The Best Ever Vegetable Beef Soup (or Turkey)

Okay, I know you hear me say all the time that something is the best I’ve ever tasted, but seriously! For reals This IS the best (okay, one of) soups I’ve ever tasted! It is full of so much yumminess. The combination of beef broth and tomato paste creates the best soup ever! This is my new favorite flavor combination. I’m going to seek out this flavor combination. Thank you to one of my dear friends, Ree Drummond (aka the Pioneer Woman) for showing me this recipe. I was browsing her site for another recipe and found this one. The picture caught my eye, and now I know why.....it’s the best soup EVER! I made some delicious cheesy biscuits to go along with it and that was the perfect combination. I recommend you made this soon. Let’s get down to it.

 

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 pounds Ground Chuck or Turkey (I used turkey)
• 1 whole Large Onion, Diced
• 2 stalks Celery, Diced
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 large can (24 Ounce) Can Whole Tomatoes
• 4 cups Beef Stock Or Beef Broth, Plus More As Needed
• 1 whole Red or Yellow Bell Pepper, Seeded And Diced small
• 4 whole Carrots, Peeled And diced
• 5 whole Red Potatoes, Cut Into Chunks
• 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt (more To Taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper, (more To Taste)
• 2 teaspoons Dried Parsley Flakes
• 1 teaspoon Ground Oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (more To Taste)

Directions:

First let's get all the veggies diced. Be sure they are all about the same size (except potatoes).

In a large pot over medium-high heat, brown the meat with the onion, celery, pepper, and garlic. Remove the pot from the heat and drain off as much fat as you can.

Return the pot to the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. When adding whole tomatoes, squish in your hand one at a time to to break up. This makes the pieces perfect for the soup. You don’t want whole tomatoes in your bowl.

Stir to combine, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, then cover the pot and simmer the soup for 20-30 more minutes, until potatoes are tender but not overly mushy. I probably cooked mine about 45 minutes to an hour. The carrots seemed to be stubborn and wouldn’t soften. The longer you cook, the better.

Soup should be somewhat thick, but if you'd like it to be more "soupy," add 1 to 2 cups more broth OR hot water and heat through. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt if needed.

Serve this soup up with some delicious bread and you’ll want to thank me later! You have to admit, that is some good looking soup! Enjoy!

Chunky Potato Soup w/Ham

We love soup around here and homemade soup is even better. I love potato soup, but what would make potato soup even better??? Hmmmmm.....let me see....oh ham! Not spam, Ham! Potato and ham is such a great combination, especially in soup! I made a ham for New Years’ Day and needed something to do with the left-overs so I pulled this recipe out and wondered why it was in hiding. I have so many recipes, I forget about what I have. This is an oldie but a goodie. I created this recipe by pulling together the best of many potato soup recipes. Again, I’ve done all of the work for you to bring you the best potato and ham recipe you will ever find! I’m not kidding. We just had a bowl of this soup for dinner and my husband was going on and on about how flavorful this soup is. I think you should take his recommendation and give this soup a try. Let’s get started:

Ingredients:

3-4 large potatoes (I used red)

1 medium onion

4 cups chicken broth

3 Tablespoons butter

2 1/2 cups milk

3 Tablespoons flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup swiss cheese

2 cups diced ham

2 large carrots, thinly sliced

2 stalks celery, thinly sliced

2 Tablespoons fresh parsley

Instructions:

Sautee’ onion, garlic, celery and carrots until onion is clear.

Add potatoes and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, simmer 15-20 minutes or until veggies are tender. Lightly mash. I used the back of a soup ladle to just mash the potatoes a bit.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, melt butter, then stir in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil. Continuing cooking and stirring for about 2 minutes or until the mixture is thick. Pour milk into potato mixture. Add ham. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add parsley, salt and pepper. Turn heat off and stir in cheese. Garnish with fresh parsley. This is so hearty and delicious! Enjoy now and left overs later.

Perfect Beef Stew

 

This is the perfect time of year for soups and stews and this is one delicious beef stew recipe. I’m not exaggerating, you’ll love it! This is a combination of my Daddy’s recipe, my friend, The Pioneer Woman (she told me to add beer, not my Daddy!), and a recipe I found on All Recipes. I believe I have taken the best parts of each of these and created the perfect recipe for you. See, I’m so helpful. I did all the hard work, now you just make this one and thank me later.

