Vegetable Beef Soup

Vegetable Beef Soup


I love this soup. It reminds me of the vegetable beef soup at Mimi's Cafe, but I don't think they serve it there any more. At any rate, it's a nice, relatively light vegetable beef soup that's salty, beefy, and vegetable-y. I found the recipe at Allrecipes.com, but the original recipe called for ground sirloin. I thought top sirloin (not ground) sounded better, and since Mimi's had zucchini in theirs, I added that too. The soup tastes great the first time you serve it, but I think it tastes even better the next day after it's sat in its juices and flavors over night.
I haven't made this soup in a long time, maybe because I avoided such recipes when my kids were little. In retrospect, I see the error in my thinking, but they will eat this tonight. And they will love it. I am surprised at how MUCH soup this makes and I'm now thinking I need to package some up for my mother-in-law who will be taking my kids to school tomorrow while I go to jury duty. Clearly it's time to end this post now that I'm talking about jury duty.
Bottom line: this is a GREAT vegetable beef soup. Enjoy.

Vegetable Beef Soup
   --adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 1/2 pounds top sirloin
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 cans diced tomatoes
  • 5 cups water
  • 2 teaspoons salt (original recipe calls for 1 tablespoon)
  • 2 beef bouillon cubes
  • 2 carrots, sliced
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 russet potato, diced
  • 1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
Directions:
Cut top sirloin into bite-size chunks or slices. Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown sirloin and onions.
Add basil, thyme, and bay leaf. Cook and stir another minute or two.
Add tomatoes, water, salt, and bouillon cubes. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low/medium-low, and simmer for about 1 hour.
After an hour of simmering, add vegetables. Stir and simmer for another 45 minutes.
Serve hot.

Makes about 8 servings.