10 Step Hearty Beef Vegetable Soup
This week feels like we jumped right into winter in NYC. All I want is to snuggle up next to the fireplace our apartment doesn’t have and eat something warm! One of my spots that I like to find cooking inspiration from is the NY Times so I decided to use this recipe as my base with a couple of my own tweaks and additions to create a healthy but hearty beef veggie soup.
Towards the end, I decided to use the broiler to heat up some bread with EVOO, garlic and parmesan for dunking and it was soo good.
As a side note, this looks like a lot of ingredients but once you have them in front of you, this is a super easy meal to pair with some wine and a show to catch up on (insert, This is Us!) while you wait for it to simmer.
INGREDIENTS
(1.5 Lb) Beef Stew Meat (I use Trader Joe’s stew meat and further cut before cooking to make it bitesize.). Salt & pepper prior to cooking.
Salt / Pepper, to taste
EVOO
Mirepoix (mix of chopped onions, celery and carrots. (2) of TJ’s pre chopped Mirepoix did the trick). You can also chop 3 celery stalks, 1 onion and 3 carrots for same result.
(4) Garlic cloves, chopped
(1.5T) Tomato Paste
(1.5 tsp) Ground Coriander
(1 tsp) Ground Cumin
(1 tsp) Sweet Paprika
Cayenne Pepper, to taste
(1Q) Low Sodium Chicken Stock (this is one whole carton from Trader Joe’s)
(6 Cups) Water
Kitchen string or sachet for the following:
(3) Sage Sprigs
(2) Rosemary Sprigs
(2) Bay Leaves
(1 Lb) Cremini / Baby Bella Mushrooms, chopped
(3/4 Cup) Pearled Barley or Farro for grain (I use TJ’s 10-minute)
(4 handfuls) of baby spinach - little less than a bag from TJ’s
(1/4 Cup) Parsley, chopped
(2) Lemon, zested and juice set aside
Red Pepper Flakes or sliced jalapeno, to taste
SERVES: 4-6 (or a couple weeknight dinners for two!)
DIRECTIONS
Heat (2 T) EVOO in a large pot. Over medium-high, cook beef (approx. 10 min). Remove beef, set aside on plate.
In the same pot, add a bit more EVOO, garlic. Give the garlic time for the aroma to pop then add your Mirepoix. Cook for 5min to allow veggies to soften.
Push all veggies to one side of the pot and add tomato paste, coriander, cumin, sweet paprika and cayenne to the empty side of the pot. Let tomato paste & herbs brown a bit (1-2mins) before stirring the seasoning into the veggies.
Bring beef back into pot, pour chicken stock and water into pot. Bring to a boil then down to a medium simmer. Add sage, rosemary and bay leaves - already tied together. Cover partially for an hr.
After an hour, add your grain and some more pepper. (TJ’s cooks in about 20min in this).
Once you add the grain to the pot, in a separate skillet, add some EVOO and over medium-high, cook your mushrooms (approx. 10min).
Once grain fully cooked through, remove your tied herbs and mix in spinach and parsley. Allow to wilt 1-2min. I’d also pop in bread for broiling at this point. Toasting on either side for 2min each. Keep an eye on it though since it toasts quickly! (used EVOO, garlic and parm on cut side of bread)
Turn off stove. Stir in lemon zest, add lemon juice (start with one lemon and see if it needs more)
Red pepper flakes or slice jalapeno and extra pepper to individual bowls.
Enjoy for multiple nights or freeze for up to a month - tastes even better on day 2!
