Vegetable Beef Soup
Happy New Year! Our new year has begun with beautiful gently falling snow and bloody cold temperatures to go with it. I don’t like to be cold.
While so many are talking about resolutions for health and fitness, I shiver at their suggested cold salad recipes. Although I am ready to get my family out of the holiday eating mode, I’m putting my vegetables into some hot soup!
Not only is this soup chalked full of vegetables, but I was able to use the leftovers from our holiday roast. Any leftover roast or steak would work. In the absence of leftovers, cooked stew meat would be a great substitute.
Start by chopping the onion, celery, carrots, and mushrooms. While you’re at it, take a couple extra minutes to cut some carrot and celery sticks for the kids. The littles were thankful to have had a friend visiting when I made this soup. He was not a culinary adventure seeker. Although I graciously made them something else, veggies remained on the menu. If you have a lovely assistant like I do, have them add peanut butter to the celery.
In a large pot, cook the onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms and garlic in butter. About 5-10 minutes.
When the onions are translucent, stir in the beef, broth and Worcestershire sauce. 
Once you’ve mixed it well, add salt and pepper to taste. You may want to do this later depending on how the leftover beef was seasoned. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
While the soup is simmering, go chop more vegetable sticks. If your kids are like mine, they found the carrots and already ate them. It’s not like I was going to say, “No! Stop! Don’t eat those vegetables.” Again, my lovely assistant was ready to help.
Finally, add the greens. I used a blend of kale, spinach and chard that I purchased at Costco. 
They will reduce quickly as you stir them in. I added four handfuls which would be the equivalent to about 3-4 cups.
Serve and enjoy!
Vegetable Beef Soup
Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 2 medium carrots diced
- 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
- 2-3 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2-3 cups cooked beef chopped
- 64 ounces beef broth
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- 3-4 cups greens kale, spinach, chard or mixture of all
Instructions
- In a large pot, cook onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms, and garlic in butter until onions are translucent. Approximately 5-10 minutes.
- Stir in chopped beef, broth and Worcestershire sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Seasoning may not be needed when using leftover roast or steak.
- Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer on low 20-30 minutes.
- Stir in greens and serve.