easy veggie packed beef soup recipe

Early last year, I was on a quest to find some easy recipes with good quality foods that I could easily make for myself. While I don’t cook often, I do enjoy it and hope to do more if it in the coming year. I stumbled upon this recipe for vegetable beef soup–it’s very easy, can be cooked in one pot, and is ready in 30 minutes! Over the past year, I have tried different variations on the theme including trying different types of meat and veggies. As I was putting in my order from Indie Plate for this week, I decided to take advantage of the option for ground chicken and see how that might fare in the recipe. It ended up very tasty. See below for the recipe–my changes/additions/suggestions are italicized. Would love to know what you think if you end up trying it.

Ingredients:

Seasoning Blend

• 1 8 oz. container refrigerated pre-chopped onion (you can also use the seasoning blend with onion, celery and bell peppers or chop up an onion yourself)
• 4 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic (I love garlic so I will use many cloves as I feel like–today I used 6. Sometimes I put them through the garlic press and other times chop them chunky. If you like garlic, add more and if you don’t like it, add less.)
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Soup

• 1 lb ground beef sirloin (or whatever ground meat you want to use. I have used beef, buffalo, deer and now chicken.)
• 2 1/2 cups water (today I subbed in beef broth to make sure it had enough flavor.)
• 1 16 oz bag frozen mixed vegetables (I usually use the peas, carrots, corn, green beans mixture but have also tried the broccoli, cauliflower and carrots mix.)
  
• 1 14.5 oz can Italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained, chopped
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce

Directions:

1. According to the directions in the original recipe they suggest you mix all seasoning blend ingredients in a small bowl–I just go ahead and mix them in the pot I use to cook the dish.
2. In 5-quart Dutch oven (I don’t have one so I use a large pot), cook beef (or your chosen meat) and seasoning blend over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain.
3. Stir remaining ingredients into Dutch oven (or pot) with beef (or your chosen meat). Heat to boiling over medium-high heat; reduce heat. Cover; simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until hot. Ladle soup into 6 bowls–or 4 depending on how hungry you and your guests are. (Portion left overs into individual serving containers–I have mason jars for just such a thing.)

Link to original recipe: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/easy-vegetable-beef-soup/e9539e83-35cd-4a2d-9cb6-e0882f9bbd96