Meatball Soup

I love soup! It's a super easy dish that lasts for several meals in my house, it cooks mostly unattended and there's just something comforting about a steaming bowl of soup on a dreary Northwest day.

I also have an abundance of tasty ground beef thanks to my rancher friend, Ava, who delivers the best grass-fed meat on the planet. So, the other day I decided to combine 2 of my favorite things into one simmering pot of goodness. I guess you would say this soup is similar to Italian Wedding Soup without the orzo, but whatever you call it, it was very tasty!

Meatball Soup (AKA Italian Wedding Soup)
32 oz of chicken stock (make your own or use good quality pre-made)
1 onion chopped
3-4 chopped carrots (mine were rainbow carrots)
Juice from 1 lemon (about 1/4 C)
1/4 C fresh chopped parsley (or 2 T dried parsley)
1 t garlic powder (or 2 t minced garlic)
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb bulk sausage (I used chicken sausage)
salt and pepper to taste

Bring chicken stock to a boil then add onion, carrots and cook for about 10 minutes or until carrots are starting to get tender. While carrots and onions are cooking, mix beef and sausage together with your hands then form into many 1 inch diameter balls. Add meatballs to the stock,  adding extra hot water as needed to keep everything covered. Add lemon juice, garlic powder and parsley. Simmer soup for about 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

Broccoli Soup

I love soup! As you can see from many of my past posts, I make soup quite often. This week I had a huge Costco sized bag of broccoli in my fridge that needed to be used. So I decided to give making broccoli soup a try. I really didn't have an inspiration recipe to start with this time; so I just threw some things in and gave it a shot. The result was so good I'll be making this again and again! I didn't make a creamy version this time, but I think I'll include some coconut milk next time for a nice change.

Broccoli Soup
1 Onion - diced
4 C chicken broth/stock
1 T chopped garlic (use less if you're not a huge garlic fan)
3 C Broccoli - chopped
1 t chili powder
1 t turmeric
salt and pepper to taste

In a saucepan over medium heat, brown onions. In the last minute or so of browning onions, add the garlic and spices and stir to combine. Add chicken broth and broccoli to saucepan, turn heat to low, cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes until broccoli is tender. With an immersion blender or in a blender, blend soup until smooth.

Beef and Cabbage Crockpot Stew

This week I received an eggplant in my veggie box. I have no idea how to cook an eggplant. But on that same day I noticed a recipe on the Primal Recipe Archive for Ethiopian Stew that included eggplant. I didn't have most of the ingredients for that stew, but it sparked the idea of making a stew with that eggplant and other ingredients I had on hand. As it turned out, the eggplant didn't play a starring role in the stew and you could probably leave it out entirely without noticing. But since it was the ingredient that inspired the entire meal, I thought it deserved a mention. The stew, however, ended up tasting quite hearty and will make a nice warm-up dinner several nights this week.

Beef and Cabbage Crock pot Stew
1 lb grass-fed ground beef
1 large eggplant peeled and cubed
1 large onion diced
3-4 carrots sliced
1 small head of cabbage (I used red cabbage) chopped
4 C chicken stock or other stock (veggie, beef, chicken, venison, etc. are all good choices)
3 C Water
1 can or tetrapak diced tomatoes
1 T minced garlic
1 t Turmeric
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1/4 C chopped fresh basil
1/4 C chopped fresh chives
2 T red wine vinegar
2 t cumin
2 t salt to taste
1 t black pepper to taste

In a medium skillet (I prefer cast iron), brown ground beef then put it in a crock pot. Brown diced onions then add to crock pot with meat. To the crock pot, add the peeled and cubed eggplant, sliced carrots, chopped cabbage, tomatoes, stock, water, garlic, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger. Turn crock pot to high and cook for about 4 hours (6-8 hours on low). About 30 minutes before serving, stir in the basil, chives, vinegar, cumin, salt and pepper to stew. Continue cooking on low for an additional 30 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Paleo/Primal Squash Soup

My veggie box this week came with a butternut squash and a recipe for butternut squash soup. That sounded pretty good; so I decided to give it a try with a few changes to make it Paleo/Primal. I also had some mini pumpkins that had been sitting around as decorations since Thanksgiving and some rutabaga I'd cubed and frozen during the summer. I decided to throw all of that in to bulk up the soup a bit. The result was really good! I can see this being a great starter for a nice dinner or dinner all by itself!

