Everybody in the Pool (aka Hamburger) Soup
Have you ever run into a situation where you needed to use up all sorts of miscellaneous things in the fridge? Yeah, well, this is the result. We had a little of this - a little of that. Whatever was laying around got thrown into the pot. Bottom line, we really weren't following as recipe.
Ingredients:
1lb Hamburger
Onion
Fresh Mushrooms
1/2 cubed Rutabaga
Cabbage
Carrot
Celery
Frozen Green Beans
Frozen corn
Green Bell Pepper
Gluten-Free Beef Stock ((Kitchen Basics, Swanson’s, Pacific, Imagine). Note: Beef stocks may contain gluten. Double check the ingredients)
Gluten-Free Chicken Stock (Kitchen Basics, Swanson’s, Pacific, Imagine)
V8
Bay Leaf
Directions:
Sauté' green bell pepper & onion in a big soup pot [7 qt pictured here] for a few minutes.
Add a pinch a salt and pepper. Be careful with the salt, your stocks have have additional salt.
Add 2 lbs of hamburger to pan and brown.
Add a pinch of salt and pepper
Drain/remove excess grease.
Add chicken or beef broth - probably 2-4 cups total
Add bottle of 46oz bottle of V8
Add Bay Leaf or two
Add veggies that need longer too cook first (like rutabaga, carrots, celery, etc]- staggering them by a couple of minutes.
Taste for salt/pepper
Bring up to a boil then reduce heat to simmer
Cover pot and let simmer for 30 - 60 minutes stirring occasionally.
Check a carrot/celery/rutabaga - if it's a texture you like - dig in!
Until the next good eats...
Al
Cold Veggie Salad
Ingredients:
Any veggies you have on hand, today's mix included:
1 large onion
3 stalks of celery
1 pound each of corn, peas, green beans [all cooked, if frozen; otherwise 15oz can each is fine...especially if you're not cooking for an army!]
1 Green Pepper
1 Red Pepper
1 Yellow Sweet Pepper
1 pound of your favorite beans [today's were garbanzo, but kidney or black beans add nice color]
Dressing:
1 cup oil
½ cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon ground pepper
Dash of ground mustard
Put dressing ingredients in an a small-medium bowl and whisk together.
Put all veggies in a large bowl, pour on dressing and carefully mix ingredients together. Chill in the fridge.
Minestrone Soup
This recipe is adapted from Living Without Summer 2005 issue.
It's one of our favorites and gets rave reviews from all who've tried - gluten-free or otherwise.
We save it for the fall/winter when it is cold and yucky on the outside and warm and yummy on the inside.
Ingredients
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves minced garlic
1 large onion - diced
2 medium carrots - sliced
2 stalks celery - sliced
1 medium potato - diced
1 15oz can diced tomatoes
1 small zuchinni
1 tspn oregano
2 tspn salt
4 cups GF chicken broth (Kitchen Basics, Swanson’s, Pacific, Imagine)
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
1 cup fresh or frozen green bean (1 1/2" pieces)
1 15oz can kidney beans - drained & rinsed
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil (optional) or 2 cubes of frozen homemade basil pesto (See Al Notes)
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Add olive oil, butter & garlic to a large soup pot over medium heat. Saute until onion is transparent and soft.
Add celery, carrots, potato. Sauté for another 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes, oregano, salt and chicken broth.
Bring soup up to a simmer. Cover and cook for 15-30 minutes. Veggies should be tender.
Add the corn, green beans, kidney beans, zucchini and simmer for another 15-30 minutes.
Stir in fresh basil or add frozen pesto cubes and allow to melt.
Serve hot and don't eat too much. You could also top with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
Al Notes
Since we made a double batch, we use both kidney beans and black beans.
In the summer I will make fresh basil pesto. This is usually a Saturday project for me. We have a little farmers market downtown and I'll get several bunches. I'll whiz up a batch and pour it in ice cube trays and freeze it. After about a month of pesto making, we'll have several freezer bags full of pesto cubes we can use for a whole bunch of things...like this soup!