In which I make some soup

Autumn Soup

1 lb ground beef
1 c chopped onion
4 c water
1 c cut-up carrots
1 c diced celery
1 c cubed potatoes
2 t salt
1 t browning & seasoning sauce
1/4 t pepper
1 bay leaf
1/8 t basil
6 tomatoes (or 1 can, 28 oz – subtract 1 c water if canned)

In large saucepan, cook and stir meat until golden brown. Drain off fat. Cook and stir onions until tender. Stir in remaining ingredients except tomatoes. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10 minutes longer or until vegetables are tender.

Optionally add 1 clove garlic and/or cabbage.

This is the soup that my family always made in the fall. I’ve had the recipe laying around for awhile but never made the soup. I changed that this past weekend.

The experiment went well. I learned some things though. Brown the meat, don’t blacken it. The carrots and potatoes are better if they aren’t cut too small. A little browning & seasoning sauce goes a long way; I think I will add less next time. The soup needs chunks of tomato. Crushed tomatoes are no good. I think I will used diced tomatoes in the future.

A quick Google search on autumn soup recipe came up with a lot of interesting variations on the theme. It should be fun to explore some of these and see what new concoctions I can come up with. But no matter how good the variations are, nothing will measure up to the original for me.