With KLT living most of the time in Nashville cooking has just about come to a halt around here. Why cook for just me? Who wants to eat left overs for weeks on end? This has really lead me to research cooking for the purpose of preserving. Most importantly freezing. This has been a great adventure and at least I make an excuse to cook which is something I love and most importantly I actually eat. So Beef Veggie Soup sounded like a good idea to work in before the weather breaks and it becomes too warm for soup.
I started with a large arm roast, yes it was some Charlie.
Season with salt and pepper (or steak seasoning) and brown on both sides using an oven safe pan.
Add you basic vegetables used for making stock Onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and seasonings (bay leaves, more salt and pepper, tyme you pick the mix) and water. Place lid on and put in oven (350 degrees) until meat is tender, depending on size an hour. This one was probably in the oven 2 – 2.5 hours. WARNING: Your house will smell totally awesome and cause hunger. 😉
Strain out veggies and unfortunately discard (feeding them to the dogs is an option) reserve the stock this is the base of your soup. Place meat on plate and cool. Once cool shred the meat or cut into chucks as you prefer. In our soup it’s shredded. Now to make the soup. Here is where your imagination can run wild adding your vegetables. I had an entire bag of frozen mixed veggies that needed a use otherwise I would be cutting veggies at this point. But add what you like. I added extra corn and green beans because those are my favorites. You can also cube potatoes and even add a few tomatoes. Today it’s just the mix, a potato or two and the beef. Noodles of your choice would also be a great option, even barley is nice. Bring your broth/stock to a boil and add veggies, noodles, potatoes and cook until tender. Add your shredded beef and serve.
To store for use later after the soup is cool, I waited until the next day. Place in vacuum seal bags, seal and freeze flat. To serve thaw (place in a bowl of hot water until breakable) and place in pot on med – low heat until warm.
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