Before we get to the recipe for this simple garden veggie beef soup, I would love to share a short story with you. Once upon a time there was a little bull calf named Brownie. He was born out on a pasture in the Ozarks of Missouri. He had a wonderful time growing up with his friends and family. But the plan of his owners was to one day put him into the freezer to help sustain the lives of others. Thankfully, Brownie turned out to be an amazing young bull. His owners decided to pass him along to another farm to continue his life as a breeding bull.
And so Brownie lives on. The money we received from his sell went toward the purchase of high quality bulk ground beef. A good friend told me about an amazing company called Grass Roots Farmers Co-op. When we don’t have our own meat, we try to purchase meat locally from friends if available. If not, we try to support farmers that practice regenerative farming like the farmers that supply Grass Roots. We couldn’t be more happy that Brownie is still alive and we now have high quality grass-fed beef in our freezer.
Farm to Table Main Dish For February
It’s not easy to make the switch from buying everything from the grocery store to using more and more of your own home grown food. And so I have been challenging myself to come up with farm to table meals that use only ingredients that our family has grown or produced on our homestead. Due to our recent freezer blessing, garden veggie beef soup sounded like the perfect farm to table meal for the month.
Black Beans Pair Well With Veggie Beef Soup
For years now, we have grown some of our own black beans. A variety called called Cherokee Trail Of Tears grows really well for us. We usually get two harvests from the same plants, one mid summer and one in the fall. The unshelled beans are stored in paper sacks in our pantry until we have the time to shell them. Needless to say, we do also purchase black beans in bulk because they are fairly inexpensive, easy to store, and have a long self life.
Ingredients:
100% Grass-Fed Ground Beef – For our family of nine, I used 2 pounds and we had about 2 servings left over.
Cooked black beans – One cup of dried beans makes about 3 cups cooked.
Diced tomatoes – We still have a few bags of diced tomatoes in the freezer from last summer’s garden. I added about 3 cups to the soup.
Green beans – Our family loves green beans! I added about 2 cups of blanched green beans.
Herbs and spices – I added all of the following to the ground beef as it was browning; sea salt, onion and garlic granules, ground fennel, ground rosemary, and basil.
Water – Four cups of water or broth.
Tools you will need
Six quart pot or larger
How To Make Garden Veggie Beef Soup
- Brown two pounds of ground beef with herbs and spices in a six quart or larger pot, stirring frequently.
- Add water, frozen veggies, and cooked black beans to the ground beef.
- Stir all together and bring to a boil, then simmer until ready to serve.
Easy Garden Veggie Beef Soup
Farm to table meal for February using grass-fed ground beef, black beans, tomatoes, and green beans.
Ingredients
- - 2 pounds ground beef
- - 3 cups cooked black beans
- - 3 cups dices fresh, canned, or frozen tomatoes
- - 2 cups blanched green beans
- - 2 t. sea salt
- - 2 t. onion granules or one diced onion
- - 1/2 t. garlic granules or 8 cloves crushed garlic
- - 1/2 t. ground fennel
- - 1/4 t. ground rosemary
- - 1 t. dried basil leaf
- - 4 cups water or broth
Instructions
- Brown ground beef with herbs and spices, stirring frequently.
- Add cooked black beans, vegetables, and water to the ground beef and mix well.
- Bring to boil, then simmer until ready to serve.
Notes
The herbs and spices added to the beef give the meat a sausage flavor. Feel free to add whatever vegetables you may have on hand. For example, cabbage would work well with the flavor of this soup.
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