{Recipe} Chunky Beef Veggie Soupstew

I would like to say *I* made this for dinner but really I think the credit needs to go to my 17 and 15 year old daughters who did the grunt work. I gave suggestions and direction.  I supervised but they did the peeling and the chopping and the combing.

It all started with sending BooBear to the freezer to “find some meat.  Cubed beef or chicken or something that we can make for dinner tonight”  She went freezer diving and found some cubed round steak. 

Then we had to decide what to DO with said beef cut into beautiful cubes. (Yes beautiful.  It was beautiful to find that I had thought ahead and cubed the meat BEFORE we froze it!) Beef Tips? Beef Stroganoff?  Hungarian Goulash? Did I want to serve it with rice or egg noodles? Oh wait no egg noodles.

I assigned BooBear the task of hunting through the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook for inspiration.  She found the uninspiring title of “Absent Cook Beef Stew.”   We made a few changes and when the meal was ready we named it: “Chunky Beef Veggie Soupstew”.  The liquid is very thin and not a gravy but the ratio of liquid to chunks of meat and vegetables is on the small side so it’s thin like soup but really it’s more of a stew.

What you need:

• about 1 1/2 lbs of beef ~ cut into 1 inch cubes.  I used round steak
• about 8 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
• about 5 large carrots peeled and sliced into thickish coins
• 1 1/2 – 2 onions chopped.
• 1 can (4 oz drained) mushroom pieces and stems (next time I think I’ll add a second can)
• 1 can (about 15 oz) tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
• Salt and Pepper to taste

I tossed it all in the crock pot and mixed it up.  Cover, cook on high for about 5 hours.  (I always use high because I *never* get the crock pot going before NOON).   You want to cook it until the meat and potatoes are nice and tender.   If you were going to cook this on low I would suggest 10 hours minimum.

This generously served my family of 6 with enough left over for daddy to take to work for lunch.  Everyone had seconds and this recipe will be added to our list of ‘serve regularly and often” meals.