WINTER VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP

A thick and hearty vegetable beef soup

This soup is almost thick enough to be called a stew. It is great on a cold day or after skiing.

Ingredients

(20 cups)

500 g beef soup bones (As meaty as possible. Meaty neck or cross-cut shank bones are particularly good.)
3 l water
1 onion (medium to large, quartered. Don't try to use instant onion in this recipe)
1 kg peeled whole cooking tomatoes (2 large cans)
100 g fresh green beans
2 small carrots
500 g unshelled green peas
1 ear fresh corn
3 bay leaves
6-8 g dried basil (or 20 g chopped fresh basil)
15-30 ml dried oregano (or 5 g chopped fresh oregano)
15 ml dried thyme (or 5 g chopped fresh thyme)
salt and pepper

Procedure

In a large heavy pot, bring 3 liters of water to boil.
Add beef bones, cover and bring back to full boil.
Reduce heat to low simmer. Skim occasionally during first 30 minutes to remove scum. Cook for 3-4 hours until meat is tender and nearly falls off of bones.
Remove bones from broth. Remove all meat and marrow from bones and return to the pot.
Add tomatoes (including juice) onion, and herbs. Simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove tomatoes, break up into quarters or smaller, and return to the pot. Continue to simmer during next step.
Clean green beans and break into pieces. Clean carrots and slice into thin slices. Slice kernels from ear of corn. Shell peas. Add vegetables to pot. Simmer for 30 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Notes

I prefer beef neck or shank bones over what markets call "soup bones" which are nearly devoid of meat. Individual-serving size cans of green beans, corn and green peas may be substituted if fresh vegetables are not available. These are the basic vegetables I use, but I have also added mustard greens, chinese cabbage, zucchini and yellow squash (add just 5 minutes before serving or they become mush) turnips and any other fall/winter vegetables that look good in the market. Serve with cornbread, sourdough or another strong flavored bread. This soup improves with age.

Rating

Difficulty: easy to moderate.
Time: Several hours of intermittent attention.
Precision: approximate measurement OK.

Contributor

 
Pamela McGarvey 
UCLA Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, Los Angeles, California, USA 
{hao,sdcrdcf}!cepu!pam

Recipe last modified: 10 Nov 86

Original header

Path: decwrl!reid
From: pam@cepu (Pam McGarvey)
Newsgroups: mod.recipes
Subject: RECIPE: Vegetable beef soup
Message-ID: <6359@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: 13 Nov 86 06:48:23 GMT
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Organization: UCLA Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, Los Angeles, Calif., USA
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