Friend of Julie: Vegetable Beef Soup

A friend from Southern California shared this recipe on Facebook and it looked so good it only took me a few days to pick up the ingredients and make this. On this third snow storm Monday shutting down most of Western Massachusetts, this is the perfect day to enjoy this soup!

The original recipe includes potatoes, which I switched out with parsnips instead. If you're not a parsnip fan, skip the parsnips or be creative and add a different veggie.

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 2 lbs ground beef
• 6 parsnips, diced
• 8 carrots, diced
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 cups beef stock
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 28oz can diced tomatoes (I only had one 14oz can of diced tomatoes and this soup still tasted delicious)
• 1 pound frozen green beans (I added a 12oz of fresh green beans)
• 1 pound frozen corn
• 4 bay leaves

Instructions

Heat some olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. (I didn't add oil to the pan before adding the ground beef.)

Add the ground beef and brown. Remove ground beef from the pan and set it aside. (The recipe didn't say if you should keep the liquids from the pan or not so I kept this, which was a great choice because this soup turned out so flavorful.)

Add more olive oil to the same pot (I adde the oil this time) and then add: parsnips, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic and sauté until the onions are translucent.

Add the ground beef the the pan. Pour in the beef stock, water, tomatoes, green beans, corn, and bay leaves.

Bring the soup to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Let simmer for an hour.

Season with salt and pepper and serve!

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Original recipe inspiration from All Food Recipes