Hamburger Soup

So many recipes to share and so little time in which to do it! I apologize for not getting anything posted last week. I will try to post a few extra recipes this week, but in the meantime, here's a little peace offering...

Hamburger Stew

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

3 Tablespoons flour

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed

3 cups vegetable juice cocktail (like V-8, or tomato juice will work also)

1 teaspoon instant beef bouillon granules (or 1 bouillon cube)

few dashes bottled hot pepper sauce (like Tabasco)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cups sliced celery

1 1/2 cups sliced carrots

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

Heat oil in large soup pot. Cook ground beef until browned and drain of fat. Add flour, garlic, thyme, and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix well. Stir in vegetable juice, boullion, hot pepper ssauce and 1 cup water. Add onion, celery, carrots and potato. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat. Cover; simmer about an hour. Depending on how much liquid you like with your soup, you may want to add a little more beef bouillon/water, or vegetable juice. The rule is to add i teaspoon bouillon granule (or 1 cube) to one cup of liquid. The liquid sometimes cooks down after an hour. That's why you might need to add a little more.

TIM'S NOTES: This is such a basic recipe, that much can be done to it. For instance, you don't have to add any spicy ingredient at all, but if you choose to, instead of the tabasco you might try a pinch of cayenne pepper, chili powder, a little fresh chopped jalapeno, chipotle puree,Chinese chili paste, salsa or taco sauce, red pepper flakes, anything that might give it a kick. Another thing that gives this soup a nice spiciness without adding an extra ingredient is using the Hot and Spicy V-8 Juice.

Seasonings--I add a little more thyme than this recipe calls for. You could add dried basil and/or oregano in place of the thyme. Add another clove of garlic if that's your thing. One general caveat--go easy on the salt. This soup can get salty really fast. You may want to hold off on the 1 teaspoon of salt until you taste the finished product. Depending on the saltiness of your vegetable cocktail or tomato juice, the sodium in the celery, the saltiness of the bouillon, how much the soup cooks down, you may even want to delete the salt altogether and just add it to individual servings at the table according to taste.

Vegetables--Sometimes I like to add sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. Don't confuse sweet potatoes with yams. Yams are the orange fleshed ones. We often call those sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving, but they are not. I also like to leave the skins on my potatoes. Just be sure to give then a good scrubbing. Yams, or a combination of sweet potatoes, and yams just might work as well.

Meat--I am wondering if ground turkey might be used instead of the ground beef. In that case, you might try using chicken or vegetable bouillon. And maybe you can make this vegetarian by not adding any meat at all, but using a vegetable bouillon. And with the poultry, I would probably use the basil/oregano combination, though thyme would still work.

JUST HAVE FUN PLAYING WITH THIS RECIPE! ENJOY!!!