 

Let’s get started. Here’s what you need to make awesome beef stew....and don’t drink the beer while you are chopping your veggies.

 

Ingredients:

 

• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• 2 pounds Stew Meat
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 can Beer, 12 Ounce Can
• 4 cups Beef Stock (or 4 Cups Water + 4 Beef Bouillon Cubes)
• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
• 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Paprika
• 2 teaspoons dried Rosemary
• 2 teaspoons dried Parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 4 whole Carrots, Washed, Unpeeled, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 4 whole New Potatoes, diced
• 4 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• Minced Parsley for garnish (optional)

 

Directions:

 

Heat oil and butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Cut meat in nice bite size pieces. Flour meat and brown in two batches, setting aside on a plate when brown. 

Add diced onions to the pot.

Yes, throw the onions in there with all the brown bits. Stir, scraping up all the yummy bits, and cook for two or three minutes until softened, then add garlic and cook for another minute.

Pour in beer (don’t drink it) 

The beer fizzes in the pot

and beef stock, then add Worcestershire, tomato paste, paprika, rosemary, parsley, salt, and pepper. Add beef back into the pot. Stir to combine. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

The liquid should cook down to a thicker state. If it gets too thick/reduces too much, add additional water (or beef broth) as needed.

Here’s where I do my own little thing that you don’t have to do, but I like to make sure my veggies get really soft so I sauté them a little in a pan and then add to the pot. This step is optional. I’ve bitten into too many crunchy veggies in soup to take this chance anymore. I didn’t pre-cook the potatoes and they were fine. I guess that point might be that they all would have been fine. Maybe I won’t dirty another pan next time.

I think I'll make my carrots chunkier next time too

Leave the skin on and throw these right in the pot

Add carrots and potatoes, then cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes to an hour. If stew gets dry, just add a cup of hot water at a time to replenish the liquid. I never needed to add more liquid. I cooked it another hour plus and it was so perfect. I stirred it quite a few times as it was cooking too. I did check the seasoning and added a little more salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.



It's perfect now, nice thick gravy with soft veggies. The perfect one pot meal!



Serve it up and enjoy. I think this goes best with Jiffy corn muffins. There’s no need to make homemade cornbread, Jiffy makes the best there is!  Sprinkle with minced parsley, if desired. Enjoy!

Hearty Veggie Soup

It’s getting colder so it’s getting time for some great soup recipes! We love good soup around here! Well, who likes bad soup?? I’ve already made chicken noodle soup, the hubby’s favorite, now time for my favorite, a yummy veggie soup with pasta. Mmmm....mmmmmm.....good. This really is a great recipe. It’s very hearty and healthy. What’s better than that, right? Thanks again to Pinterest I found the start of a good recipe. I found a couple of recipes that I liked, combined a few ingredients, added a few of my own and viola, you have the perfect veggie soup recipe. You are so welcome. I am here to make things easier on you. This is your one stop blog for the best recipes ever! Yes, I am just a bit prejudiced on that. Can you blame me though? I’ve really made some yummy things. I’m not bragging. Trust me, I’m still amazed that  I even attempted some of these recipes! If I did it, you can do it too. Want to know how to make a delicious vegetable soup?? Let’s get started:

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons olive oil

4 carrots, finely chopped

4 ribs celery, finely chopped

1 onion, diced

2 zucchini, diced

3 – 14 oz cans diced tomatoes

4 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups chicken stock

1 Tablespoon finely chopped rosemary leaves

1 Tablespoon thyme

2 bay leaves

handful fresh parsley

2 cup pasta shells

salt and pepper to taste

1 pound ground turkey

Directions:

Brown turkey in a separate pan. While meat is browning, in a large pot, over medium heat, cook onions, celery and carrots until soft. Put the lid on and cook about 20-30 minutes (that’s how long it took mine to get good and soft). We want those veggies to get good and soft. Remember, no crunchy veggies in our soup!

Such a pretty veggie medley

Add zucchini and garlic and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until squash is soft.

