Warm, fragrant, and satisfying, it’s a family recipe you’ll turn to again and again.
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Story by Pamela Price
My late mother would have turned 80 this month.
We lost her two years ago.
Audrey, the woman who brought me into the world almost half a century ago, was many things in her lifetime: a florist, a great beauty, an artist, a good friend, a PBS fan, a gardener, a major pain in the butt–oh, the list goes on and on and on.
What Mom truly excelled at, however, was cooking. She could take ordinary ingredients and transform them into a delicious meal, one that rivaled most restaurants. Alas, so much of what she made was done from memory. A few recipes remain with me for safe keeping, but I long figured out that when Mom said a dish came from a particular cookbook–she collected them–what she actually meant was that the recipe was a departure point for her own culinary exploration.
In that same adventurous spirit I’ve put together the closest thing I can manage to her vegetable beef soup. She typically made it on weekdays to serve with buttered homemade cornbread, so when I’d come home from school the house would smell fantastic. No, it’s not fancy, and Mom likely would encourage you to riff a little and make it your own. (Personally, I swap out her regular canned tomatoes for the fire-roasted ones because that’s what my household prefers.)
If you give this particular combination a slow simmer and allow the fragrant scent of the vegetables and herbs to fill the air, I can promise you one thing: you’ll catch a whiff of my childhood.
Enjoy!
Old Fashioned Vegetable Beef Soup
Serves 8
Ingredients
- 1 lb. lean ground sirloin
- 1 Tbsp. canola oil
- 1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning, divided
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup sliced carrots
- 1/2 cup sliced celery
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely diced
- 1 medium zucchini, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 1 medium russet potato, chopped
- 2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 quarts chicken broth
Method
Heat ½ Tbsp. of oil on the bottom of a large stock pot, over medium. Add onions and ½ Tbsp. Italian seasoning. Stir carefully. When onions are translucent, remove them. Add the rest of the oil and the ground sirloin. Brown the beef and return the onions to the pot along with the remaining Italian seasoning, bay leaf, garlic, carrots, celery, onion, zucchini, red pepper, potato, and tomatoes. Stir for two minutes to blend the mixture thoroughly. Add broth and bring to a low boil. Reduce heat to simmer for at least one hour. Remove the bay leaf before serving.
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