Recipe Vegetable Soup

[NailBat]

I'm pretty happy to see tomato as the ingredient for this round of the recipe challenge. There's just so much you can do with tomatoes! Pair tomatoes with broth/stock and you have the basis for a lot of soups. This is a basic vegetable soup, similar to what my grandmother used to make. It's very much a "use up stuff around your kitchen" kind of soup. Amounts are really not all that important. These are the ingredients I happened to use this time but the base of tomato and stock is versatile enough for all sorts of vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 24oz can whole peeled tomatoes, or any equivalent amount of tomatoes. I like whole peeled because I like having chunks of tomato. As the thread has shown, everyone seems to have completely different access to tomatoes in their part of the world, so just use whatever makes sense to you.
• 5-6 cups beef or chicken stock (beef is "more correct" but I made it this time with chicken stock because it's what I had). Homemade is vastly preferred.
• Chuck or any kind of stewing beef, cut into small cubes
• Onion, minced
• celery, sliced
• Maybe 1/2 or less of a head of cabbage
• salt, basil, black pepper, all to taste
• olive oil, just enough to coat the pan

Directions:

1. Heat a little oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Salt your beef and brown, working in batches if necessary.
2. Lower the heat to medium-low and add the onion and celery. If you have other aromatics you'd like to throw in, now's the time. Just know this'll be cooking for a long time and these aromatics will pretty much disintegrate.
3. Saute your aromatics for about five minutes, stirring to scrape up and bits from the bottom of the pot.
4. Add the tomato, stock, and spices.
5. Reduce heat to low, stirring occasionally, and let simmer for 4-5 hours (for those working from home like me, that means make this during your lunch break!) The beef should be incredibly tender.
6. If your broth has reduced too much, add water (or more stock if you have it). Then add your cabbage or other vegetables that don't need to be simmering for hours.
7. Cook until the added vegetables are to your desired doneness, and adjust for salt.

 

[kaneohegirlinaz]

I can't recall at the moment which TV Cooking program I was watching a number of years ago, but it was stated that using whole canned Tomatoes, rather than diced, they have been processed so much less and therefor have a better flavor and consistency.
Mahalo, thanks NailBat for jogging my memory, I have canned Tomatoes on my shopping list for this week and I will be sure to pick up whole rather than diced.

 

[caseydog]

I can't recall at the moment which TV Cooking program I was watching a number of years ago, but it was stated that using whole canned Tomatoes, rather than diced, they have been processed so much less and therefor have a better flavor and consistency.
Mahalo, thanks NailBat for jogging my memory, I have canned Tomatoes on my shopping list for this week and I will be sure to pick up whole rather than diced.

Yes, whole tomatoes have more flavor, IMO. If you can get them in Cowboytown, go with San Marzano whole tomatoes (they are sweeter).

 

[kaneohegirlinaz]

Yes, whole tomatoes have more flavor, IMO. If you can get them in Cowboytown, go with San Marzano whole tomatoes (they are sweeter).

RIGHT!
Exactly what I look for, but now I forget where I found them previously ... but that won't be too difficult here in Cowboyville, Arizona, USA, there just ain't much places to choose from!
And if I can't, well, one of my Gal Pals is always going down to "The Big City" to go shopping, I could tag along.