Stir in rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and stir. Add can tomatoes, meat and chicken stock. Bring to a boil then simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

How pretty does that look??? Yummers!

Add pasta, cook about 10 minutes or until pasta is done.

Add fresh parsley, salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

You can also make this soup without the meat and it will be just as delicious. I needed to add the meat for the hubby. He might wonder what’s up if I serve him a meal without meat! :-)

Awesome Brunswick Stew

 

There is one thing I love more than life....okay, maybe not that much, but I really, REALLY, really LOVE Brunswick Stew. It can’t just be any Brunswick Stew either. I’m a Brunswick Stew connoisseur and the best Brunswick in the world is found in my hometown of Thomaston, GA at Piggie Park. Piggie Park is a local drive in restaurant that honestly makes the best Brunswick Stew I’ve ever tasted.  Since we moved to Richmond, VA I’ve tried to find a stew that can come even close to their recipe. I’ll just skip ahead and let you know that we’ve been in Richmond for 9 years and my friends don’t allow me to order Brunswick Stew at restaurants anymore because they know I won’t like it. So what am I to do? I can't go without! I live so far away from Piggie Park, but I love Brunswick Stew. Well, in walks Trisha Yearwood into my life. Thank you Food Network for giving Trisha her own cooking show. She makes some awesome recipes, but the best one to date is her dad’s Brunswick Stew recipe. I could tell when she was making it that it was going to be close to my all time favorite so I had to give it a try. I actually still can’t believe that I made Brunswick Stew, but I did and it was AWESOME! I’m not even kidding, it is so good. If you love, or even like, Brunswick Stew, this is your recipe. I urge you to try it at least once! Okay, let’s get started because this is going to take a little time.

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 pound Boston butt pork roast (I doubled the pork and didn’t use the beef roast at all)
• 1 pound fresh chicken or hen, bone in
• 1 pound boneless beef chuck roast
• 1 pound red potatoes, peeled and quartered (I also forgot to peel and they were fine)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 small sweet onion, such as Vidalia, chopped
• 6 cups canned whole peeled tomatoes (I'm not sure why I couldn't just use crushed tomatoes since I blended them in the food processor, but again, I just did as Trisha recommended)
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 32 ounces (4 cups) cream-style white corn

Directions:

Place the pork and chicken in a 1 1/2 gallon stock pot with enough water to cover. Cook at a medium simmer for 2 hours, or until the meat is very tender, skimming occasionally. Remove the meat to a bowl and reserve the stock. Meanwhile, in a separate large stockpot, do the same to the beef. Remove the beef and discard the broth. Remember, I left the beef out and only used pork and chicken, but Trisha used the beef so you decide.

Place the potatoes in a medium saucepan, cover with water and simmer until tender. Or you can plop them in with the chicken and pork and cook all in one pot like I did.

Remove and discard the bones and skin from all of the cooked meat, pull apart or cut into chunks and process in a food processor or meat grinder until ground.

Put 2 pints of the reserved pork and chicken stock into a 1 1/2 gallon stock pot, reserve the rest for another use. Add the ground meats to the stock. Dissolve the black pepper and the cayenne pepper in 1 tablespoon water, and add to the stew. Trisha says when you add pepper directly to a pot that the pepper will never mix in correctly so she dissolves in water first. I don't know if I've had that problem in the past, but I wasn't cutting any corners so I did what Trisha said.

Add to the onion and tomato to the food processor, process well and add it to the meat mixture with the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.

This is just the meat, stock and tomato mixture. It looks yummy already.

Process in the food processor the cooked potatoes, then add to the stew, stirring until any lumps are removed. Stir in the salt. At this point, the stew should be soupy not watery. If the stew is too thick to stir easily with a flat spatula or pancake turner, thin it slightly with more reserved pork and chicken stock. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring constantly.

Puree and add the corn, then continue to cook the stew over very low heat for 1 hour, stirring often and scraping the bottom of the stock pot with a flat spatula or pancake turner to avoid scorching.

Look how much stew this recipe makes! I put two batches in the freezer. This is the best recipe. I really recommend it. If you make it, be sure to come back and tell me how you liked it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!