Hamburger Soup

Hamburger Soup is basic vegetable soup. The only difference is that you use ground beef to make it instead of other meats or vegetables. It's got all the other stuff in it that a normal vegetable soup would have, you just have to brown some ground beef before you make the rest of the stuff.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds of ground beef. Use whatever fat/lean ratio you want, just realize that you may have to add some oil if the beef is too lean. Brown this in the pot that you will be making the soup in and drain some of the grease if you want. I keep the grease in there to help sweat the onions later.
  
• 2 large onions, diced.
  
• 2 washed leeks. Cut into bite-sized pieces and washed thoroughly. Only use the tender white parts and save the green tops if you want to make vegetable stock at some point later. If not, toss them in the garbage.
  
• 2 medium sized turnips, diced into bite sized chunks.
  
• 3 large carrots, sliced into bite sized chunks.
  
• 5 or 6 stalks (ribs?) of celery, sliced into bite sized chunks.
  
• 1 Cup of sliced mushrooms.
  
• 1 of those 2 pound bags of the midget red potatoes.
  
• 3 cans of No-Salt green beans. These are the 12 ounce cans. Drain the liquid.
  
• LOTS of sliced/chopped garlic.
  
• 10-20 whole peppercorns.
  
• Ground Pepper
  
• Salt
  
• MSG powder to taste
  
• 2 of those 32 ounce boxes of Beef Broth. You can use your own stock, bone broth, or other liquids that have a meaty flavor.
  

Alternate Ingredients you may have on hand or want to try: Collard/Mustard/Turnip Greens, Pinto Beans, Diced/Crushed Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, Parsnips, Rutabaga, Spinach, Black/Red/Chili Beans, Garbonzo Beans, Diced Winter Squash, Canned or Fresh Sweet Corn, Bell/Jalapeno/Other Chili Peppers, Lima Beans, Barley, Pastina, Elbow Macaroni, Rice, Small Pasta Shells, Fresh Sweet Corn, Shiitake/Portobello/Oyster/Enoki/Baby Bella/Morel (good luck) Mushrooms, Black Wood Ear Fungus, Rice, Quinoa, Cauliflower, Broccolini, Radishes, Daikon Radishes, Tofu, Red/Green/Napa/Chinese Flowering Cabbage, Bok Choy, and Water Chestnuts.

Do Not Use: Sweet Potatoes or Yams. That's gross

Method

Brown the ground beef in the pot you will be making the soup in. Do this on medium high to high, depending on your stove. You want to get the beef crispy brown before you add the onions in as the water in the onions will water down the pot and make the beef soft and less flavorful. Once you have those crispy edges around your beef, start breaking it up and then add the diced onions. Throw some salt in there to get the onions sweating. Give this about ten minutes and stir it every once in a while. Once the onions are translucent, add the Garlic and stir it in. Once you start smelling the Garlic aroma, it's time to dump in your stock. Bring the whole mess to a boil.

I let it boil for about 5 minutes just to take the raw bit off of the Garlic. Now it is time to add all of the vegetables except the canned green beans. Stir them in and bring the heat up to high. Also, add the MSG and ground black pepper at this point.

Keep the pot at a rolling boil for about ten minutes to cook and soften the fresh vegetables. I usually keep the lid on the pot cracked open just a bit to prevent boil-over and spillage. After ten minutes, add the Canned Green Beans. Simmer the whole thing for another 20 minutes at least. Taste for Salt.