Slightly misleading, as this is MY mother’s vegetable soup, or at least it’s close (she uses cabbage! Yuck face!) I’m sure there are a few other differences, but the end result is the same – a glorious bubbly pot of tomato-y, vegetable-y goodness, with the secret ingredient – lots and lots of beef. The polar vortex is heading this way, and I want a big pot of goodness that will last for at least four meals.
I am boring today, and also promised myself to NOT talk about the Gilmore Girls again, so here’s an entertaining anecdote: I was at the grocery earlier this week, and ran into a boy I went to high school with. He was buying a rotisserie chicken (like a functional adult). I saw him glance into my basket, where he saw around twenty pouches of Big League Chew. While there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, I still felt the most awkward, as one would. True story.
This is chuck roast (four pounds), probably the most available and cheaper of cuts, but any cheap braising cut of beef will work, so long as you cook it long enough. Here we cube it (2-inch chunks), trim off the worst fatty parts, and sear off a couple sides of each cube, just to amp up the flavor with the fond (brown bits). Don’t crowd the pan, or else the beef will steam, which makes it tougher. Deglaze the pan with a little water, and scrape up the fond.
Then the meat and juices go into the Crock Pot for, well a very long time. Almost cover with water, and add a little sprinkle of beef bouillon to deepen the flavor. This isn’t one of those quick’n’easy weeknight recipes. Six to eight hours, or until the beef shreds at the slightest twist of the tongs.
The remaining liquid in the pot goes into the fridge overnight. This gets gross, yet delicious. The fat will rise to the top and form a solid-ish disk.
Throw it out right? Wrong-ola. Who do you think I am? That’s flavor country. This is carefully lifted off and used to sauté one cup each of diced onions and celery. I got my mise all en place:
The carrots get par-boiled for around five minutes, since they take foreeevvverrr to cook. The onions get sautéed in the beef fat (yum!), which immediately makes my house smell like a White Castle. Then celery until tender, then everything else!
Add the rest – a big jug of vegetable juice, the other vegetables (here it’s corn, peas, and zucchini, since I love zucchini and put it in everything). Then the glorious beef juice! Also cherry tomatoes – I was asked specifically to not add tomatoes by two co-workers who knew of my nefarious soup-making plans. I compromise. This way they’re easy to avoid, and actually delicious – they pop open hotly, flooding your mouth with tomato goodness.
Isn’t that a very, very rich soup? Yes it is. It’s a meal-kind of soup, not an appetizer thing. Isn’t it very greasy? No, amazingly. It does indeed contain grease, but somehow manages to not be greasy. I throw a handful of ditalini in for starch (or use rice) and serve with a crusty bread. It gets better and better as the days go by.
illdothedisheslater 