Intense Beef & Winter Veggie Soup

In order to duplicate this soup you will need some really good stock! Since Kelsy and I have been so busy the past couple weeks, our regular kitchen routines have really slipped. Thanks to our neglect, we ended up with two crock pots of extremely reduced stock – one beef, the other chicken. I can’t really say how long they were going, but it was at least a week.

So this morning, I decided to finally use up the end of the beef broth. I didn’t measure anything… I was just trying to get something made so I could head out the door. I didn’t expect it to be good enough to share, so you’ll have to bear with my approximations!

Ingredients

• About 1 qt beef stock
• About 1 lb ground beef
• About 1 lb chopped carrots
• About 3 cups of chopped up brassica leaves
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil, tallow, or ghee
• About 1 tsp salt
• About 1 tsp cumin
• A pinch cayenne

Directions

1. In a stainless steel pot, melt the fat over medium heat.
2. Dice the onion and add it to the pan with a pinch of salt.
3. Chop up the carrots into 1/2 inch slices and slice up your brassica leaves while the onion is cooking. I used the leaves from my bolting brussels sprouts. Normally leaves go bitter when leafy plants bolt, but with overwintered brassicas that have seen frost they are often still sweet! Mine had a very bright, strong flavor and were not bitter at all.
4. When the onion starts to turn translucent, add the stock and your carrots. Bring to a low boil. Add water to cover the carrots if necessary. If your stock is already very reduced, the flavor will still be great. If you are not using very strong stock, add more stock if necessary.
5. While the carrots are cooking, add cumin, salt, and cayenne to your ground beef, mix well, and roll into 1 inch balls.
6. When the carrots start to get tender, put your brassica leaves in the soup, and continue to simmer.
7. Add your meatballs to the soup, and stir from time to time so that they all cook evenly. It should just take a few minutes for them to be cooked through.

This post is part of Sunday Soup Night!

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