Here's a soup that takes about an hour to cook, is full of flavor, but still simple to prepare. The only work involved is chopping up your onion, carrot, celery, and green pepper. The great part is not having to cut up any raw meat as I find that to usually be the most labor intensive and unenjoyable part of cooking.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb ground beef
7 cups water
3 tsp beef bouillon
2+ cups of chopped carrots
1 1/2 cups chopped red onion
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup barley
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup ketchup
2 -14.5 oz cans stewed tomatoes (italian style)
8 oz can tomato sauce
I've tried this soup, in the past, with a regular onion and regular stewed tomatoes, it tasted fine, however, I highly recommend the red onion and italian style stewed tomatoes as it adds an enormous amount of flavor in the end. In a large soup pan or dutch oven brown the ground beef. Drain the fat, if there is any, and add all of the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove bay leaves and serve with french bread and butter! Perfect for a chilly evening!
