Wanted: Vegetable soup recipe

[Mom2Em]

My grandmother made the best vegetable soup... I am looking for a recipe like hers... It had vegies, beef and the broth was a tomato base instead of a brothy base... Does that make sense?
Thanks!

 

[piratesmate]

That makes perfect sense to me...but my grandmother never used a real recipe. I learned it from her & I don't use one either. I can tell you what I do though - because you really don't need one. When I make it, I use an enormous pot that's about the size of an 8qt canner...i.e. holds 8 quart jars completely covered with water - so I mean enormous!!

Cover a soup bone with water & bring to a boil. Reduce heat & simmer for a couple hours. Skim the foam off, remove the bone to cool & pull off any meat. (Alternately just thinly slice stewing beef and cover with water.)

Add a couple beef bouillon cubes to intensify the stock. The only fresh veggies I use are carrots usually. If I'm ambitious they get sliced. Otherwise I just put them in my chopper/food processor. If I have it on hand I'll add chopped celery too.

Then I start adding the frozen veggies...I use the 1 lb bags, but if your pot doesn't hold that much you could just use the 10 oz boxes. I always add cut green beans, peas, corn, and mixed veggies. The kids & DH didn't like lima beans, but I used to put those in also. Although I like red beets, I didn't like the way they bleached out in the soup. (They almost get white looking so I stopped adding them) My grandmother always added cabbage, but again the kids & DH wouldn't eat it that way so that gets skipped now.

Bring it to a boil again, reduce the heat & simmer an hour. Because I always freeze a bunch of it I don't add cubed potatoes to mine...they don't freeze real well. Instead I add barley after it simmers an hour... I just heave some in, but I'd say no more than a cup to that huge pot I use.

Once the barley is soft I pour in V-8 juice. You'd be surprised at the difference between that & tomato juice. A 48 oz can is enough for my big pot. It doesn't take much really to give it that nice tomato-ey broth.

Believe it or not, that's it! I haven't made any yet this winter, but you've put me in the mood for it now!

Oh - and my sister adds weird stuff LOL like Brussel sprouts (yuck!) to hers and chopped tomatoes. I've never been fond of cooked chunks of tomato myself. She also adds some sugar to hers - before the V-8. I've never done that and I don't remember my grandmother doing it either. So go by your own sense of taste. The same thing goes for salt. The bouillon adds plenty for us, since we use very little here anymore. I remember Gram adding a couple teaspoons to hers though when I was small.

 

[babylisa4]

Mine is sort of a thrown together version also.

And I have 2 ways to do it. One way uses a soup bone the way the above poster said or one way uses hamburger meat.

I use an electric pot kind of thing or my big pan from my pots and pan set.

If you do hamburger meat I brown 1-2 lbs of hamburger. When it is browning add 1/4 teaspoon garlic from those jars of chopped garlic that you can buy. Also chop up one white onion and brown it with the hamburger meat.

Then add water and v8 juice(no real measurements) and a can of diced tomates to cover the meat. I add a couple of boulion cubes also. I add a 1/4 cup of barley.(it swells up)

Then I add the veggies. Basically whatever we have on hand. I add a can of whole kernal corn with the juice. I slice about 3 carrots and 3 celery stalks and dump those in.

Everything else I use is frozen. Cut okra(no breading- this is our favorite). Frozen peas, green beans, corn,lima beans- whatever you like.

Sometimes I throw a bay leaf or two in and sometimes I toss in some dehydrated onions. The seasonings I use are whatever I have like that Greek seasoning that says its good for soups or Mrs. Dash or italian seasonings- whatever just to taste. My secret is a Tablespoon of sugar. It kind of cuts the acidity of the tomatoe stuff. I add water or juice to get to the consistency I want. If you just like a few veggies use a few and more juice/water. If you like it kind of thicker use more veggies. My husband thinks I make the best homemade soup.

If you use the soup bone, kind of cut up that meat.

I'm truly a recipe follower and this is the only thing I know how to throw together.

 

[piratesmate]

babylisa4 - You use okra?!?!?!? My mother used to make me eat all kinds of veggies whether they agreed with me or not - and many didn't & still don't. But the only time she tried okra...well, let's just say even the dog wouldn't eat it! (And believe me, the dog at everything!!!!)

 

[babylisa4]

We love it in our soup. Not the slimey whole okra but the cut up ones. Just little slimey pieces. They use that in gumbo too don't they? And I haven't tried but I bet my dog would eat it. But in reading your post- you all are just picky as to what you'll eat in your soup!

 

[Rafikifan]

Okra in soup is a great flavor additive and acts as a thickening agent which is great for soup and gumbo.

 

[MazdaUK]

This is my "sort of" recipe - I don't really have quantities as it depends what I've got lying around. And I'm not a big veggie person, so i puree it all up smooth so i can't tell what I'm eating

Cook chopped onion gently in a little butter until its soft but not brown. Throw in all your other root veg, peeled and chopped (carrots, swede, celeriac, celery, potato, sweet potatoes, squash), couple of tins of tomatoes, pint of stock (whatever you fancy) bring to boil and simmer for 20-25 mins until the veg are all soft (you can add broccoli etc. about half-way through the cooking time if you like). Check seasoning, puree and serve (you can stir in creme fraiche if you want to make it creamy)

If you want to make this meaty you can make the stock using bones, strain, allow to cool and skim the fat off (preferably the day before) and add the cooked meat after pureeing, then reheat soup until the meat is hot. Or if you like a chunky soup just add the meat 5 mins before the end.

A really nice veg soup is if you use roasted veg - leftover from Sunda lunch or rasted specially. For this I cut a load of root veg into similar sized pieces, toss in oil and fresh herbs and roast (turning 2-3 times) until they are browned and coooked right through. Cook the onions as before, add stock and veg and cook for 10-15 minutes, then puree. It gives a whole different dimension - especially if you also roast some cloves of garlic.

ETA: a teaspoonful of sugar added with any tomato ingredient takes away any bitterness. I make a tomato and herb jelly with any surplus tomatoes (you know, that week when you get 5lb of them and everyone is away on holiday so there's no-one to give them to ) and add a teaspoon or two to any soup or pasta sauce.