Slow Cooker Easy Vegetable Beef Soup
I thought I’d share a recipe for these cooler autumn days. With ground round on sale for $2.59 lb this week at Festival Foods (when you use the 10% off bag found in-store) and the tomato soup deals we always find in the fall, this Easy Vegetable Beef Soup is fairly inexpensive to make and made it on my menu for today. I’m also serving it with a loaf of day-old Italian bread that I got at Wal-Mart for $.90.
1 pound ground beef
14 oz. beef broth or stock (I use Better than Bouillon Beef base)
1 1/4 cup water
10-16 oz frozen mixed veggies (best mixes involve green/wax beans, carrots, peas and corn)
14 oz can of diced or crushed tomatoes (I use Muir Glen Fire-roasted for added flavor)
1 can condensed tomato soup (I used Dei Fratelli)
1 Tbl dried minced onion
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup chopped okra (optional)
1/4 cup bulgur wheat (optional)
You’re gonna need at least a 4-quart slow cooker. If you have a bigger crock pot, use more veggies!
Brown the beef and drain the fat. Add to the slow cooker. Add the rest of the stuff and cook on low for 7-8 hours on low or 3-4 on high.
The optional ingredients are things I like to add because I have a kid who doesn’t like soup; okra thickens this so it’s more stew-like. And the bulgur wheat does two things: absorbs liquid AND stretches the “meat” portion (if you’ve never tried it, I REALLY recommend adding a little bulgur to your meat dishes because of it’s high nutritional value–it also cooks up on it’s own as a great substitute for rice).
This is one of those recipes I use when I have several opened bags of frozen veggies in my freezer cuz I didn’t use them all up at once. And you can use regular diced or crushed tomatoes, any type of condensed soup, I’ve just found the brands mentioned add a little extra to this recipe.
Comments
Tell us what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!