Hamburger soup.

Yesterday I planned to make Mark’s favorite long-simmered lentil soup, but my errands took longer than I wanted and I didn’t get home until 6 p.m.  "I’ll figure something out," I told Mark, and indeed I did — what I came up with surprised everyone, it was so good.  It helped that I had the good beef stock ready to go, of course, but the rest of the ingredients were the odds and ends from fridge and freezer. Yes, I just happened to have four parsnips in my fridge, and don’t try to substitute carrots, because parsnips will give your soup a wonderful sweetness.   I’m writing this recipe down and saving it.

Like most of my invented recipes, it’s really an adaptation of a different "hamburger soup" recipe for which I had similar ingredients but not all the right ones.   If you want it to be done quickly — like I did last night — make sure the vegetables are cut into small pieces. 

Hamburger Vegetable Soup – 6 servings – 45 minutes to 1 hour.

• Olive oil
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 4 parsnips, peeled and sliced thinly
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly (or use all parsnips)
• 1 – 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes with added puree
• 1 quart beef stock
• 1/4 medium cabbage, shredded (about 3 cups)
• 1 to 1.5  cup or so frozen sweet corn kernels
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste

In a soup pot, cook beef and onion in olive oil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is browned, 5-7 minutes.  Stir in celery, parsnips, and carrots and cook a few minutes more.  Mix in crushed tomatoes, beef stock, cabbage, corn, basil, and thyme.  Heat to boiling.  Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer 20-40 minutes until vegetables are tender.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Seriously, we could not believe how good it was.  Adding crushed saltine crackers to the bowls made it into really fabulous comfort food.  The cabbage and root vegetables make it a complete meal, what with the green veg and the yellow.  And notice that (without the crackers) it’s gluten free, but still nice and thickened from the starch coming out of the corn.