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 – 3 pounds beef stew meat
- salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons avocado oil, divided
- 2 32 ounce Swanson’s Organic Beef Stock or homemade
- 1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 4 large cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 medium sized head of celery, sliced, or celery root bulbs, cut in 1/2″ pieces
- 1 pound carrots, sliced in 1/3″ pieces
- 4 – 5 cups white or sweet 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
- salt to taste
- 2 bay leaves
- You can add two big handfuls of fresh spinach (does not need to be steamed) at the end of cooking, putting a lid on for a few minutes to wilt the spinach, or you can add kale sliced thin and steamed for 7 minutes.
Instructions
Sprinkle stew meat with salt and brown in avocado oil in a hot dutch oven in batches. Set aside. Don’t let the drippings burn. Add 1 tablespoon oil and the tablespoon butter, then the onions and garlic and cook 3 minutes. Add the stock, meat, vegetables and seasonings . Bring to boil, and if there is scum, skim if off with a slotted spoon. Turn down the heat and let simmer uncovered for 1 hour or until all the vegetables are tender. Add the spinach or kale if using. Remove bay leaves before serving or packing in freezer jars.
