Cooking With The Wolfes

Hearty Beef Vegetable Soup

Tonight we tried a new recipe from Taste of Home magazine, Hearty Beef Vegetable Soup. I don't think I have ever even tried vegetable soup until I had it at my great aunt's house last year, and I've wanted to try it since then. This morning I chopped up the veggies so Mike could brown the beef and divide the soup between a freezer bag for later and the crock pot (not the method that was called for in the recipe, but hey, it worked). When I got home, all we had to do was make some garlic bread and we were ready to go! Another interesting side note; I left out several veggies, like the green chiles and mushrooms, but I included the turnips the recipe called for, which neither of us had ever eaten.

The verdict

Sometimes when I make a new recipe, I eat it while constantly thinking about how I could improve it. This was one of those recipes. First off, I would halve the amount of turnips. They imparted a sweet-hot taste to the soup that I thought was too strong. Second, I would chop up all the veggies (turnips included) much finer, just to make it easier to eat. I guess I don't like to chew :) In that same vein, I would make the tomato part of the soup less chunky. All these changes are just to tweak the soup to suit our tastes, but I liked the idea of a healthy, veggie soup. I would have made the bread whole wheat to boost the health factor even more, but the white bread was left over from the stuffed French Toast. I give this meal for taste and 2 and a half out of five stars for taste and 3 and a half stars for health. A final note: Mike divided this recipe between a freezer bag for later and tonight's dinner, and it still made a LOT! We have enough for another meal at least.