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| This soup can cook in the CrockPot while you're at work. |
We're doing a Month of Daily Phase One recipes during January, and here's a new Phase One soup recipe you can put in the slow cooker and let cook all day while you're at work. When you get home you'll have to add the cabbage and spinach and cook for about another hour, but you can put your feet up and read the paper while the soup finishes. And if chop the cabbage and spinach the night before, your work will be done when you get home from work!
I ate the soup with sour cream when I made it, so that's how I took the photos, but when I took this to my family Christmas party quite a few people there liked it with Parmesan cheese. I'm an equal opportunity soup garnisher, so take your choice on that. I call this soup spicy because I threw in a good pinch of red pepper flakes when I added the vegetables at the end, but if you're making it for kids you can always leave that out.
I like to rinse the cooked ground beef with VERY HOT water to remove some of the fat, especially when it's going to cook for a long time like this.
Also rinse the beans until no more foam appears. (This is a tiny colander, but it's only one can of beans.)
Chop up the celery and onion. (If you're going to cook it all day, do all this the night before and store in individual containers in the fridge.)
Put the ground beef, chopped onion, chopped celery, garlic, canned tomatoes and water you rinse the can with, beef stock, vegetable stock, kidney beans, dried parsley, and dried thyme into the slow cooker and cook about 4 hours on high or 8-9 hours on low.
After the soup had cooked that long, I tasted it and added a tiny bit of salt and some fresh ground black pepper.
Thinly slice and chop the cabbage and chop spinach into fairly thin pieces so they don't take too long to cook. (Or do this the night before if you're cooking all day.)
Stir in the vegetables, turn to high if you were cooking on low, and let cook about 1 hour longer, or until the cabbage is cooked.
Then stir in 2-3 tablespoons of sherry vinegar (or use another vinegar if you don't have that.) Serve hot with sour cream or Parmesan cheese to add at the table.
(Makes about 6-8 servings, but this freezes well. Recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration from a soup recipe in Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook.)
Equipment:
I used a 4.5 quart slow cooker for this recipe.
Ingredients:
2-3 tsp. olive oil (depending on your pan)
1 lb. lean ground beef (use ground beef with less than 10% fat for South Beach Diet)
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 tsp. crushed garlic (or more)
2 cans (14.5 oz.) petite dice tomatoes with juice
(rinse each can of tomatoes with 1/2 can of water)
4 cups homemade beef stock (or use 2 cans beef broth and a little water)
1 can vegetable broth
1 can kidney beans, rinsed
1 T dried parsley
1 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
2 cups very thinly sliced and chopped green cabbage
1 cup chopped spinach
pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
2-3 T sherry vinegar (or use any mild vinegar that you like)
sour cream or grated Parmesan cheese for serving (optional)
Instructions:
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy frying pan and cook ground beef until it's well-browned, breaking apart with the turner as you cook. If desired, place the cooked ground beef in a fine mesh strainer and rinse with VERY HOT water to remove most of the fat.
Chop the onion and celery and crush the garlic (or use crushed or pureed garlic from a jar.) Rinse the kidney beans with cold water until no more foam appears.
Put the ground beef, chopped onion, chopped celery, garlic, canned tomatoes and water you rinse the cans with, beef stock, vegetable broth, kidney beans, dried parsley, and dried thyme into the slow cooker and cook about 4 hours on high or 8-9 hours on low. Taste soup and add salt and fresh-ground black pepper as desired. (I added a tiny bit of each.)
While soup cooks, thinly slice the cabbage and chop the spinach. After soup has cooked 4 hours on high or 8-9 hours on low, add the cabbage and spinach, turn slow cooker to high if needed, and cook about 1 hour more, or until the cabbage is done. Stir in the sherry vinegar (start with 2 T and taste to see if you want to add more.) Serve hot, with sour cream or grated Parmesan cheese to add at the table.
(If making this to cook all day while you're at work, I recommend you brown and rinse the ground beef, chop onions, chop celery, crush garlic, slice and chop cabbage, and chop the spinach the night before to make it easy to put the soup together in the morning. Store these prepped ingredients in containers in the fridge, not in the slow cooker crock.)
This freezes well. Let thaw in the refrigerator overnight and then heat in the microwave or in a small pan on the stove.
