Easy Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup
If there is one thing that I have learned about cooking is that I love cooking soup! Honestly, soup scared me for so long because I just thought it would be this difficult meal to cook. But it turns out that cooking soup is actually one of the easiest meals to make for me, and one that I enjoy because it quickly becomes pretty hassle free.
I like to keep things simple and easy and for myself, so there are sometimes short cuts to my soups (such as boxes of organic broth or sometimes bags of frozen vegetables). One thing that I recommend doing is ALWAYS having the ingredients on hand for your favorite soup. For this to be the case, you’d want frozen veggies and broth stored away to save for a rainy day. Sometimes our soups contain fresh produce and other times frozen. When I plan ahead to cook a soup I buy fresh ingredients, but when I save them for a rainy day it’s frozen produce.
So let’s get started, I promise this is so easy!
Ingredients Needed:
1.5 ground meat
(1) Box of Beef Broth
1 Small Onion and 1 Half Bell Pepper chopped finely
3-4 Fresh Carrots chopped into small rounds or cubes
3/4 Bag of Frozen Peas
3/4 Bag Frozen Corn
3 Stalks Celery
1 Bay Leaf
1-2 Cloves Garlic
1.5 Cups Elbow Pasta
Salt, Pepper, Onion Powder and Garlic Powder (I am not a measurement girl, so don’t ask)
(You can also use 2 frozen bags of mixed vegetables)
First thing you want to do is brown your ground meat and season it while it is browning. You can brown with or without your onion and bell pepper and then drain meat once browned. Add in your beef broth and all of the vegetables at once. From there add about two cups of water to where your soup looks nice and full. Let your soup come to a boil for about 20 minutes and then leave soup simmering for an hour or two. Sometimes you will have to add water just depending on how big of a soup you want.
Once your soup has simmered and your flavor is where you want it, add in a small portion of spaghetti pasta or elbow pasta. You want to make sure to do a smaller portion than you would for typical spaghettis or pasta dishes because your soup isn’t about the pasta, it’s about the hearty meat and veggies. In fact, some people choose not to do any pasta and that is okay! Others choose just to do a small bit of spaghetti noodles just for a little “hint” of pasta.
Towel from Hearth and Hand // Bowls Cheeky by Target (both items are no longer in stock)
After you have added your pasta, let the soup come to a boil for about 10-12 minutes and then check to see if the pasta is fully cooked. You can then bring the soup back to a simmer. One thing that I will say is that sometimes pasta thickens the soup up a bit, so add water and seasoning as needed. Taste your soup as you cook it and add flavor as needed. I’m a Cajun girl and we like a lot of spice and kick to our meals!
*You can also cook in a crockpot on low all day. Just brown your meat and add everything to the pot. Do not add the noodles until the last hour. I recommend cooking on a low 8 hour setting.
As you can tell this recipe is fairly easy. But somewhere there is a new wife or mama out there wanting to cook a soup and she may be a newbie in the kitchen, so recipes that are easy like this are worth sharing.
Give me ALL the simple, but wholesome and healthy meals! I recommend buying a box of beef broth, some frozen veggies and keeping the ingredients on hand for a soup! You never know when life gives you a rainy day!
