Vegetable Beef Soup Recipes
January 14, 2012 10:20 AM   Subscribe

What is your favorite recipe for vegetable beef Soup?

It is cold. I would like to make vegetable beef soup and I don't have a great recipe handy. What are your favorites? I am thinking something traditional but I am really open to about anything. Stew recipes are OK too.
posted by Silvertree to Food & Drink (12 answers total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
As odd as this recipe seems, it makes GREAT stew! I've made this a number of times, following the recipe to the letter... people seem to love it!
posted by HuronBob at 10:55 AM on January 14, 2012


1 package (1.5-2lbs) cubed stew beef
1 Onion, quartered and separated
Garlic, minced
Butter
3 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1-2in thick rounds
2 or 3 big potatoes, cubed big & salted
1 Red, 1 Green bell pepper, roasted, skinned, and sliced to ribbons
Celery, zucchini, Roma tomato and whatever other seasonings or stock veggies you want. Sliced and smashed however.
Cilantro
Cotija cheese, crumbled
(optional) 3 or 4 Chiles tepin, crushed

In a large pot sautee the onion and peppers and eventually the garlic in butter until soft.
Add beef, browning thoroughly. (Season with tepin at this point for extra super hot spicy.)
Cover with water, leaving room for additional ingredients, and bring to a boil.
Add veggies carefully, return to boil, then reduce to simmer until everything is hot and almost mushy.
Top with cilantro and crumbled cotija.

As you can see from HuronBob's and my suggestions, the basic recipe for beef stew is browned beef covered in water, cooked with potatoes & carrots, and seasoned variously. With that in mind, the possibilities are endless.
posted by carsonb at 11:00 AM on January 14, 2012


You know, I said "people seem to love it.", the disclaimer is that I keep a pistol next to my plate.. that might be a factor...

kidding.... no guns at dinner..

I actually came back to say that I use a cast iron dutch over on the stovetop to cook the stew. I don't know how it works in a slow cooker, but I suspect it's just as good.
posted by HuronBob at 11:07 AM on January 14, 2012


That's dutch "oven"...

I'm done now...
posted by HuronBob at 11:08 AM on January 14, 2012


Fragrant Moroccan Beef, Date, Prune, Honey Tagine -- this is one of my favorites, and very easy to make (crock pot). Make sure to use the dates and prunes--they give the broth/sauce a nice flavor. Serve with rice or couscous. Also be sure to use the Ras-el-hanout spice mixture. Wonderful combination of savory and sweet.
posted by I'm Brian and so's my wife! at 11:10 AM on January 14, 2012 [2 favorites]


There's my curried beef stew that I'm pretty fond of. There's also a rogan josh sauce that I use pretty often when making beef stews.
posted by DaveP at 11:24 AM on January 14, 2012


If you have a Sam's Club handy they sell these jars of beef flavoring (made with real beef) that are like a promotion from regular boullion-if you use this your soup will definitely be upgraded. Look in the spice section.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 12:05 PM on January 14, 2012


I have combined no fewer than seven different recipes to create my own slow cooker beef bourguignon stew:

Ingredients:

1 lb. beef stew meat, cut into one-inch chunks
1 small package of bacon
two cans of beef broth
a tablespoon of tomato paste
Some dry red wine -- a quarter cup will do for the cooking
An onion
One or two cloves of garlic
1/4 cup barley
carrots
one or two red potatoes
(mushrooms?)
bay leaves
a single drop of worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper
thyme
parsley
flour
frozen peas

Step one: Cook up all the bacon. Cook it super-crispy. Cook it in a big skillet. Rest the cooked bacon on a plate with a paper towel so you can soak up some of the extra grease. As for the grease in the pan, leave it there.

Step two: Dredge your beef in flour with salt and pepper. Brown it in the bacon fat. Add some butter if the bacon fat isn't enough. But really. The bacon fat should be enough. Deglaze the pan using that red wine. Take a swig for yourself, too. You're almost done.

