By MARY ANN LIENHART CROSS
Extension Director, Purdue Extension Elkhart County

I really like soup and my favorite has to be beef vegetable. Both of my grandmothers and my parents were soup makers so I have had many soup making experiences without recipes. I can recall seeing my Grandmother Van den Brocke making beef vegetable soup, simmering it for a very long time on the stove, and then ladling the soup into canning jars for freezing. I believe her soup was extra good for several reasons: she cooked the beef a long time and sometimes sped-up the process by pressure cooking the beef. I think she always added fresh leeks, and the soup simmered forever, plus the pot of soup was heated several days. The top for the great soup was homemade bread with soft, room temperature butter or saltine crackers and ground celery seed to add to the soup.

Here are some ideas on making tasty vegetable soup. I am sure many of you don’t really have a recipe, you just make it. “Dump cooking” is a term often used now days as we can dump cans or packages of foods to make soups, casseroles, or baked items. There are also cookbooks that have coined the term “Dump Cooking,” but for those of you who prefer a recipe, here is one for a good start to beef vegetable soup:

2 lbs. of lean beef for stew or lean burger
2 onions, diced
4 stalks of celery, finely chopped
2 lbs. of frozen mixed vegetables
4 to 5 potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
1 (15-oz.) can of crushed tomatoes
1 large can of tomato juice or tomato vegetable juice
1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of ground horseradish

When making beef vegetable soup, the beef needs to be browned, and of course I prefer it be browned in a cast iron skillet. Transfer the beef to a heavy pot and let it simmer in several cups of water to make the broth and simmer till it’s tender. I like to use the crock pot on high for this. While the beef simmers, sauté the onion and celery in the cast iron skillet and add it to the beef. Bring the remaining ingredients to a boil on the stove. At this point you can let it simmer on the stove or transfer it to the crockpot.

I don’t add any salt as there is salt in the canned tomatoes, the juice and the horseradish. Yes, as you read, I do add sugar as this blends all the flavors together. When serving remember some slices of Swiss cheese or cheese spreads are great with the soup and of course some homemade bread makes a meal. I have shared this before but I know this to be true, one last thought: as the cook, plan to enjoy the very last bowl of the soup as it will be the best. Here is to real winter weather and enjoying great soup.