Vegetable Beef Soup in 9 Easy Steps

Updated on September 20, 2019

Beef Vegetable Soup

Beef Vegetable Soup - use celary root (celariac) instead of potato. Lauri Patterson/E+/Getty Images

Total Time: 50 min

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Servings: 10

This soup is a great way to use up leftover pot roast or brisket. It works best with cuts of meat that have a grain, including chuck, sirloin tips, or brisket, but any cooked beef will work. This is meant to be a traditional beef soup, with celery root (celeriac) substituting for a potato to make it lower in carbohydrates while maintaining the same texture. If you want to cut down on the carbs further, just use other vegetables instead of the celery root, such as zucchini, red peppers, and/or green beans—simply cook the soup until these vegetables are tender, which will take less time than the celery root.

Ingredients

  • 2 slices bacon
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 pound brown (crimini) mushrooms, chopped medium
  • 3 medium stalks celery, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup dry red wine
  • 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
  • 3 cups diced celery root (celeriac), about 1/2-inch dice or a little smaller
  • 5 cups beef broth (see note below)
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 cups chopped leftover beef
  • 1 packet unflavored gelatin
  • 1/2 cup cold water
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • Chopped fresh chives (optional)

Preparation

  1. Fry the bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and set aside to cool.

  2. Cook the onion in some of the bacon drippings until it is soft and beginning to brown. Add the mushrooms, and cook until the mushrooms have shrunk in size and lost most of their water. Add the celery, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

  3. Make a space in the center of the pan, and add the garlic. Cook until the garlic is fragrant (don't let it brown), about 1 minute. Add the tomato paste and stir well.

  4. Add the wine to the pan and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring to get any browned bits off the bottom of the pan.

  5. Add the soy sauce, celery root, broth, pepper, pepper flakes, thyme, and bay leaves. Bring the soup to a simmer and cook until celery root is tender about 15 minutes.

  6. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add the beef to the soup and bring the soup back up to a simmer for 5 minutes.

  7. While soup is simmering, chop the cooked bacon, and sprinkle gelatin into 1/2 cup cold water.

  8. Turn off the heat, remove the bay leaves from the soup, stir in the gelatin mixture and parsley.

  9. Serve with a garnish of chopped bacon, and, if desired, chopped chives.

Ingredient Notes

If you would like to try cooking the bacon a different way, you can cook it in the oven. This way your stove will be free of grease splatters. You will, however, have to use some olive oil to cook the vegetables since you won't have the bacon drippings.

When choosing a beef broth, look for Better than Bouillon—it has good flavor and makes it is easy to adjust the salt content. Commercial beef broth varies a lot in quality. Some recipe authors advise using chicken broth, or mostly chicken broth if you can't find a good-tasting beef broth.

It may seem odd to have gelatin on the ingredient list, but the idea behind it is that it helps mimic the texture you would get from a homemade beef stock.

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