This was a bit of an experiment, and I think there’s a few things I would change next time. But, I will present the recipe as I made it tonight, and note some potential changes along the way. Overall, I enjoy making soups because they’re easy to taste and adjust as you go, and I think this one came out pretty well. So, here we go…

Ingredients:

• Beef Stock
• 1/2 lb of deli sliced roast beef
• 1 large leek
• 1 sweet onion
• 4 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 can of kidney beans
• Worchestershire sauce
• Soy sauce
• Ground cumin
• Black pepper

Procedure:

Coarsely chop the onion and mince the garlic. Slice the leek and rinse thoroughly to get rid of any dirt or sand that may have gotten trapped. Heat some olive oil in your soup pot and saute the onion. Once the onion starts to soften, add the garlic and black pepper. Continue to saute until the onion starts to lightly brown, and then add the leeks. At this point, I like to add a splash of beef stock and a few shakes of worchestershire sauce as the extra moisture helps soften the leeks.

A small amount of stock helps soften the leeks and prevents the vegetables from burning.

Next, add the mushrooms and a little more stock if needed to keep things moist. I like to cover the pot at this point to use some steam to speed up the cooking of the leeks and mushrooms while prepping the rest of the ingredients.

For the beef, I used a low sodium roast beef from the deli at my grocery store. I had them put a medium slice on it and then I cut it into “spoon-sized” squares before adding to the pot.

After adding the beef, add the remaining stock. (Note: While I enjoyed this soup, I think a vegetable broth would have been better than a beef stock)

Rinse the kidney beans well and add them to the pot. (Note: Again, this soup was pretty tasty, but I think the beans were extraneous and did not add much to the final product.) Once everything is in the pot, keep the heat high enough to get things bubbling gently, and then roll back on the heat until you have a gentle simmer.

Add a few more shakes of worchestershire sauce and/or soy sauce to taste. I also used a few shakes of cumin just to add some depth to the soup. Let everything simmer for at least 30 minutes to let the flavors meld together. Taste the broth periodically and adjust to taste with additional seasoning if needed.

The final product is kid-friendly, and I served it in a “deconstructed” form for my 15-month-old so that he could eat it with his hands. He enjoyed it quite a bit!

All of the coolest hipster foodie toddlers are enjoying deconstructed soups…

Winter is starting to wind down, and with it, the demand for soups will likely slow down until next fall, but at least for now, there’s not much I enjoy more than a comforting bowl of soup on a chilly evening. While there is still snow on the ground, fire up the burner, grab your stock pot and enjoy!

A little shaved asiago or parmesan would make an excellent finishing touch on this soup…