Boy, it’s been a while since I posted a recipe! I am I the only one who tends to make whatever is easier for my family on a weeknight? After everyone gets home from work and school, who wants to spend 2 hours cooking a gourmet meal? And then clean up that mess?
I’m still a huge fan of nutritional food. I even let my boys raid the produce aisle in order to encourage them to eat healthy. (Read 10 Ways to Encourage Kids to Eat Healthy.) Healthy to me is focusing on whole foods, definitely using more produce, and less; fat, starch and salt. I was thinking of making more soups, different salads to try, and maybe even some meatless meals just to change things up. But dinner still has to be pretty easy to make and still delicious!
Last summer I made a large pot of vegetable soup that my three boys absolutely loved. It was delicious mostly because it had a lot of fresh garden veggies in it; tomatoes, zucchini, potatoes, carrots, onion, sweet corn, green beans… So I wanted to try a couple more soups!
First and foremost, the key to a good soup is the broth. I have a couple favorite methods. You can use up saved meat drippings from roasts and things. Stock works brilliantly also! I think those work the best because they use a real meat based flavor with a little bit of animal fat. Bouillon cubes are my least favorite because the broth tastes artificial and too salty. Recently I found another favorite broth alternative- onion soup mix! This can be bought in a box with 2 packets used to make french onion dip or soup. But using it as a broth base is incredible!
Prep and Cooking Time:
20 minutes of prep, about 1 hour of total cooking time
The thing I love about soup is you just add the ingredients, set at a medium to low heat, and can walk away. You could also make this the night before, store in a crock pot in the fridge, and set for a low heat before heading to work!
Ingredients:
- 2-4 TBS Olive oil to fry with
- 1 LBS of diced red meat (I used venison here)
- Salt to season meat
- 2 Packets (2 oz. each) onion soup mix
- 8 Cups of water
- 2 Cups of diced potatoes
- 1 Cup of diced carrots
- 1 Red bell pepper (optional)
- ground pepper to taste
- a couple splashes of Worcestershire sauce!
Recipe:
- Heat olive oil in big soup pot till warm. Add diced red meat, season with salt, and brown.
- Add both packets of onion mix and water to pot. Let simmer.
- Add veggies, pepper, and Worcestershire. Cook till veggies are tender.
- And serve!
The secret ingredient definitely adds a depth of flavor with the onion mix! Rarely have I used onion mix to cook with before, but I will be doing it more now!
We typically have these ingredients on hand, but I also like how easy this is to make for dinner. Plus my family devoured this particular beef and vegetable soup! What’s your favorite soup?
