We are hoping for snow today. Let’s edit that to say the girls and I are really hoping for snow today. Snow will probably mess with David’s work juju.
Bitty photo bomb.
Anytime it’s super cold I think of this soup, and many cold days I’m actually making it. I’m normally just a pretty good hack of other people’s stuff, but this one’s an original, and it’s a family favorite. It’s the soup that David compares all others too, hence the poor reception of this season’s opener of carrot and butternut squash soup.
A couple of things about this soup:
- It’s super uncomplicated, not at all like the bittie’s emotional swings.
- It makes all the difference in the whole world if you salt and pepper everything along the way. All the difference.
- I cut all the veg to about this size.
- My microplane is about my favorite kitchen utensil. If we’re real life friends you may have even received one for Christmas. This is what I use to grate garlic.
Hello lovely.
- You have to keep an eye on the potatoes so they won’t burn because you’re sort of frying them in the olive oil when you first put them in. Just keep scraping the bottom, and you can get everything off when you add the tomato puree and stock.
- We eat this with cornbread, and the leftovers are better the next day.
- All hail, Queen Ina, homemade chicken stock really does taste better.
- Just one more:
Beef and vegetable soup
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
One pot, hearty, soul-warming kind of food.
Author: Holly
Serves: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- grated fresh garlic (divided for beef and vegetables)
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil
- 3-5 Yukon gold potatoes (# depending on size), diced
- 5-8 carrots (depending on size), diced
- 3-4 stalks of celery, diced
- 2 small onions or 1 huge one, diced
- 28 oz. crushed tomatoes
- 28 oz. chicken stock (Ina's right, homemade does taste better)
- 1 tsp. parsley
- 1 tsp. basil
- 1 tsp. oregano
- ½ tsp. thyme
- parmesan rind (if you have one)
Instructions
- Brown ground beef in dutch oven on medium low heat.
- Add salt and pepper to taste, and add approx. 1 Tbsp. grated garlic about one minute before you intend to remove the beef from the heat.
- Drain beef and set aside while you cook the vegetables. (You may want to wipe out the dutch oven a bit.)
- Return dutch oven to heat and add 3-4 Tbsp. olive oil and potatoes.
- After the addition of each vegetable to the pot, add salt and pepper. (While this is to taste, I've found a decent pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper to be right for us. The important thing is to do it after each addition--it's amazing how it builds flavor.)
- Chop the next vegetable while the previous one is cooking and everything should be done about the same time:
- After potatoes, add carrots, celery, and onion (in that order), scraping the potatoes from the bottom of the pan every couple of minutes to keep them from burning.
- When all vegetables are tender and onions are translucent, add 1-2 Tbsp. garlic and let cook 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Add tomato puree and chicken stock. Using a wooden spoon, scrape the fond off the bottom of the pot. (This might take a couple minutes to soften up.)
- Add spices, and more salt and pepper to taste.
- If you have a parmesan rind, add it now for extra flavor. Simmer, covered, until warm or up to an hour to meld flavors. Tastes even better the next day.
