My Famous Veggie Beef Soup is soup for the soul
Making soup is one of my favorite things to cook! We generally have soup twice a week with plenty of leftovers. My soup pot is a 16-quart stock pot I received as a wedding gift; honestly, it is my most used pot! It’s hard to share recipes with it, though, because most people do not use a 16-quart or cook such a large portion. We use the leftovers as lunches and for another meal during the week.
I want to talk about how I use cooking as a hobby coping skill. When I cook, it is with love for my family. I am like one of those Italian grandmas saying, “You are so skinny! Let me cook you something!” I know this is not healthy, but cooking is a comfort to me. It is not in my diet plan to cook when I am down, but generally, that happens, and of course, that means you are eating it too! Thank goodness I am not a fabulous baker.
I thought about going the easy way and using cans this week until James pointed out the sodium in the can goods. I usually use two cans of green beans for this soup, which would have been around 80g of sodium. The soup would require many cans of vegetables to make up the 16-quart pot, which would be too much sodium for us.
I love to shop at our local farm market, especially for vegetable beef soup ingredients. The farm market we go to is not too far away, and they have excellent prices! James and Joe got a large box of vegetables for under $10.00! I couldn’t believe the price when they came back to the car.
Cattleman’s meat and produce is my choice for buying fresh meat locally. They also have the BEST staff! I love my Deli friends there! I usually spend too much time chatting at the counter if it is not busy. Everyone from butchers to stockers and the cashiers is just so friendly, and it is like visiting friends while you shop. The products are top-notch, too; I don’t want to forget that part; it is a must for homemade meals to have good meat.
So those are my stores! This is what I bought for the soup
- Ground round Beef
- Orange pepper
- Onions
- Corn on the cob
- Potatoes
- Cauliflower
- Broccoli
- Carrots
- Squash
- Zucchini
- Celery
- Green beans
I usually use a few items that are not fresh. This time I used
- Boxed Beef broth
- One can diced tomato with Italian seasoning
The spices I use are
- Mccormick Montreal steak
- Celery salt
- Ms. Dash Italian
- Cilantro
Nothing is measured. Everything depends on the size you want to make the vegetable beef soup and the amount of spices you like. I know this is so annoying! My Grandma would say, “well, you need a handful or this or a scoop of that” this is how I learned to cook. I never had measurements to use when cooking just about everything homemade.
I start my vegetable beef soup by browning the meat with onions, orange pepper, and steak seasoning. I have another pot going to boil the corn on the cob, which gets cut later.
Next up is cutting all the vegetables; this takes some time. I cut everything up into bite sizes because it is just easier to eat; I do not want huge chunks of stuff in my bowl. TBH, I feed Jonah a bunch of the vegetables from this soup. He loves carrots especially, and he eats almost everything. I do think about this when cutting the vegetables.
It’s pretty much that easy; I put everything in the pot and let it come to a good boil, turn it down and simmer for around an hour. I know it is done when I test the potatoes and carrots, and they are tender.
I know this is not a recipe because, seriously, there are no measurements and no accurate instructions! It is more of an eating post! LOL, I just love to make soup and wanted to share it with you!
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