Yield: 20 [Freezes well]
If you have a garden with a variety of vegetables this is the perfect meal to make. Chances are you will have left overs and this soup freezes very well. If you don’t have a garden then visit your grocery store or a farmers market. If you have lots of vegetables in your fridge and you want to use them, then this soup is for you.
This soup is easy to make and is perfect on a Sunday with left overs for the week. You can also put this together in the morning before work and it will be ready when you arrive home.
There are many variations of this soup depending on what vegetables you have. Any vegetables will work. The key to this soup is the base and browned hamburger. The base of this soup is created from a combination of spices – Vegetable Base, Chicken Base and Garlic & Pepper Spice. At home you can use any base for beef, chicken or vegetable. We don’t add any salt to this recipe since many of the stock bases contain enough salt for the soup.
In this recipe we use:
- 3 cups of green beans chopped into 1-inch lengths
- 1 .5 – 2 lbs of regular or lean ground beef
- 4 large tomatoes chopped into 1 inch
- 1 cup of chopped fresh dill
- Fresh/dried mushrooms soaked in hot water during the preparation of the soup
- 3 cups of chopped beats – if you have beat greens chop those up too
- 1 large white onion or 6 green onions with greens chopped into small ¼ inch pieces
- 4 carrots sliced thin
- 1 cup of broccoli chopped
- 1 cup of cauliflower chopped
- 2 tbsp – Garlic & Pepper Spice (sprinkled in the slow cooker)
- 3 tbsp heaping Chicken Base
- 3 tbsp heaping Vegetable Base
- 8 cups of water to mix with the chicken and vegetable bases
- 1 540ml of tomato juice
Optional additions:
- ¼ cup of Barley
- 2 cups of sliced green and/or red cabbage
Step 1 – Set slow cooker to high heat.
Step 2 – In a saucepan on medium heat start browning hamburger. If hamburger is frozen, place it in a saucepan with 1-2 cups of water covered to thaw quickly.
Step 3 – clean and chop vegetables and add them to the slow cooker
Step 4 – when hamburger is browned add to slow cooker with vegetables and deglaze the pan with 1-2 cups of water. Scrape all the browned bits of hamburger into the water. Add the remaining water
Step 5 – Cover and cook for 4-6 hours on high. Test firmness of vegetables to make sure they are to your liking.
Serve with sliced French baguette and condiments such as sour cream and sriracha.
