Recipe by: Joe Scrizzi

Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

I’m not sure if I ever shared my mom’s Hamburger Soup recipe (I know I’ve made it a lot over the years). It’s a basic throw stuff in a stock pot in the order listed, season and enjoy! Over the years I changed things up by making little meatballs out of the ground beef and called it: Cannonball Soup (catches friends’ attention!). A friend started a conversation on Facebook this past week and I joined in, I thought about combining my mom’s recipe with the conversation, however I will save that for another article, because it will be lengthy.

Hamburger Soup

2 T olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

3 ribs celery, diced

5 cloves garlic, pressed or chopped fine

1.25# ground beef

2 – 15ozs cans diced tomatoes, undrained (rinse with little water and add to pot)

3 carrots, chopped

2 baking potatoes or handful of smaller size, cleaned, cut into bite size

2 – 3 quarts beef broth/stock

Parsley, to garnish

Parmesan cheese, to garnish

Add olive oil to large stock pot over medium heat. Once it warms up, add onions, celery, garlic and let that cook down to soften. Create a space in the middle of the veggies and brown the ground beef until little pink is left (since this is a soup vs a chili, it will continue to cook once the broth is added). Add diced tomatoes, stir to combine. Add carrots, potatoes, stock, stir, bring to a slight boil, reduce heat, cover and let cook until carrots are fork tender.

Bon Appetite!

Chefs Notes:

Once the soup is done, you can add 1 cup of cooked pasta, rice or barley to make it thicker. Other veggies can be added (choice).

I stopped adding salt to my soups and adjust that seasoning when I eat it if it needs it.