Almost everyone loves a hot, steaming bowl of hearty vegetable beef soup, especially in the Wintertime. With this recipe, if you own a crockpot or slow cooker, you can make your own homemade soup with hardly any effort at all! The ingredient list is simple, and for the most part, prepackaged. Just follow these simple instructions for a great tasting, healthy meal that’s so easy to prepare you could do it while drinking your morning coffee!
Crock Pot Vegetable Beef Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
- Campbell’s Tomato soup: 1 can
- Frozen mixed vegetables for beef soup: Either 1-2 lb bag or 2-1 lb bags
- Elbow macaroni: ½ cup
- Stew beef: 2 lbs or: Chuck roast: 2 ½ lbs trimmed and cubed.
- Salt: 2 level tablespoons
- Black pepper: 1 level tablespoon
- Dried minced onions: 2 level tablespoons
How To Prepare:
First, begin by browning the stew meat in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Remember, you just want to brown the meat, not cook it all the way through. Caramelizing, or browning, the meat will add flavor, but it’ll taste better if some of the meat is allowed to cook in the crockpot, mixing the juices with the broth. While the meat is cooking, put the Campbell’s tomato soup in the crockpot, and add about three cans of water to it. Turn the crockpot on low. Then, add the salt, black pepper, and minced onions, and stir well.
Now that you’ve got the base ready, you can add the mixed vegetables and elbow macaroni. The mixed vegetables should be labeled for vegetable beef soup, not a stew, as the stew mix contains a different variety. Vegetable beef soup mix should contain corn, okra, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and celery at the very least. Make sure to pay attention to the browning meat during this time.
Once the meat is browned, just add it to the crockpot, making sure to allow any fat drippings in the skillet to go into the crockpot as well, as this adds flavor to the soup. Then, just add water up to about ½ inch below the top of the crockpot, and stir well. Place the lid on and let simmer on low for at least eight hours or longer.
This simple recipe will feed a family of five easily, and you may even have leftovers. For those who have diabetics in the family or are just counting carbohydrates, this recipe contains about 17 grams of carbohydrates per cup of soup, depending on how much broth you prefer.
There you have it; a great tasting healthy meal, and you’ll only dirty up one skillet to prepare it. It doesn’t get much easier than that!
