Vegetable Beef soup?

[mr_lebowski]

Whipping up some now (yeah, I tend to eat late), on accounta Safeway had the 80/20 ground beef in 5lb pack for $.99/lb, and it was FRESHLY grated like I watched the butcher plop it into the display off his rolling rack and it was NICE.

Here's how I do it:

1) Create a soup stock with H2O, Better than Bouillon (beef), fresh celery tips (leaves), half a raw sweet onion & a half bunch of garlic (for those two I just whack 'em in half, throw 'em in with the skin and all), some whole coriander and black pepper and some Bay Leaves.

2) After about 1 hour of slowly simmering uncovered, I add about 1/5 of a cilantro bunch, along with 5 stalks of fresh thyme.

3) Simmer, covered,for about 1 more hour.

4) While those are turning into soup, I sauteed the ground beef, drained, and added can of condensed tomato soup & H20 to the meat, along with some worchestershire, cracked pepper, garlic and onion powder. I leave that combo simmering on very low heat to bring out the beef flavor into the tomato soup mixture while the soup is doing it's thing.

5) I'm about to add the meat/soup to the stock (after straining the stock), along with frozen corn & edamame, fresh chopped Roma Tomatoes, carrot and celery. I'll simmer that till the veggies soften.

6) I nuked some chopped up Yukon Gold and Red Potatoes in water, those are sitting the micro, nearly cooked through. I'll rinse/drain and add those along with Zucchini chunks, for about the last 15 minutes of cook time so they don't get overdone. Zucchini is delicate stuff in my experience.

7) Top with Shredded Parmesan and splash or two of tabasco, and eat with a crusty baguette.

It's actually the first time I ever made this dish, and I pretty much followed how I thought i saw my mom do it like 40 years ago, one time. I recall it being awesome.

Any thoughts?

[applegrove]

1. I make a similar beef soup only it has chopped parsnipts and onions

with lots of tarragon to make it yummy. Also the recipe calls for lentils and barley (i don't put in barley as my brother is celiac)I don't make my soup from scratch though. It has to be for celiacs. I found a good base that is. It is my take on the famous Market Soup that was the specialty of a particular restaurant in ottawa in the 70s and 80s and 90s.

[mr_lebowski]

2. Ooooh, if I had any tarragon that'd have gone in ...

I had fresh organic Thyme sprigs handy so I went w/that.

There's half on onion in my soup stock (though I'm straining it out), along with onion powder in the beef/tomato soup mix, so should have some onion flavor going

I might top it with some chopped scallions too, now that I think of it ...

[applegrove]

4. I serve mine with sour cream. Now i'm hungry for soup. Bay leaves too. 3 bay leaves.

m.mmmmmm!

[mr_lebowski]

7. Mmmm ... that could be good, I just might try that ... or maybe a spot of cheddar ...

Or maybe both?

Yeah, can't make soup stock w/o Bay Leaves ... unless it's like Tom Ka Gai ...

[applegrove]

10. Souuuuuup!

[mr_lebowski]

12. Soup friggin rules ... I love soup ... usually my own ...

One I can never make to my satisfaction though is Tom Ka Gai ... I'm convinced it can't be made to taste right w/o fresh coconut milk (even the organic stuff in the cartons instead of cans doesn't cut it).

I got a Thai place that makes it GREAT like 3 miles away so I just go there. Tried to make it like 10 times, finally gave up. Mine is DECENT, but nowhere near this Thai joint. In Mesa of all places.

[applegrove]

13. Never had it. Yes i think asian cooking is hard to get right. But the

real stuff is sublime. My favourite is Nepalese momos. Or the springrolls or stir fried noodles they made at a great Tibetan restaurant i worked at. One of the wives said that they can't get the stir fried noodles to taste the same at home as they don't have a wok over an open flame at home.

[mr_lebowski]

14. Well-made Tom Ka Gai is the freaking Nectar of The Gods ...

You have to try it ... find a Thai place where people rave about the soup and go get some.

It's basically just a broth with mushrooms and chicken slices (some places will have onion and/or tomato as well, I like it just mushroom and chicken), but the broth is just ... amazing.

It's made with chicken stock, flavored with galanga (a root that's a bit like ginger but milder and earthier), lemongrass, keffir lime leaves, lime juice, coconut milk, and a dash of palm sugar. You can order it spicy and they'll usually add this special Thai chili paste that's made with oil, birdseye chili, some other ground up spices, and a touch of shrimp paste. Changes the flavor a tad but still really good.

Usually the authentic stuff will have chunks of galanga and lemongrass (and sometimes even the whole lime leaves) still in the soup, which aren't really edible so you kinda eat around those.

