Beef and Vegetable Soup
Cheap, tough beef cuts braised low and slow in broth with root vegetables until the meat is tender enough to break with a spoon. The collagen from those cuts dissolves into the broth over time and makes it thick and glossy. Expensive steaks make thin, bland soup.
Ingredients
- 800 gbeef chuck, shin, or short ribs, cut into 3 cm chunks
- 3 tbspvegetable oil
- 1 large onion
- 3 carrots, cut into 2 cm rounds
- 3 celery stalks
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsptomato paste
- 150 mlred wine or extra beef broth
- 1.5 lbeef broth, low-sodium
- 400 gcanned crushed tomatoes
- 1 tbspWorcestershire sauce
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tspdried thyme
- 500 gpotatoes, peeled and cut into 2 cm cubes
- 150 ggreen beans or frozen peas, added last
- 1 tspsalt
- ½ tspblack pepper
- 3 tbspfresh parsley
Method
- Pat the beef dry with paper towels — moisture prevents browning. Season generously with salt and pepper.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large heavy pot over high heat until just smoking. Brown the beef in batches, one layer at a time, without touching for 2–3 minutes per side. Don't crowd the pot — crowding steams instead of sears and produces gray, flavourless meat. Remove each batch to a plate.
- Reduce heat to medium. Add the remaining oil, then onion, carrot, and celery. Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until starting to soften. Add garlic and tomato paste. Cook 2 minutes, stirring, until the paste darkens slightly.
- Pour in the wine. Scrape the bottom of the pot thoroughly — all the browned bits are flavor. Let the wine bubble for 1 minute.
- Add the broth, crushed tomatoes, Worcestershire, bay leaves, and thyme. Return the browned beef and any juices that collected on the plate. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a very gentle simmer — barely a bubble.
- Cover and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes. The beef should be tender but not yet falling apart.
- Add the potato cubes. Cook uncovered for another 25–30 minutes until the potatoes are soft and the broth has thickened slightly. Add green beans or peas in the last 10 minutes.
- Remove bay leaves. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Ladle into deep bowls and finish with fresh parsley.
FAQ
Three things cause flat beef soup. First: the meat wasn't properly browned. Work in batches over high heat until each piece has a deep brown crust — that's the Maillard reaction, which is where all the flavor comes from. If you crowd the pot, the temperature drops and the meat steams gray. Second: the tomato paste needs to cook in the pot for 2 minutes until it darkens — that concentrates the umami. Third: deglaze the pan after searing and scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom — that's pure flavor dissolved into the broth.
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Comments (1)
This beef and vegetable soup tastes significantly better the next day. I make it in the evening and reheat gently for lunch — the flavors meld and deepen overnight in a way that same-day cooking simply cannot replicate.