Old-Fashioned Vegetable Beef Soup

Picholine's Note:

Better than Campbell's but just as comforting! Loosely based on a gourmet cooking magazine's recipe for Beef Barley soup, I didn't have any barley or okra, so I added root veggies to make it more hearty, like a rich broth with the chunkyness of stew. It turned out to be the best soup I've ever made! DH, stepson and baby girl kept coming back for more.

• Total Time: 2 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 lb beef stew meat
• 1 onion
• 3 celery ribs
• 10 baby carrots (or a couple regular carrot)
• 2 potatoes (peeled if you like)
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 (14 ounce) cans diced tomatoes (I use salt-free)
• 3 1/2 cups beef broth (or 2 14-oz cans)
• 2 small bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder (or garlic powder)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (any cooking oil)
• 4 cups water
• 2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce

Directions:

1. Cut meat into small, bite-size (1/2") pieces.
2. In a large pot or dutch oven, saute meat in 1 T oil on medium-high heat until all sides are brown.
3. Set aside on a plate.
4. Chop celery, onion, potatoes, and carrots into bite-size pieces.
5. Saute celery and onion in remaining 1 T oil until onion is golden (about 10 minutes).
6. Add browned beef, water, broth, tomatoes with juices, carrots, potatoes, corn, bay leaves and garlic.
7. Bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until beef is almost tender, about an hour.
9. Add peas and hot sauce to soup.
10. Cover and simmer until beef is tender, about 30 minutes longer.
11. Serve and season with freshly ground black pepper, hot sauce, or crumbled saltines, if desired.

Reviews

[Whisper]

Wow! This was wonderful! It's so tasty and yet easy to make. I left the hot pepper sauce out for dietary reasons, but it was still great. I'll be making this again throughout the winter. Thanks, Inkling, for this recipe.

[Apple2chek]

This was my first time attempting to make a Vegetable Beef Soup, but this recipe made it so easy! And it was OMG delicious!! I omitted the hot pepper sauce for personal preference and added a half can of tomato sauce; I also added extra potato and some cabbage, and it came out wonderful! Thanks for this great

[Chef #1127441]

So delicious on this cold, snowy day! I , too had to change up the recipe a bit. I had decided to make a bigger pot of soup so when I realized I only had 2 cans of tomatoes I substituted a 10 oz. can of Rotel for the 3rd can of tomatoes the 6-8 servings recipe called for and omitted the hot sauce. Also, our family prefers green beans over peas so I substituted 1 1/2 cup of those. I added a little bit of salt to taste, and mmm-mmm-GREAT! Thanks for a wonderful Vegetable Beef Soup recipe ~ I doubt I'll ever use another.