Now that the weather is cooler, my wife is making a pot of her Veggie Soup a' la Edesse.

(Edesse is my wife's name. It's French-Canadian)

Ingredients are:

Stew meat of your choice. Venison is traditional, but lamb or beef works very well too. 1/2 to 1 pound. Cook it up in a crock pot with onion the day before until tender/falling apart and then let cool overnight so you can skim most of the fat off.

Veggies Proportions to suit your needs, but we generally go with 4-5 baseball-sized potatoes, a softball sized turnip, about half a head of cabbage, half a dozen nice carrots, a couple sticks of celery.

While preparing the veggies, put the stew meat and broth on to reheat, add a handful of rice.

Grind (do NOT use a blender, it cuts it too fine) the vegetables all together with a hand grinder. You want a fairly coarse texture, about the consistency of grape-nuts cereal if that makes sense.

Dump them in the pot with the stew meat and broth and let it simmer until the veggies are tender. Longer is better, and it gets even better when reheated later on. Nukes well too.

Add salt and pepper to taste, bread and butter for a side. Home-made bread and real butter is ideal. I like LOTS of fresh ground black pepper on mine.

CAUTION: Do NOT trust a fart after eating a big bowl of this stuff!

Yep, it's soup weather here as well.

Todays weather map:


The wife made a great chicken noodle soup the other day and she makes her own noodles that are to die for. Up next is turkey noodle soup, yum!

Jim

Sounds great. Try adding some barley to it. Barley gives a great flavor. Quaker makes a quick cook variety in a small box, it's usually in the oatmeal section at the grocery.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
Sounds great. Try adding some barley to it. Barley gives a great flavor. Quaker makes a quick cook variety in a small box, it's usually in the oatmeal section at the grocery.

Heck of an idea. I LOVE Chicken-barley soup, I think it'd go great with the veggie soup. I'll mention it to the Chef...

I made a big pot of chicken noodle yesterday.

Your recipe sounds good too. Especially with the barley

Wife made potato soup with some diced, smoked pork shoulder.

Dam it is good

Sound good -- we usually make a beef barley soup this time of year as well.

We usually simmer but this year I'm going to try using the pressure cooker to get the beef really tender.

I'll use some beef chuck (with lots of collagen) and start with mirepoix as the base. Then add some hash sized potatoes, diced tomatoes and barley. Seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, pinch of herbs (tarragon, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary) and a splash of sweet wine (moscato, Riesling, port or something).

Good idea! Soups on for the weekend

Question: why grind the veggies instead of dicing? Just curious. I don't have a grinder but maybe I should get one.

Sounds good.

It was soup weather here today too. Hadn’t even cracked 65 yet when I went to lunch The cafeteria at work had salmon chowder.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:

Question: why grind the veggies instead of dicing? Just curious. I don't have a grinder but maybe I should get one.

Has to do with the texture of the finished product. Everything but the meat is pretty much blended together into an almost oatmeal-like texture rather than discreet chunks of individual flavors. Very thick, not watery at all.

I arrived home from work yesterday to find that my wife had constructed a pot of ham-and-bean soup. Thick, almost could have used a fork instead of a spoon.

Some crusty bread and a glass of inexpensive red wine made a memorable meal.

Hoping for leftovers tonight. Might try for a photo to post here.

Sounds delicious. My wife made her similar soup this weekend, but she also uses barley. Barley has more flavor than rice.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Sounds delicious. My wife made her similar soup this weekend, but she also uses barley. Barley has more flavor than rice.

Mentioned barley to the Chef, she says she tried it but couldn't get the barley to cook up soft. Have to try the "instant" stuff next time.

She also says it's good with dumplings. But then, what isn't?

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Sounds delicious. My wife made her similar soup this weekend, but she also uses barley. Barley has more flavor than rice.

Mentioned barley to the Chef, she says she tried it but couldn't get the barley to cook up soft. Have to try the "instant" stuff next time

She also says it's good with dumplings. But then, what isn't?

Yes, you want the box labeled Quick Pearled Barley Cooks In 10 Minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
Yes, you want the box labeled Quick Pearled Barley Cooks In 10 Minutes.

Perfect, thanks!

Quick barley is fast, but the non-quick has better texture. It does take a long time to cook, though, so you have to cook the barley and then add other ingredients that don't need so long in the hot broth.

Both are good, though. I prefer the regular, but the quick barley is a decent substitute.

You can also cook the barley in your rice cooker and add it to the soup.

My wife makes pot au feu, then after the meat is all eaten and veggies remain, uses a hand held blender to turn the veggies into a thick soup.

It sounds like what you end up with. I have a pound of stew meat and onion in the crockpot since mid afternoon and will do the veggies tomorrow. We’ll see.

With thanksgiving so close why not use turkey for the meat, after you have carved the meat off the carcass break it down, put it in a stock pot with enough water to cover and cook all the meat off the bone then use that as the stock for your soup.

Tell your wife thanks and a big hug.

I made a batch of Veggie Soup a' la Edesse from your dirctions in the OP and it turned out quite nicely.

It was better today than it was Tuesday and I have two more servings.

Happy holidays!

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Tell your wife thanks and a big hug.

I made a batch of Veggie Soup a' la Edesse from your dirctions in the OP and it turned out quite nicely.

It was better today than it was Tuesday and I have two more servings.

Happy holidays!

Thanks SO much for letting us know. Edesse was thrilled to know you liked it.

She says her Grandmother used to make a big pot of it and let it simmer on the back of the wood cook stove. Makes a hearty meal for days!