Nothing warms your body and soul like an homemade soup! Soups and stews are very popular at my house during winter time. On top of being simple to make, they are full of vitamins to help fight the nasty germs winter (and the change in season) tend to bring. Depending on what you use to make your soup (or stew), they can be an easy ”on the wallet” way to feed you family. On top of all that, the left overs are great in lunches!
The recipe presented on Prep Day #3 was more hearty then the one I will present today. Today’s soup is made 100% from scrap… literately! Well, the stock is made from vegetables scrap.
My husband and I are always trying to find ways on how we can save money –yes, life is expensive– and it seems that the price of food keeps rising. Since I feed my family homemade meals, vegetables and meat are the major portion of our grocery bill. We already pay for these vegetables, might has well use them to their full potential. So, I started keeping the vegetable portion we could not eat to make soup stock.
I was surprised on how much I was trowing away! After just a week, I had a full large freezer bag. What did I put in it? Every vegetables peel (carrots, potatoes, zucchini, onions), ends of celery, Brussels sprouts (yes, my kids eat Brussels sprouts), asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, tops of peppers… name it! Everything we did not consume went into the bag. It is then thrown into the freezer. Depending on the sites I checked, some will say you can keep it up to 6 months, other will say 3 months. Last thing you want is for your scrap to catch frost bite. It would defeat the whole purpose of doing this. In the end, you paid for it, use it to it’s full potential!
Enough babbling, what will you need for this soup? Basically, any vegetable available in your fridge. For this one, I used:
- My bag of scrap veggies to make my stock
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 cup of chopped carrots
- 1 cup of frozen peas
- 1 small zucchini
- 2 cups of firmly stocked baby spinach
- 1 1/2 peppers (I have a red pepper and 1/2 yellow)
- 1 large onion
- 2 Tbsp of salt
- 1/2 tsp of pepper
- 1 Tbsp of dry rosemary (I crush it between my fingers as I add it to the broth)
- 3/4 –1 pound of beef (more details below on what type of beef)
First off, you need to make your broth. Empty the vegetable scrap bag you just pulled from the freezer into your pot and add water to top off vegetables. Add your garlic now, this will give the broth some extra flavor.
Bring to a boil and leave alone for minimum 30 minutes. If you want a more concentrated broth, boil it longer. I usually leave mine boiling for 45 minutes. Once your broth is ready, using a strainer, remove all vegetable keeping the broth in a separate bowl.
Rinse your pot and add the broth. Season broth with salt, pepper & rosemary. Add your onion immediately, this will add flavor to your broth. When it is boiling, add the rest of your vegetables except for the spinach. Let boil until vegetables are tender.
While this is cooking, you want to take care of the meat. Today I am using a left over beef from a Chinese fondue we did last night. You do not need a high priced beef for this soup. A nice piece of minute steak could easily do the trick. The important thing is not over cooking your meat. This is why it is the last thing you will add to your soup. The hot stock will slowly cook the meat and make it tender.
Once your veggies are tender, remove from heat. Add your meat and stir. Once meat started changing color, stir in your spinach. Let rest for 2 minutes. You are ready to serve.
This soup is all natural and very tasty. Some people might like it with more salt or pepper, feel free to add some according to your taste. You may want to try another type of herb than rosemary… I did it with thyme once and it was delicious. Leave your imagination lead you!
Indeed, it did take some time to make this soup because we had to make the stock. This is why I make this soup during Prep Day… makes for beautiful nutritious left overs during the week. We are living life at fast pace! Meal time should be a period where we put life on pause and just enjoy each other’s company… over a hot bowl of soup!
