Farmer's Market Soup

Yes. I cheated and reheated this from some I froze a couple of weeks ago. A great Friday night plan when I'm tired of working and don't want to cook.

This is one of my favorite dishes to make. I usually save it for winter, but I had a ton of vegetables that needed to be cooked ASAP, so out comes Beef Vegetable Soup.

This soup always tastes different, regardless of how close I try to make it to the previous version. Long ago, I gave up and just went with the flow, throwing in whatever piqued my curiousity at the time. This time I used a crock pot, but most often I just boil it on the stovetop for a few hours.

Here's (as close as I can remember) the general recipe for this version, which I have to say was one of the tastiest batches I've made.

Beef Vegetable Soup

beef stew meat (or chicken or even no meat)

leftover brewed coffee (cold)

vegetable stock (for gluten-free use water or GF broth)

Yukon gold potatoes

carrots

onions

celery

mushrooms (baby portabella and white)

tomatoes

fresh corn from the cobb

green beans (raw, but snapped)

garlic (minced)

allspice

freshly ground pepper

seasalt

dried cumin

fresh parsley

dried oregano

dried rosemary

So here's what happened. I start chopping up all these vegetables, just piling them up in a paper plate to throw in on top of the meat. Then I pull the meat out of the fridge, toss it in the crockpot and pour a little of the morning's coffee on top of it. I started tossing in vegetables and realized it wasn't all going to fit.

I chopped way too many, so I'm not even going to bother telling you how much of what to use. Perhaps you're a little better acquainted with your crockpot and its girth than I was, so try to eyeball it or use your wise judgment.

I poured the vegetables almost all the way to the top and realized I needed at least a little water in there. I know the veggies cook down and create more water (and more space), but still I added a little. I crammed as many vegetables in there as I could, saving the mushrooms (thankfully still unchopped) and about half of the potatoes (which I stored in the fridge in water overnight). I put the crockpot on low and went to bed, hoping for the best.

The next morning, it looked good and smelled good, so I decided to finish it off on the stove. I poured everything into a huge stockpot, added a good amount of vegetable broth, the mushrooms, potatoes, and some spices (which I didn't have room for the night before) and cooked it about another hour or so. This is a very exact science, you know.

By now, it's time for work and I'm exhausted. So I let it cool while I got ready for work, and threw it all in the fridge. Yes. I cooked it again for dinner. Perhaps this is the secret -- just cook it until it shrivels up into a big vegetable ball of tastiness.

I have to admit, though, this was the best-tasting meat I've ever had in my soup. It practically disintegrated in my mouth, with this yummy flavor that I cannot possibly begin to describe. I don't know if it was the meat itself ("all natural" beef from Whole Foods) or the cooking method or both. But it was yummy.

If you're like me and you're quite happy cooking from approximations instead of exact measurements, give this a try. It freezes well and worked great as a summer soup (as long as you eat it once the A/C has cooled the place down).