Tellin' ya ... it's the bomb when done well.

Edit: Also, yeah ... you need the open flame to get the Wok Hei ... which is when they toss the food with the wok tilted down, and catch the oil/water droplets on fire. That flame flavor then infuses the whole dish ... it's totally key.

[flying rabbit]

3. Thoughts, yeah.

was it as good as it sounds?

[mr_lebowski]

11. I'm mid step 5, heartier veggies are softening ... I'll let ya know! (nt)

[woodsprite]

5. Sounds delicious! Very similar to what my mom made.

She added Kloski egg noodles to her soup just before serving. Instead of tomato soup, she used a big can of V8 and diced beef cubes instead of ground beef. Everything else sounded the same I should make up a batch!

We’re late eaters as well. Today was busy and I didn’t give dinner a thought until 7:30. Thank goodness for the Instant Pot my son gave me for Xmas. I had shredded BBQ chicken on the table by 8:30 and that was from frozen chicken breasts! Wonder how that would work for the soup! Although I’d have to scale back the recipe due to pot size.

[brokephibroke]

6. Sounds good!

I’d prolly substitute cabbage for the potatoes...

[mr_lebowski]

9. Oooh, I could do some cabbage!

Good call, I got some o'that needs eatin. Just about the right time to plop it in, too, just before the Zukes and Potatoes ...

[stevil]

8. Yeah

Let us know how it turns out.

[Totally Tunsie]

15. Barley - definitely some barley.

Soup sounds yummmmmmy!

[man4allcats]

16. I'm pretty much an "out of the can" guy in which case I prefer Chicken & Dumplings, although

I did have some Vegetable Beef the other night. I must say though that if I used your mom's recipe, Vegetable Beef would win the day.

[mr_lebowski]

17. Yeah, so ... it came out KILLER ... had two big bowls, didn't want to stop eating it ...

If I say so myself.

Barley would've been pretty good in there as well, as mentioned above.

I eat soup originating from a can too, but it's almost always pretty disappointing. I end up adding spices and veggies and such to it to suit my palate.

One canned soup I'm pretty handy at turning into something that's actually pretty damn good is Progresso Chicken Tortilla soup. It's not terrible to begin with and it doesn't need a ton of help to be made quite tasty. Some frozen peas and corn, some whole beans (pinto or black), some cumin, cayenne, chili powder, and a pinch of sugar. Top with some cheese, cilantro, and a dollop sour cream, eat with homemade tortilla chips ... pretty tasty.

Still nowhere near as good as soup I make my own self tho. But I do spend a LOT of time making mine.

[TEB]

18. Absolutely on vegetable beef soup

[pansypoo53219]

19. i make a beefless beef veggie soup. boullion + lots of pepper + more.

good w/ soda crackers.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

20. Yes, but not with ground beef.

I'd get some kind of beef on a bone, or perhaps a cut intended for stew or pot roast.

Brown the beef. Then add beef stock, a bay leaf, tarragon, thyme, celery seed, and marjoram. Simmer for a couple of hours at least. Take the meat out of the stock, strip from the bone (if one is involved) and cut up.

Peel and cut up some carrots. How many depends on how much beef and stock you have at this point.

Simmer for a half hour or so. Then add cut up peeled potatoes. Simmer another half hour. Add peas and bring back to a boil.

Oh, because I like a thicker broth, at some point I'll make a roux: melt some butter in a pan, add flour, cook for a bit until bubbly and brown. Then add enough beef broth to essentially make a gravy. Pour into the soup. Oh, and you might have wanted to saute some onion in the pan before making the roux.

I might also toss in a half cup or so of barley. Mmmmm. Barley beef soup. It doesn't get any better than that.

And no matter your preferred version or recipe, winter is wonderful for soups and stews.

[mr_lebowski]

21. I agree on making proper bone stock ...

But the .99/lb ground beef was the instigator of the plan, so ... maybe next time.

You're recipe sounds much like I'd do it for that style of soup. Barley would've been great in it! So would've some good red wine, but I didn't have any. Used a splash of Sherry I forgot to mention though.

Thanks for the input

[Vinca]

22. I use Better Than Bouillon all the time. Great stuff for adding flavor.

Whenever I make a vegetable anything soup I use it as an opportunity to get rid of old partial bags of frozen veggies. I think I'd make your soup with small chunks of beef instead of ground. For some reason I'm totally turned off to ground beef lately. I tried a vegetarian substitute product in chili and that kind of disintegrated so maybe I'll try ground turkey next time.