Sunday, December 30, 2007

Tomato Beef Soup

Mom and Grandma always made homemade soup. Grandma was raised in a poor household and soup was something that could be made cheaply. They would boil the meat to make broth, then eat the broth with noodles or macaroni. Then, the boiled meat and vegetables would be used for another meal. This strategy also worked well for Mom with 6 kids to feed. One of our favorites was this Tomato Beef Soup:

Make a beef broth:
In a stock pot, take some soup bones and cover with 2 1/2 quarts of water.
Add big chunks of carrots and celery. You could also throw in some quartered onions if you have them
Season well with salt and pepper.
The "secret" ingredient to all Grandma and Mom's soups is pickling spice. Take about 1 tsp and put in a tea infuser and drop into the pot (don't just sprinkle into the broth, because you'll want to remove before serving.)
Bring to boil; lower to a simmer and allow to simmer for about 3-4 hours.

Prepare to serve:
Boil elbow macaroni to package directions, drain and set aside.
Strain meat and veggies from broth, set aside for another purpose.
Open 1 or 2 large cans of whole tomatoes, mash up well and dump into the broth.

To Serve:
Spoon about 1/2 cup of macaroni into a bowl, ladle the broth over the macroni

1 comment:

Caroline said...

Kathleen, I can't believe that your blog hasn't been "discovered" yet, but maybe you're like me, and your goal isn't to have forty thousand comments each time you post.

I love your recipes and ideas. My daughter and I were just discussing yesterday that we needed to make tomato soup from scratch.