How to Make a Quick and Easy Beef Vegetable Soup

If you have little time on your hand to eat a full-course meal, a bowl of soup is definitely your thing. Use ready-made, organic beef broth to save time but still enjoy that delicious beef flavor. Here’s a quick and easy beef vegetable soup recipe for you.

This is part 3 of a 3-part recipe series from Chef Dave of Blu Bistro.

Soup is considered a complete meal. There’s the liquid, the protein – put meat, poultry, or seafood in there, and the veggies – chopped and all mixed in.

For this post, Chef Dave shared his quick and easy beef and vegetable soup recipe which is useful for your busy days. He does not put pieces of meat in this recipe (because when you’re in a hurry, you do not have time to chop up chunks of beef or chicken).

Instead, he uses his homemade broth as a base to get the beef flavor he’s going for. You can get a pack of organic beef/chicken broth from the store, or prepare your homemade broth days ahead when you do have the time and ingredients.

You can freeze it in single-serve packets, ready for use on those dinner nights when you just want a quick and easy soup recipe, like this one.

Thank you to Emerald Court Assisted Living for your graciousness in sharing this recipe.

The Ingredients:

NOTE: This recipe says quick, so feel free to use ready-made bone broth, and organic if possible.

When you do have the time, you can make your own basic broth which could take up to 24 hours of a low and slow simmer. Use plenty of meaty bones to get a more beefy flavor. Store it for next time so you don’t have to buy ready-made from the store.

I linked a slow-cooker bone broth recipe in the Resource section at the bottom of this post.

And you probably already know this – keeping your bones healthy and dense is an ultra-important lifestyle habit to adapt.

Are there natural ways to take care of your bones? Here’s my post on 6 simple ways to have stronger bones.

Want to also stave off wrinkles for as long as you possibly can? The secret is in the collagen! It’s richly stored in your skin, muscles, and yes, the bones! Please check my post where I talked more about collagen and getting an intravenous collagen cocktail drip.

Eat a bowl of this healthy beef vegetable soup. Here’s the recipe:

1. Heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a medium-sized deep pot (a dutch oven is good!).
2. Add the chopped mixed vegetables starting with the chopped carrots, broccoli stems, broccoli, string beans, then mushrooms. Sautee for 3-4 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes.
3. You can add a teaspoon of minced garlic if you like (I made it optional for those who are not a fan of the garlicky taste in their soup).
4. Add two sprigs of rosemary herb, and 3 bay leaves. (You will pull the twigs and bay leaves out of the soup later, so don’t worry about mistakenly munching on them). 
5. Pour the ready-made bone broth into the pot containing the sauteed vegetables. Use a strainer while you pour, in case you are using your own homemade broth, to filter the veggies, etc. you might have used in your recipe.
6. Simmer till all the sauteed vegetables are soft but not soggy. About 2-3 minutes.

Note: If you’re serving this to your senior, you may want to cook the vegetables to a very soft consistency.

Beef Vegetable Soup recipe in photos:

#1. Briefly cook the diced vegetables –

With olive oil in the pot, add the vegetables, starting with the hardy ones (carrots) and ending with the tomatoes. Stir with a long spoon ladle.

#2. Add 1/2 tsp minced garlic (optional) –

I personally do not like to have garlic taste in my soup, so I’d skip it if I were making the soup for myself.

But a diet containing garlic has health benefits. It improves cholesterol levels and may lower the risk of heart disease. You go for it.

#3. Add two sprigs of rosemary herb, and 3 bay leaves –

Studies on the rosemary plant have become a significant focus of scientific research today to find out if it can help us with issues of obesity or diabetes, inflammation, and mental acuity, just to name a few.

#4. Using a large strainer, pour the soup base into the sauteed vegetables –

Simmer uncovered for about 3-4 minutes.

The soup is ready!

#5. Serve –

When I eat a bowl of this healthy beef and vegetable soup, it’s usually enough to fill my hunger. It’s a complete meal!

#6. Bonus idea: pair it with herbed focaccia or garlic bread.

If you have garlic bread or herbed focaccia, lightly butter a couple of slices and toast.

Voila! Enjoy a hearty soup!

Try it at home!  

This Beef Vegetable Soup recipe is a light but very satisfying hearty meal. And if you’re avoiding frequent trips to the store, the base and the chopped vegetables can be prepared ahead. Store in single-serve batches for a quick warm bowl of soup many nights of your week.

The Chef’s notes:

• The broth base can be made by the potful, stored in jars, frozen, and used as needed.

• You can chop the veggies a day ahead and place them in airtight containers. 

• You can also purchase packaged pre-chopped vegetables (except for the mushrooms) available in the freezer section of your local grocery store. 

• Diced canned tomatoes and low-sodium broth are also available at the store.

• But remember that if you’re trying to minimize your or your senior’s sodium consumption, spending an hour chopping your own tomatoes and making your own broth is always the best way to go.

About Chef Dave:

Chef Dave is Chef De Cuisine at the beautiful Blu Bistro inside Emerald Court Assisted Living for seniors.

He has 40 years of culinary experience tucked under his chef’s hat. Some of the famous people he had the privilege of cooking for include former Vice President Dick Cheney and the late George HW Bush.

His best “customers” are the elderly residents he cooks for in the Blu Bistro.

They give him instant praise or critiques, and they are harder to please than anyone of us would ever think.

Cooking for him is very fulfilling. His passion for good food is what he articulates as – “his overflowing cup”.

Indeed, he has overflowing plenty to share and he is sharing with us that passion and love through his recipes here. (This is Part 3 of 3)

Check out Part 1, Baked Cod Fish with Asparagus and Fresh Salsa

Also read Part 2: How to Serve Chicken Salad the Healthy Way

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Savvy?

GXL’s recommended resource:

Slow-cooker bone broth soup recipe – check out the basic bone broth recipe by Dr. M Hyman with Cleveland Health. It’s a good soup base for this vegetable soup recipe.

On to the next post,