(Beef) Vegetable Soup

A warm, comforting soup that's full of vegetables. It can be made as a vegetarian soup or with beef, it's delicious either way!

Print Recipe

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 20

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine American

Servings 6

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon olive oil
¾ lb ground beef
1 small yellow onion diced fine
1 Tablespoon minced garlic about 6 cloves
1 pound frozen mixed vegetables
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes I like fire roasted
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups beef or vegetable broth
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt to taste, may need less if your broth is salty

Instructions

Add olive oil to a large pot over medium-high heat.
Sauté onion until translucent, about 3-5 minutes.
Add in minced garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, then add in ground beef and cook until no longer pink. Break up the beef into smaller pieces as you cook it.
Season the beef with the cumin, paprika, basil and salt.
Sprinkle the flour over the meat and onion mixture and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly.
Next, add in frozen vegetables, canned tomatoes with their liquid, and beef broth. Stir well to mix in the flour.
Once all the flour is combined into the soup, stir in tomato paste until well combined.
Simmer for at least 10 minutes to combine the flavors and thicken the soup.
Taste and add more salt if needed. Serve this delicious vegetable soup with crusty bread.

Notes

To make this vegetarian, omit the beef and use vegetable stock instead of beef broth. You can add in a can of your favorite type of bean in lieu of the beef, if you’d like.

Keyword beef vegetable soup, easy beef recipe, easy dinner, easy recipe, vegetable soup, vegetarian

My Crusty Bread recipe has its own post now! Check it out here!

Obligatory Fictional Backstory

Have you heard the story “Stone Soup”? Of course you have, everyone has. But the version I’m sure you have heard is sadly FAR from the truth of the situation. You see, I lived in that village. I was the potato woman.

Potatoes are good on their own, and have quite a bit of nutrients (just ask the Irish), but I did not have enough of them to share with my neighbors. I was the one who originally suggested that we pool everything we had and see what we could come up with to feed everyone, but NO, that’s SOCIALISM and it’s BAAAAD. Better to hoard what little you have and starve honestly than turn to sharing, right?

Well, in comes Jack. You know, the “hero” of the story? Not a hero at all. A narcissistic con man is what he was. He went door to door with his little sob story of walking so far with no food (yeah right…the man had enough stores to last him a while, if you catch my drift), boo hoo hoo.

Of course at first the neighbors didn’t listen, I have to give them credit for that. I wasn’t home at the time he came around but Claudia tells me he tried to break in through my window when I didn’t answer the door until she opened HER door and came out with a broom. Anyhow, just as I was coming back into town was when he started his scheme.

I walked up to see a man with a big pot (must have gotten it from Orrick, the man has more pots than sense) stirring a bunch of water over a fire. “What are you making?” I ask. “Stone soup” he says. Poor fellow, I think, he’s gone mad and is cooking rocks. “Well,” I say, “I have some potatoes we can put in there, I think those would be better than stones.” “Oh bless you” he says, “Can you go get them?”

So I unwittingly became ensnared in his plot. I came back with the potatoes to find Claudia giving him carrots, and Estevan giving him garlic, and so forth. Aha, now we have the beginning of a soup, and everyone can eat! But….

The soup was done! Jack instructed everyone to go back to their houses to get bowls and spoons. We were so excited, it smelled so good and it was a wonderful way to use our resources. But when we came back out, the only thing left in the square was the burning embers of the fire, and we could faintly see the back of Jack laughing to himself as he drove a cart away carrying the big pot of soup to keep all for himself. The bastard.

Real Talk

Update: I got a better picture! Hopefully this showcases this delicious soup a little better. The color is a bit off on my monitor I think….let me know what you think of the new photo! Also, this round of making the soup, ALL THREE KIDS ATE TWO BOWLS EACH!!!

I am apparently in the minority in my family in that I like beef vegetable soup. When I announced I was making it, my husband made a face that would curdle milk. When I called out “dinner is ready!” my two older children came and looked at the soup – the oldest said “Aw man, why are we having this?” (which seems to be what he says every night lately… not a good predictor for the teenage years) and the middle said “Not THIS soup! I wanted BROCCOLI!” (Referring to my broccoli cheddar soup). Cue eye rolls here.

Well at least the youngest ate his entire bowl of it, and he didn’t even touch his bread! Don’t let the uncouth masses fool you, it is delicious. Even hubby begrudgingly agreed that it was good except for the tomatoes (his grandmother chased him around with a tomato when he was younger and force-fed it to him because he said he didn’t like tomatoes when he had never tried them. Now he genuinely does not like them).

Apologies for the lack of post last week. I was feeling overwhelmed by life and decided that the blog would be the thing I could drop the ball on with the least repercussions. After all CPS comes and investigates if they find your children running naked in the street, brandishing plastic swords and smeared with peanut butter and jelly. Not that I’m speaking from experience… heh…. heh…

Did you know that we’re on Facebook and Pinterest? Check it out! I post mid-week additional content on Facebook so make sure you like the page so you don’t miss anything!