Recipe: Easy Beef Vegetable Soup

Fall has finally arrived and I’m making soup.  I love a big bowl of hearty soup with some crusty bread.  So very comfort food!   The other thing I love about – easy.    Oh, you could spend hours letting is simmer on the stove, but who really has time for that these days.  Nope!  I’m a get’ er done kinda gal and prefer something tasty and quick.  No need to worry about ‘what’s for dinner’.   I made this for dinner last night and the boys ate it all.  (I had one bowl.)  Give it a try this fall.

Starwoodgal’s Easy Beef Vegetable Soup

1 to 1 1/2 pounds beef stew meat – (I recommend getting the good stuff. Lean trim)
1 can diced tomatoes (14 1/2 oz)
1 can tomato soup
4 cubes beef bouillon
Water
1 large onion – chopped
2 cloves garlic – chopped
2 stalks celery – chopped
3 or 4 carrots – sliced
1 can green beans
1 cup frozen corn
thin spaghetti
salt and pepper to taste

Drizzle some olive oil in deep pot or dutch oven and heat.  Add sliced/diced onion, garlic, and the stew meat.  Season with S&P and brown the meat.  Add everything else except the spaghetti.  Add a couple of cans of water (use soup can to measure).  You’ll need enough water to make sure ingredients are covered, but visible.   You can always add water if you need it later.  Be careful about adding salt because your bouillon cubes are salty already.  Simmer for 30 minutes or so.  Add spaghetti.  Just enough to have a few pieces on each spoon full.  Break into 1 inch pieces.  Cook for an additional 12 to 15 minutes and enjoy with bread or saltines.

Y’all Enjoy! 

Recipe: Starwoodgal’s Chicken-n-Dumplings

Of all the things I make, my kids BEG me to make my Chicken-n-Dumplings recipe.  BEG! PLEAD! and GROVEL, but they know I won’t make it in the summer because it is too hot.  And, now that it has begun to cool off, guess what they’ve asked me to make for our Sunday dinner.  Chicken-n-Dumplings, but I won’t be able to do that this weekend ‘cuz Fishing Man (hubby) and I are heading on over to the Buffalo River for a weekend getaway with his sister and her husband.  As my BLOG friend over at Drovers Run says, “I’m Chuffed” (British for happy, excited, elated) about going to the Ozark Mountains for a weekend of peace and quiet. Yes! I’ll take pictures! I’m hoping the trees will be pretty.

Anyway, here’s my recipe for Chicken-n_Dumplings. Simple ingredients – the only hard part is picking the chicken off the bone. I promise!

Starwoodgal’s Chicken-n-Dumplings

1 large fryer chicken, cut up (rinse well, but do leave the skin on as this is where a lot of flavor lives)
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
2 Tablespoons butter
Chicken Bouillon Cubes
Poultry Seasoning, about two teaspoons (careful, because this stuff can give you heartburn something fierce and if you add too much it will make your broth green and no one likes green broth. Go easy here).
Onion Powder, about two teaspoons (give or take because I love onion)
Salt and Pepper to taste
8 cans of Pillsbury’s Biscuits (not the flaky ones, they fall apart)
Yellow food dye (optional)

Melt butter in skillet and throw in the chopped onion and celery. Cook until tender.
Rinse the chicken, place in deep cooking pot and fill with water a little over half full. Make sure the chicken is covered with water. (I have a huge industrial – very deep – stew pot that I cook this in because Dutch Ovens aren’t deep enough for the amount of dumplings I have to cook later). Throw in about 6 to 8 chicken bouillon cubes, salt, onion powder, poultry seasoning, and the cooked onion/celery. Stir well, cover and stew the chicken until cooked through.

Remove the chicken to a clean dish to cool. Turn off heat and keep the broth in the pot. Taste the broth, if it is too salty – add water and if not salty enough, add some more salt. You want to do this because your biscuits are going to soak up a lot of flavor and you want them to taste good, not like a piece of cooked dough without flavor.

Once the chicken has cooled, remove skin and take the chicken off the bone. Turn the heat back on under the pot and let it come to a low boil. Place chicken back in the pot and continue to let it slowly boil. Open your first can of biscuits. Separate the biscuits and then cut each biscuit in half. Flatten the 1/2 biscuit with your hand and then drop into the boiling broth. Keep repeating this process until all your biscuits are in the pot. You’ll need to use a spatula or wooden spoon and gently push the biscuits under so they cook all the way through as they will keep floating to the top. Don’t “stir” too much because you’ll break up the biscuits and that would just be gross. Just occasionally stir so the biscuits cook evenly in the broth. You’ll know their done when they are less puffy and more dense looking. It doesn’t take long, just keep an eye on them.

Now, don’t freak out but sometimes I put just a couple of drops of yellow food dye in the broth so it has a nice yellow “chicken” color. Oh stop! How do you think your grandmother got her chicken soup that color? You don’t have to add it, but you can if you want that yummy color in the bowl. Taste the broth to make sure you have the right amount of salt and pepper. Serve with a nice salad and hot buttered french bread.

Note:  With 8 cans of biscuits. 10 biscuits per can cut in half = 20.  20 X 8 = 160 dumplings.  I’m feeding 5 adults with this and trust me, there’s never any leftovers.  Adjust your water, chicken, seasoning, and dumplings according to how many folks you’re feeding.  Remember you need air space in your pot for cooking the dumplings so they don’t boil over and create a mess on your stove.  Deep pot like the ones they use in school cafeterias.  $8 at the Wal-Marts.

Y’all Enjoy!  

Back on Sunday!  Have a great weekend.

PS: Look at the top menu. I’ve added a Recipe Directory for “Cooking with Starwoodgal” so it will be easier to find all the recipes I’ve posted thus far.