Hot soup and sandwiches on a cold winter day make a heart-warming, soothing meal. “Savory Vegetable Beef Soup” reminds me of a soup which we ate at a small restaurant, Ludwig’s Center Stage Cafe, in upstate New York. The deli shoppe at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester serves sandwiches and wraps named after composers and musical compositions. A clever idea! Their vegetable beef soup was full of healthy vegetables and beans.
I cooked the soup from my memory, since it had been over a year since we visited the Eastman School of Music campus and the restaurant, Ludwig’s Center Stage Cafe. The idea was to cook a savory soup full of hearty vegetables, beans, herbs and beef. And so I conjured up a healthy, low-fat soup fitting of a classical symphony. In retrospect, my soup seems more like a folksy soup than a classical one.
The flavors of this soup blend together well and the soup is delicious. I love my composition! To speed up the preparation time, I used canned tomatoes, canned kidney beans and ground beef rather than stew meat (which can take several hours to cook) and dried beans. There are plenty of fresh vegetables, too, in the soup–these cook quickly. My version is quick and easy to make–a welcome change when cooking soups from scratch.
I have made the recipe for the soup several times with variations. The porportions of broth, ground meat and tomatoes work well. It is easy to vary the types of vegetables depending on what is available. The last time, I made a large batch — filling a 6-quart (5.7 liter) cast iron pot to the rim.
Here are the ingredients.
Here are several tips for making the soup:
- I used Yukon Gold potatoes in the vegetable soup. These potatoes are “waxy” potatoes and hold their shape when cooked. Russet potatoes, for example, are mealy and tend to fall apart when cooked. Small new red potatoes can be substituted for the Yukin Gold Brand potatoes.
- Soups make a good way to incorporate dried beans into meals adding fiber and nutrition. For this recipe, I used canned kidney beans rather than dried ones to speed up the cooking time. Trappey’s Brand began as a local Louisiana company. Drain the beans first in a colander.
- I added both green bell pepper and a jalapeno pepper to the soup. Bell peppers are nutritious adding Vitamin C and A. The Jalapeno pepper adds a little “bite”.
- For tomatoes, I like petite diced canned tomatoes plus the juice. The chunks are small enough to blend with the other vegetables and the mild tomato flavor doesn’t overwhelm the taste of the soup.
- For vegetables, I always add generous amounts of onions and garlic. Fresh carrots are plentiful adding color and nutrition (Vitamin A and fiber). Many other vegetables can be added to the soup. The grocery store was featuring fresh greens so I added these to my last batch. Other vegetables that can be added are corn, green beans, lima beans, celery. Cut the vegetables in bite sizes pieces.
- For the broth, I like Swanson brand of chicken broth. This brand is consistent in flavor and I use the sodium-reduced broth. However, keep in mind that even sodium-reduced canned soup has lots of sodium; so extra salt in the soup isn’t needed.
- Lean ground beef works well in the soup and helps cut down on the fat.
- For savory seasonings I used celery salt (or seed), oregano, paprika (not chili powder) and red pepper flakes. And my Hungarian-ancestry neighbors would say–make sure the paprika is fresh (not old) for the best flavor. I also added Worcestershire sauce and black pepper. This added just the right amount of “savory” flavor the soup–it doesn’t have to be “hot.”
Making the soup
Use a large soup pot or a 6-quart cast iron Dutch oven for this recipe.
Saute the onions until transparent and bell pepper to reduce the “raw taste”. Add the garlic for a minute or two.
Transfer these to another bowl and brown the ground meat in the same cast iron pot. Drain off any excess liquid or fat. Return the onions and bell peppers and add the vegetables and drained kidney beans to the ground meat.
Add the canned tomatoes with the juice and the seasonings.
Add the chicken broth and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes or longer. If desired, add additional water as this makes a very thick soup–almost a stew. But there wasn’t much room left in the pot!
Here’s the soup!
Recipe
I made this soup several times with variations — it is easy to be creative and flexible. This recipe makes a large batch, yielding 12 cups of soup. I froze the leftovers. This soup is often the first thing we reach for when looking for a quick frozen meal to defrost and heat up in a hurry.
Would Ludwig van Beethoven be proud? Yes, I think that he would enjoy my soup. Cooking is alot like composing music. With music, you layer sounds together in a creative manner — with cooking, you layer flavors and textures together. This is a hearty soup — a folksy musical soup! Enjoy!
Savory Vegetable Beef Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 Tbsp oil
- 2 medium onions, chopped finely, (2 cups)
- 1 small green bell pepper, diced (1 cup)
- 1 jalapeno pepper, diced finely
- 2 garlic cloves, minced finely
- 2 lb lean ground beef (93/7 lean to fat)
- 1 15.5-oz can red kidney beans, drained
- 1 lb Gold potatoes, peeled and cut in chunks (3 cups chunks)
- 8 oz carrots, peeled and sliced in bite size pieces (2 cups)
- 8 oz green beans, sliced in bite size pieces (2 cups)
- 2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes plus juice
- 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp ground oregano
- 1 tsp celery salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 48 oz carton Swanson chicken broth
Method and Steps
- Add oil to a 6-quart cast iron pot or large soup pot and heat to medium high. Add the onions, bell pepper and jalapeno pepper and saute for about 5 minutes until onions are translucent. Reduce heat, if needed, to avoid burning.
- Add the garlic to the pot and cook 2 minutes longer. Transfer these to a bowl and reserve.
- Add the ground meat to the pot and saute until browned. Drain off any liquid and fat.
- Return the onions, peppers and garlic to the ground meat. Stir to combine. Add the drained kidney beans, potatoes, carrots and green beans. Cook and stir a minute or two.
- Add the diced tomatoes plus juice, Worcestershire sauce, ground oregano, celery salt, crushed red pepper flakes and black pepper. Stir to combine.
- And a carton of Swanson chicken broth, bring to a boil while stirring. Reduce heat, cover partially and simmer for 15 minutes until the potatoes, green beans and carrots are tender. Stir occasionally. If desired, continue to simmer the soup for up to an hour.
- Taste for seasonings, adjust if needed.
- Freeze leftovers, the soup is tasty the next day, too.
Enjoy this hearty and savory soup on a cold winter day!