Grandma Ruth’s Vegetable Beef Soup

My grandma made this soup for the family when they came over and I remembered loving it. I was too little to know to ask for the recipe and unfortunately it wasn’t in her recipe book. I’m thinking it was passed down verbally from someone and she made it so often, she never needed to write it down. It had been on my bucket list to try and figure out. There was a flavor and I didn’t know what it was until I was playing around and made this soup. It was cumin. I knew it when I took the first bite.

She kept it plain using only a few vegetables, the meat and a lot of broth. And it would have been broth made from good meaty bones she’d cooked for hours. I’ve added a lot of vegetables. Please feel free to change it the way you would like it. I’ve included a several options that I have tried.

Grandma Ruth’s Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef or stew meat
• salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons avocado oil, divided
• 2 tablespoon butter
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1 medium sized head of celery, sliced, or celery root bulbs, cut in 1/2″ pieces
• 1 pound carrots, sliced in 1/3″ pieces
• 8 ounce box white mushrooms, cleaned and cut small
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 32 ounce Swanson’s Organic Beef Stock or homemade
• 1 8 ounce can tomato sauce or some tomato paste
• 4 to 5 cups white potatoes, remove unwanted blemishes, then cut in 3/4″ pieces
• You can substitute other root vegetables to make thicker you can add turnips, rutabagas, or sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes) cut in 1/2 to 3/4″ pieces
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 2 teaspoons cumin or to taste
• 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups cabbage, cut into 1″ squares not thin slices (see picture below)

Instructions

Heat a large dutch oven. Sprinkle stew meat with salt and brown in 2 tablespoons avocado oil in a hot dutch oven in batches, or add the ground beef and sprinkle with salt and cook until brown. Set aside. Wipe out the drippings before they burn. Add 1 tablespoon oil and the butter, then the onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms and garlic and cook 8 minutes. Add the stock, meat, tomato sauce or paste, vegetables, parsley, cumin, teaspoon of salt and bay leaves. Bring to boil, and if there is scum, skim if off with a slotted spoon. Turn down the heat and let simmer uncovered for 40 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender. Add the spinach or kale if using. Remove bay leaves before serving or packing in freezer jars.