Vegetable Soup Recipe

With these cold winter evenings, I love having a nice bowl of soup for supper. My favorite is my mom's vegetable soup. So I thought I'd share her recipe with you today. Enjoy! =)

Vegetable Beef Soup

Start with 3 lbs of beef stew meat (we use Laura's Beef brand since it's high quality organic meat)

Cut the meat in small pieces (unless you buy it already cut up)

Put about 2 Tbl organic coconut oil in the bottom of a pressure sauce pan. 

Add meat and slightly brown.

Add about 3 cups of water, put the lid on and cook on high heat until the pressure cock begins to make noise, then reduce the heat and cook for about 20 minutes. 

While the meat is cooking, wash, peel & chop:

 - 6 large organic potatoes

 - 5-6 organic carrots

 - a small head of organic cabbage 

optional: 1/2 cup organic celery, 1 small onion chopped, 1 clove chopped garlic

(Note: if you can't afford to buy all organic vegetables, then at least be sure to get organic celery since it is high on the pesticide list, or leave it out. Onions are lowest on the list of pesticide residues, so it's not as vital to use organic ones.)

When the meat is done, add the vegetables and hot water until the pan is 2/3 full. Also add 1/2 to 1 cup of organic tomato juice and salt to taste. 

(Many tomatoes are now genetically modified, so it's important to use organic ones or organic tomato juice.)

You can also add various spices if you like - my mom likes to add 1 bay leaf, a pinch of sage and pinch of rosemary to taste. (I prefer it plain without any spices.)

Put the lid back on and return to high heat until the pressure cock makes noise again. (This may take a while.) Then reduce heat and cook for 8 minutes. 

Note: If you don't have a pressure sauce pan, then simmer the meat in 3-4 cups of water til done. Then add more water, vegetables and spices and cook until they're done. This will take longer than using the pressure pan.

Well, that's it. Any questions? Let me know how you like it. =)