How to Make Homemade Vegetable Soup

Thanks to my Mom... this homemade vegetable soup has become my all-time favorite soup, especially during the fall football season.  It goes really well with a beer and a fresh piece of bread/roll and butter.

Ingredients

• 1 lb stew beef - cut into bite size pieces
• Butter or olive oil as needed
• 4 carrots sliced
• 4 cups cabbage sliced in bite size pieces
• 1 can corn
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 small onion diced
• 4 stalks celery sliced
• 4 potatoes diced
• 2 cans beef consomme
• 1 can beef broth
• 3 cans water used to rinse out cans
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• Pepper to taste

Directions

Brown the beef and onion in a large pot. Add in additional ingredients. Simmer until tender. Keep in mind that I use a pressure cooker to tenderize the meat.  A slow cooker like a crock pot may also work to tenderize the beef. Add soup and tomotaes to beef and onion. When beef is tender proceed as for soup.

I add the corn toward the end of the cooking so it stays crisp. I don't add salt because there is salt in the Campbell's broth and consomme. The vegetables make broth, but you can add more soup if you need to. You can always change the recipe to add noodles or beans instead of potatoes or make whatever changes you like.

I use the water you add to the soup to rinse out all the cans.  Often I will add one more can of broth or consommé, but not the additional water.  This way the soup is thicker.  The more potatoes you add, the thicker the soup will be as the potato starch is a natural thickener.

You can also use this basic idea to make chicken vegetable soup.  Just substitute chicken and chicken broth.  You could add noodles instead of potatoes and vary the vegetables.  Make it your own!