One More Soup AGAIN!

So last post, I said that I was making one last soup.  I told a lie, because I woke up this morning to more cold rainshowers (a down pour if I ever saw one) and it was another "soup kind of day".  So I came home from errands and made one of our favorite soups, Hearty Hamburger Vegetable.  I know,  two soup posts in a row and in the middle of May; we eat salads  by this time normally.  Who'd of thought I'd still be making soup?  This soup is one that I crave on cold winter days, and it's great on days when you just don't feel so well.  It tastes good, it's not spicy and it has just the right amount of herbs.  It's tomatoey... full of sweet vegetables.  It's just a "homey" soup.

This recipe comes from an old cookbook that was sold to benefit the local university art museum.  I have changed and adapted it over the years, but have given you the original recipe.  The soup is very tasty made just the way it is written, however, I change it depending on my mood and what's in the refridgerator.  Today I had some green beans, snap peas, and some napa cabbage that I wanted to use up.  I was out of canned tomatoes but I had some frozen ones from my fall garden.  I also discovered that I was out of barley in my pantry so I subsituted quinoa.  You can substitute pasta (like elbow macaroni) or sometimes I use potatoes instead of the barley, but I like pearl barley best. This soup freezes well so I always double the batch and freeze some for later.  The original recipe is below.

As much as I like soup, this really is the last one I will be making until next fall.  I promise. Tune in to the next post for some sweet treats.

Hearty Hamburger Soup

(adapted from The Fine Art Of Soup)

1 lb. ground beef

2-14 oz. cans of beef consommé soup

3 cups of water

1-16 oz. can of tomatoes, cut up
2 medium yellow onions, chopped (about 1 cup)

4 carrots, sliced (about 21 cup)

2 stalks of celery, sliced (about 1 cup)

1/3 cup of pearl barley, not instant

¼ cup of ketchup

1 teaspoons of kosher salt

1 teaspoon of dried basil

1 bay leaf

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Brown the ground beef in a large pan, stirring to break up the large pieces. Drain off fat and rinse. Wipe pan clean of beef fat. To the pan, add the water, undrained tomatoes, onion, carrot, celery, barley, catsup, salt, canned soup and bay leaf. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour or until the vegetables are tender. Season to taste and remove the bay leaf and discard.

Makes about 4 quarts of soup.

This soup freezes well.