Autumn soup help.

[LivingInGrey]

Autumn soup.

Ok, so this is how I initially received this recipe. I've been trying little things out (like the moah pepper) in order to give it a more robust taste with less fat from the meat (I try to keep red meat intake down to once a week at most), and I wanted to see if anyone around here might have an idea on how to go about this.

1 pound ground beef or beef tips (beef tips are better and use 1.5 lbs imo)
1 medium chopped onion (large onion and leave some sections of onion bigger)
4 cups water (6 cups sometimes depending on how much meat and potatoes I use)
1 cup cut-up carrots (again, more depending on meat and potato count)
1 cup diced celery
1 cup cubed potatoes (more like 5 red potatoes)
2 tablespoons salt (hold off till the end and salt as needed)
1 teaspoon bottled Worcestershire sauce (try more next time)
1/4 teaspoon pepper (moah pepper)
3 bay leaf
1 teaspoon basil (might use more)
can diced tomatoes
(add broccoli, green beans or peas for added veggie content as needed. MOAH VEGGIES)

In large saucepan, cook and stir meat until brown. Drain fat off. Cook and stir onions with meat (not with meat, just sauté. I like the taste of onion more than the meat/onion mix) until onions are tender, about 5 minutes.

Stir in remaining ingredients, except tomatoes, heat to boiling point then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 more minutes (cook potatoes first till about half done then do as above minus cooking time on potatoes). Add tomatoes, cover and simmer for 10 minutes longer or until vegetables are tender. Serve hot.

Some of the changes I've made to this are in parentheses along with closer to the end of cooking the soup I'll spoon out some of the liquid and dissolve a few beef bouillon and mix it in to taste. My problem is I keep on ending up with something that doesn't have a hearty meaty taste in the actual broth. I'm not big on fatty meats and I only eat red meat once a week at most. But I LOVE the taste of a strong beef stew. What can I do to help beefy this up a bit?

Discuss
Happy eating.

[Snoeball]

It's very strange to see a food section on this forum... I just noticed it, and I love cooking  =)

Anyways, If I was making a stew like this what I would do is replace part of the water with a stock.  Like 4 cups water, I'd do 2 cups water 2 cups stock.  Personally I'd use chicken stock for more roundness in flavor, if I *did* go for beef stock, I'd probably do 3 parts water to one part stock.

Alternatively you may try adding some beef bullion to the water, just be careful as it can get salty, and 'artificial' tasting.

Also I would most definitely add shallots to this recipe, and I would roast the potatoes at high temp and add them later in the recipe for texture's sake.  You didn't mention how you were preparing the potatoes so I assume just boiled?

If you didn't want to just add more basil you could add in addition to the basil something else... Probably marjoram for this recipe.

I hope any of this was helpful  =)

[LivingInGrey]

The potatoes would normaly be boiled for a few mins just to get the cooking of them a little head start, maybe 5 - 10 mins depending on how small I cut them up. Then I'd add the rest of the ingredients to the pot for another 10 - 15 mins (again depending on potato chunk size).

I try to shoot for 'not mushy' on any of the veggies in the soup and definitely prefer my potatoes to hold their form when the meal is served (meaning I don't have the peal coming off or have half of my potatoes coming apart turning it into a mashed potato with other stuff in it kind of meal).

I'll look into a beef stock kind of idea now.

[LivingInGrey]

HOLY 8-12 hour cook time !!!


Home made beef stock ^^^^^^

[Snoeball]

LOL, yes... I figured you'd just go buy it in the can!  Making beef stock would be quite the task just for one soup I think