Beef, Rice and Vegetable Soup

Winter has finally decided to make an appearance. The past two days it has been damp and cold with snow and freezing rain. So the obvious choice for dinner was soup. It was somewhat of a "clean the fridge" soup. We had soup bones and stewing beef in the freezer so it had to be beef something.

I boiled down the bones in 4 cups of water with an onion and Epicure Beef Bouillon Base (if you read my blog you know how big a fan I am of the Epicure Chicken Bouillon Base. When I went to restock, I decided to buy the beef and give it a try. It was really good as well!). I then strained the broth and used it in my soup. But if you don't want to do this to make a broth, you can use 4 cups of a store bought broth.


Making Broth



Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 1 pound stewing beef, in small chunks
• 1 leek, thinly slice everything but the dark green leaves
• 3 celery stalks, thinly sliced
• 1 cup chopped baby carrots
• 1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms

  

  
• 4 cups beef broth (made as above or store bought)
• 3/4 cup rice, uncooked

Directions:

1. In a soup pot, cook beef in water over medium heat for 10 minutes.
2. Add in the leek, celery, carrots and mushrooms. Cook for an additional 10 minutes.
3. Stir in broth and simmer on low heat for at least an hour.
4. 20 minutes or so before serving, add in rice.