January 10, 2012 - Beef Broth and Vegetable Soup

I think I finally have to admit that I have the plague.  In my world, plague translates into something along the lines of “stuffy nose, head congestion, a bit achy, overall not feeling my best”.  Not to be confused with deceased which means, mainly, hungover. 

What does one do when one comes down with a case of the plague? One normally chugs a gallon of OJ and as much Hot and Sour Soup as possible (also, Lo Mein and probably some crab Rangoon…Asian).  But since it’s soup month, I guess I’ll continue the trend of souping it up on my own to battle this plague.  Today’s jousting match is between the Plague and…

Beef and Vegatable Soup – from my brain

Ingredients:

• 1 Bay leaf – check, because most/all broth based soups deserve a bay leaf
• Marjoram – check; because I think it smells nice
• Red pepper flakes – check; because everyone knows the plague is afraid of heat
• Onion – check
• Celery – check
• Carrots – check
• Beef stock –check

Step 1: Put the bay leaf, a pinch of marjoram, and a pinch of red pepper flakes into a pot.

Step 2: Cut some onion, cube it, add to the pot.  Onions seems to work best in soups as cubes.

Step 3: Cut the celery into pieces and add to the pot, I only used on stick of celery because there’s still only one of me.

Step 4: Peel and cut the carrot into halves and add to the pot; also sort of like cubes but in a carrot way.

Step 5: Pour the beef stock into the pot until the other ingredients are covered, maybe a little more for good measure.  The carrots, celery, and onion should be swimming.

Step 6: Simmer until the veggies are softened to your liking, roughly 20 minutes, also as long as it takes you to take out the trash and reline it.

Step 7: Enjoy!

Well, unfortunately this soup was not a win.  I think the celery made the beef broth more tin-like than I had intended.  Once I ate the veggies, the broth was pretty good, the right amount of spice but just a bit more tin.  Alas, but hopefully the veggies and brothy-ness will still kill the plague.

This foodsperiment gets a +2 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for quick cleanup.  Ah well, we’ve always got the water chug.

Beef Broth and Vegetable Soup