Homemade Hamburger Soup

Now when you think of health food, hamburger soup may not be the first thing that pops into your head but by my definition of 'health food' (whole, real foods) I think we can make it fit.  For you veteran cooks this may be old hat but I figured for those young GB folks that have recently moved out on their own - this may provide some inspiration.  Especially when they see how easy making soup from scratch can be.

Homemade Hamburger Soup

1 onion (med to large) diced

2-3 cloves of garlic crushed and minced

1 tbsp olive oil

Start to saute the onion and garlic over med heat until the onions are translucent and begin to brown

Add and brown

1 lb extra lean ground beef

Now normally (especially if using anything other than extra lean beef) you would drain the beef but I keep all the juices in the pot to help flavour the soup stock.

I then add virtually any and all veggies that I may have around.  This last soup I added

2 carrots diced

2 celery stocks diced

1 green pepper diced

1 red pepper diced

3 Roma tomatoes roughly cut

(get creative at this point!! I often add black beans as well but didn't have them on hand this time. If you have a favourite ingredient add a comment at the bottom of this post and share your inspirations!)

I saute all the veggies in the hamburger mixture starting with 'hardest' veggies and working my way up to the softest.  Usually its a minute or two between adding the next textured veggie.  This isn't mandatory, I just make this a practice so that my carrots are equally cooked with my peppers ext.

Next I fill the pot with water and calculate how much 

Beef Bullion (For my pot I use two containers but read the directions on your bullion)

And lastly I add seasonings!

This last part is really by taste so I hesitate to give measurements and such but I ALWAYS taste the soup broth after adding the bullion.  From there you can gauge if you will even need to add salt (usually not...)  As a side note try to find a bullion that is not just salt and food colouring ;) I have found a condensed gelatin bullion that is not as salty as others I have tried and adds some nice flavour.

Anyway back to spices...

For this soup I added oregano and rosemary with a pinch of sage as well as shake or two of my Montreal steak rub (Epicure has some great spice mixes that do not have any preservatives)

Good Luck!

I just realized that I didn't take a picture of the finished soup :( It was awesome though!