Step three: Get out your slow cooker. You have a slow cooker, right? Chop up your onions and garlic and layer them on the bottom. Next chop up your carrots and layer them. Then you put in your potatoes (chop these small, to the size you like them when they're in your soup) and your browned beef and your deglazed bacon beef wine gloop.

Step four: Take that bacon and crumble it up into the tiniest bits imaginable. Or you could chop it. Put it in the pot.

Step five: Add your broth, your bay leaves and other spices, your single tablespoon of tomato paste. Put in your quarter cup of barley. If you are a person who likes mushrooms, you could also cut some of those up and add them in at this point.

Step six: Cook on high for four hours, or on low for eight hours. You don't want to wait forever, so just put it on high. If after about two hours it looks like the soup is too thick, you can add some water. No more than a cup or two, though. Really, you shouldn't need it, what with all the vegetable juices.

Last step: About half an hour before you're planning on serving dinner, add frozen peas to the crock. Add however many you think make sense -- you don't need me to coddle you with pea measurements. Just put some in there, and stir the stuff up, and take the bay leaves out, and close the pot and cook it for thirty more minutes.

This is very rich and best eaten with lots of good bread and accompanied by a nice dry red wine. Also, I can't account for how much fat is in it. I think it tastes so good because it is pretty much all fat. It's just like a giant pot of bacon and beef fat, with some veggies thrown in to distract you from the fact that you are eating a big bowl of fat. Delicious fat.

A lot of people -- most, in fact -- put some brown sugar in their beef stew. I don't think it's necessary, but if you want brown sugar just stick a tablespoon in. No more than that, really. Honest, though, you don't need it at all.
posted by brina at 12:14 PM on January 14, 2012 [11 favorites]


I like the oxtail soup recipe in The Joy of Cooking.
posted by Bruce H. at 6:11 PM on January 14, 2012


I've got a couple of options in my recipe box. Let's see here, my two favorites are:

1) Beef and red wine soup, which started out as a much more complex recipe (which I can supply if you'd like), but I downsized to:

* 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
* 2 (10.5 ounce) cans condensed beef broth
* 2 cups red wine
* 2 cups tomato juice
* 2 cups diced cooked stew beef
* salt to taste
* ground black pepper to taste
* 2 cans prepared biscuits (i.e. pillsbury)

Directions

1. In a large pot, saute vegetables in oil or butter until soft, about 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in broth, wine, tomato juice, and beef. Simmer covered for 15 to 20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. Tear biscuits into small pieces. Drop into soup pot, cover, and let cook for about ten minutes, or until cooked through.

2) Beef barley soup:
1 can tomato soup
1 can beef broth (college inn type)
½ pound hamburger
1 c barley
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables

In oil, cook ½ c. chopped onion with hamburger and 1 tsp of chopped garlic from the jar.

Mix the two soups, add to pot, and then stir in 7 cups of water in the soup pot. Add the barley, bring to a boil and then simmer for one hour. Add vegetables and cook for 15 minutes.
posted by badgermushroomSNAKE at 11:39 PM on January 14, 2012 [1 favorite]


Here's a family recipe for Russian beef and cabbage soup:

1 28 ounce can tomatoes
6 cups water
2-3 pounds beef brisket
1-2 packages oxtail, beef shortribs or soup bones
1 6 ounce can tomato paste
1 head cabbage, coarsely shredded
2 tablespoons kosher salt
¾ cup sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
Dash cayenne pepper
Dash paprika

Remove all but thin layer any fat from brisket. Cut into large chunks.
Add beef, “bones”, tomato paste, cabbage, salt, sugar, lemon juice,
cayenne, paprika into stockpot, stirring to blend. Simmer with lid ajar, 2
to 2 and half hours or until meat are tender. Makes 6-8 servings.

You can easily make it with regular stew beef instead of brisket.
posted by Muttoneer at 12:50 AM on January 15, 2012


Oh, side note for my beef barley soup recipe: it will need to be salted at serving time - since the soup is mostly water (though you would NEVER know it by the end product), there's not enough salt in the recipe itself, and I never worked out a formula for adding it mid-recipe.
posted by badgermushroomSNAKE at 11:17 AM on January 15, 2012


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