Vegetable Beef Soup

Vegetable Beef Soup

Soup is one of the easiest budget stretchers there is. Not only can you use up leftovers but you can also use what is in season. I don't really have a recipe for vegetable beef soup but the base is always home made beef stock. Beef Stock beef bones * carrots onion celery small tomato bay leaf water
This is more of a method than a recipe. Roast the bones at 350ºF for one hour. Remove from oven and pour everything into a large stock pot. Add enough water to cover the bones by at least one inch. Peel a carrot or two, cut in half and add to pot. Cut an unpeeled onion in quarters and add to pot. Add one to two stocks of celery cut in half and one small tomato cut in half. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for a couple of hours. Strain the stock and cool. Remove any fat layer. From there you can freeze it in freezer containers or can. To can process pints 20 minutes and quarts 25 minutes at 10 lbs pressure.
*freeze leftover bones from steak or roasts then do a large batch of beef stock for later use.
Now my beef soup will vary depending on what is in season or what I have on hand. This beef soup started with about 2lbs of stew beef. I browned the been then put it into a stock pot. From there I added beef stock, potatoes, carrots, rutabaga, celery, corn and kidney beans (home canned). Once the vegetables were softening, I added broad egg noodles and 1/4 c beer. The beer burns off but imparts a very nice flavour. Be sure to use a preservative free beer. A dry sherry or red wine will do the same if you don't have beer. Then because it was beef based, I added in a sprinkle or two of Worchestershire sauce. The result was a very pleasant soup, full of body and sure to please. This soup does freeze nicely. If canning, I would omit the noodles and can at 10 lb pressure for 60 minutes pints or 70 minutes quarts.