Soup Mix in a Jar

Lorac's Note:

I made this for Xmas gifts last year and everyone raved about this soup. While similar to other recipes it has additional ingredients in the mix and in the preparation. I had space left in the jars I was using so I added baggies with Goldfish crackers and directed that they be removed with the macaroni.

• Total Time: 10 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 jar

• 1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
• 1/2 cup dried split peas
• 1/4 cup pearl barley
• 1/2 cup dry lentils
• 1/4 cup dried onion flakes
• 2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
• 1/2 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup uncooked alphabet pasta

Preparation Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 3 quarts water
• fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Place the alphabet macaroni in a sealed plastic sandwich bag.
2. In a 1 1/2 pint jar, layer the ingredients in the order given.
3. Attach the following recipe to the jar.
4. Ingredients.
5. 1 jar soup mix.
6. 1 pound ground beef.
7. 2 garlic cloves, minced.
8. 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes.
9. 3 quarts water.
10. Fresh ground black pepper to taste.
11. Directions.
12. Remove macaroni and set aside.
13. In a large pot, brown ground beef with the garlic and drain excess fat.
14. Add tomatoes, water and soup mix.
15. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 45 minutes.
16. Add macaroni, cover and simmer 15-20 minutes.

Reviews

[mayness]

I've never tasted this myself, but I gave them as gifts and everyone LOVED them! I layered just as written, and gave a can of nice imported tomatoes with it - it looked very cute. To simplify a little, I added garlic powder to the mix and left the garlic out of the instructions. If I do it again, I'd try to scale it down a bit, since not everyone I know has a pot big enough to hold 16+ cups of stuff. =]

[Ashley S.]

These are SO cute put together!!! I couldn't find any barley at my store, which is weird b/c I have bought it before so they must have been out. So I got red kidney beans instead so it was a pretty color! I cut the recipe in half like Mrs. Emily said and tried going a tad heavier on the onion. I did add a tad bit more rice and pasta to each to fill up some of the space. I'm getting ready to make a pot of this soup for lunch, but wanted to review it at least to this point before I forgot! Also, one bag of each dried item, 1 lb. each, and a 1 lb box of pasta, 2, 2 oz. containers of onion flakes, and 1 jar of beef bouillon were enough to fill 9 pint jars. And maybe half a container of Italian seasoning. Thanks for a great recipe :) UPDATE: This was so tasty! I am so very glad I made it! I actually used beef stock instead of water and added some Tastefully Simple Onion Onion to the beef while it was cooking. I definitely won't use kidney beans again...they were just too big compared to everything else and didn't cook the whole way through by the time everything else was done cooking. I actually think I'll make this recipe again, not only for gift giving! Thanks again :)

[Mrs. Emily]

I made this for Christmas gifts and halved the recipe so that it would fit in a pint jar. Well, I made a critical (but tasty) mathematical error by accidently increasing the amount of onions to 1/2 cup instead of decreasing it to 1/8 cup. It is actually fabulous when prepared with the extra onions. We also like to add sausage or meatballs to the soup instead ground beef.