I know that a recipe is successful when my family fights for the leftovers. I think this Beef Soup recipe is a keeper. The first time I made it according to the directions, the 2nd time not so much and it was still great – so let’s talk about what makes a good beef soup!
The first step is to brown the onions and mushrooms to a deep golden brown. This helps to develop deep flavor, and starts the fond developing in the pan. Next you brown the beef – again deepening flavor and increasing the fond. You do not want to burn the fond – but it does get scarily dark.
Once that’s done you add the tomato paste and garlic and cook just briefly to temper the raw taste of the garlic and the tinny taste of the tomato. Add a splash of wine to deglaze the pan and use a wooden spoon to get the fond off of the pot and into the soup. That’s about the extent of the hard work – because then everything goes into the pot and it cooks for 20 minutes.
The second time I made this beef soup I did not have any mushrooms or open wine (not cracking a bottle for 1/4 cup!), so I used a splash of broth. I also did not have the quart of beef stock, but I did have a quart of chicken stock (I keep it on hand – watch the site for the new on-hand feature!) and a can of beef consomme. Also? I was using leftover beef and chicken from the New Year’s Eve fondue. Waste not want not! The results were just as tasty as the as-written recipe.
About the broth…use a quality broth; if you can’t stand to drink it warm, you probably don’t want to cook with it. The mixing of the beef and chicken broth is because beef broth tends to taste odd all on its own. Of course, if you have homemade that you can pull out of the freezer that would be awesome, but this is real life and we don’t always have broth on hand!
Conclusion – in order to get a great soup you need to develop fond, mellow the flavor of garlic and tomato paste, and use good broth. After that, you can add what you like.
Put beef soup on your meal plan and customize it to meet your needs and use your leftovers!
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