Paleo/Primal Squash Soup
1 butternut squash (or other squash of choice)
1 smallish pumpkin or several mini pumpkins  (or other squash of choice)
2-3 C peeled and cubed rutabaga
4 C chicken stock
1 large onion chopped
2 T butter or coconut oil
1/2 t Thyme
1/2 t chili powder
1 t turmeric
1/2 t garlic powder
2 t salt or to taste
black pepper to taste
14 oz can coconut milk

Cut pumpkin and squash in half and remove seeds and strings with a spoon. Place cut side down on cookie sheet and roast at 350F for about 30 minutes or until knife easily pierces the skin. Remove all flesh from skin with a spoon and set aside.

In a dutch oven brown onion in butter or oil until tender. Add cubed rutabaga, spices and chicken stock. Cover and cook for about 30 minutes or until rutabaga is tender. Add pumpkin and squash flesh to dutch oven, add coconut milk as well. With a stick blender (immersion blender) blend soup until it is smooth. (Alternatively, you can put small batches of the soup into a blender to puree, but be sure to hold the top on as hot soup will push the lid off and make a big mess of your kitchen.). Add black pepper to taste and garnish. Enjoy!

Chicken Soup

As you may know, we have chickens. And a while back we put a few of those chickens (mostly roosters) in our freezer for future eating. Unfortunately when we put those chickens in the freezer we didn't make any notations on the Ziploc bag indicating how old the chicken was at time of slaughter. So when I pull one out of the freezer I never really know how to prepare it; is it a stewing hen or a roasting hen? The other day I pulled out a bag of chicken parts, made a guess about the age of the hen and decided to roast it. I chose incorrectly and the result was nearly impossible to eat being much too tough to chew. I decided to try to salvage the chicken by re-cooking it the next day in the crock pot. The resulting soup was really good and may become one of  my regular meals that uses our own chicken. If you don't have your own home-grown chickens be sure to buy a free range or cage free chicken from the store, organic if possible. The more a chicken moves during its life the more flavor your soup will have. Enjoy!

Chicken soup
whole chicken or parts from 1 chicken
2 T bacon grease or butter
8 C water
2 C carrots sliced
2 medium sized zucchini sliced
2 t salt (to taste)
1 t garlic powder
1 t chili powder
2 t herb of choice (I used thyme, but rosemary or oregano or Italian seasoning would be good as well)

In a slow cooker, place chicken or parts, water and bacon grease. Cook on high for about 3 hours or until chicken is mostly cooked. Remove chicken from slow cooker and cut meat from bones. Return meat to slow cooker then add carrots, zucchini and spices. Cook for another hour on low or until carrots are tender.

Beef soup with tarragon

Some days there’s nothing better than a big pot of soup for dinner. The aroma infuses the house with that comforting smell and makes you ready to eat even if it’s not dinnertime yet. Today I had a hankering for beef soup. And given that I just bought ¼ of a grass-fed cow last week, I had some beef ready to use! I also get a veggie box from Mother Nature’s Organics once each week that stocks my fridge with yummy organic produce. I pulled some of that out today to add to the soup as well. I’m a fan of refrigerator soup. You know, where you just throw every veggie in the fridge into the pot. So that’s basically what I did. This week I got some fresh Tarragon in my veggie box. I've never really been good at cooking with fresh herbs, but since I had it, I used it. The Tarragon gave the soup a nice peppery taste that I didn't expect, but it was really good. Give it a try and enjoy!


Beef soup with tarragon
1 lb ground grass-fed beef
3-4 small to medium sized zucchini cut into chunks
1 large onion
1 T diced garlic
1 container or can of chopped tomatoes (I use Pomi in the tetrapak to avoid BPAs)
4 C chicken broth
2 C water
¼ C chopped fresh tarragon or 1 T dried tarragon
2 T lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown meat and onions then add with all other ingredients to a large soup pot. Bring to boil then simmer on low for about 1 hour or more.