Nothing beats homemade vegetable soup for comfort and nutrition especially if one is on a “stem cell transplant diet” where all the vegetables need to be cooked!  I can make a yummy chicken or vegetarian tortilla soup and a pretty good version of a vegetarian roasted vegetable soup, but for old-fashioned appeal and best taste, in my opinion, a beef pot roast is essential.  Because of this, beef vegetable soup takes me two days to make, and often, the whole roast gets eaten, so the soup never gets made!

Old Fashioned Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients for the Pot Roast (Day One):

• 3 lb (or whatever works for you) beef roast
• 1 yellow or white onion
• 1 cup baby organic carrots
• 1-2 cups organic new potatoes
• 2 cups filtered water
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2-3 bay leaves
• salt & pepper to taste
• other spices as you like  (If you have fresh, just put a few sprigs of whatever you have on hand such as rosemary, thyme, and/or oregano.)

Ingredients for the soup (Day Two):

• 2 Tbls. olive oil
• 1 yellow or white onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic minced or pressed with a garlic press
• 1 cup diced organic carrots
• 1 cup diced organic celery
• 8 cups good quality beef or vegetarian stock or broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 28 oz. can good quality crushed or petite diced tomatoes with juice (I like Muir Glen.)
• 1 cup good quality tomato or vegetable juice
• 2 Tbls. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbls. Louisiana hot sauce or whatever brand of hot sauce you like–to taste
• salt & pepper–to taste
• 1 Tbls. dried herbs ( I use a Whole Foods chimichurri blend that contains parsley, oregano, garlic, & red pepper)
• 1 cup or more of other fresh or frozen vegetables that you like such as corn, peas, green beans, okra, etc.

Day One-Place roast, the onion cut in quarters, carrots, new potatoes halved or quartered, water, bay leaves, garlic, salt, pepper, and any other spices that you like in a large crock pot on Low.   I used a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and several pods of okra from my garden in my latest effort.  Cook for 6-8 hours or until it falls apart.  Serve for supper at your own risk!  If you want to make the soup, buy a much larger roast than your family will eat, or make two! 🙂

Day Two-Make the soup!

Saute’ onion, garlic, carrots, and celery in olive oil over medium heat until soft.  If you have other tougher fresh vegetables such as okra, add them into this mix and saute’ as well.  Add stock, tomatoes, and tomato juice, and Worcestershire.  Bring to a low boil stirring occasionally. While this comes to a boil, shred the leftover pot roast, get rid of any extra fat that has solidified, and chop any “too large for soup” pieces of potato or carrot.  Dump all of this (carefully, so it won’t splash) into the soup.  Stir it well, and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add hot sauce and spices.  Stir.  Simmer for 5-10 minutes.  Taste.  Add more hot sauce and/or spices.  Repeat until this is perfect for your taste!

Great serving time toppers or add-ins:  chopped fresh parsley or cilantro, shredded cheese, avocado slices, chopped green onions or chives, more hot sauce 😉

Vegetable beef soup is great with plain old saltine cracker or my personal favorite and extreme weakness–cornbread!

Yesterday when I made this soup, I wanted cornbread, but I knew that my husband wasn’t going to eat it since he isn’t eating much of anything.  I didn’t want to eat a whole iron skillet of cornbread by myself (and I would have!), so I made a small batch of cornbread muffins.  The recipe I had called for milk (didn’t have), vegetable oil (didn’t want to use), and sugar (don’t like in my cornbread), so I sort of substituted my way into the following recipe which went very well with the soup!

Cornbread Muffins (makes 6)

• 3/4 cup self-rising corn meal mix
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 beaten egg
• 3 Tbsp. melted butter
• approximately 1/2 can creamed corn

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Grease a 6 cup muffin pan or use liners.  Mix dry ingredients together, then add liquids, stir just until moistened.  Fold in enough creamed corn to make a muffin consistency.  Bake for 18-22 minutes.

Bobby wasn’t up for a smoothie today at lunch; he wanted more vegetable soup!  As I’ve discussed before, I have to be really careful what I put in his smoothies, and there are things that are super healthy for me that he can’t have.  Unfortunately, he can’t have any berries right now unless they are cooked.  He also can’t have grapefruit or pomegranate because they could interact with one of his medications, and Ningxia Red has pomegranate in it!  Berries and Ningxia are usually staples in our smoothies because they are both so full of antioxidants, so today, I made one just for me.

Blue & Red Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop YL Pure Protein Complete Vanilla Spice
• 1 cup frozen organic blueberries
• 1 frozen banana
• 2 oz. Ningxia Red
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Blend together.  YUM, and this is a great pick-me-up.  Made me feel much better immediately!  Look at all the good stuff in this one smoothie serving………

7 Health Benefits of Blueberries

Ningxia Red Product Information

Highlighting the supporting fruits found in NingXia Red® is a patented grape seed extract that contain polyphenolic compounds that may help support a healthy cardiovascular system. Additionally blueberry, plum, aronia, cherry, and pomegranate juice contains naturally high levels of anthocyanins and polyphenols, which block oxygen-based free radicals from damaging body tissues. Maintaining a diet rich in these powerful antioxidants is a recommended way to help prevent against a myriad of health risks and maintain healthy bodily functions.

Bananas: Health benefits, facts, research