We have officially arrived at the wonky weather time of year. One day it’s cold, one day it’s borderline hot, and overall the mornings are much cooler than the evenings. As one who tends to plan my daily menu in the morning, that can mean a challenge for me. Too often it feels like a hearty soup or stew day at 10:00 am, but by 5:00 pm, it’s a warm late-summer day again. Yesterday was just such a day. It was cool in the morning- sweatshirts were passed around for our first day of school, and I fantasized about turning on the oven later and doing some baking.
The baking never happened, as our first school day went much longer than anticipated. And when I looked at the time and saw that I literally had just 90 minutes to transform something frozen in the freezer into dinner before we dashed off to dance classes, I had a bit of a panic on my hands. A quick foray to the freezer assured me that ground beef would thaw fastest in the microwave, and from there the wheels turned in several different directions before settling on what I am calling Bridge Soup.
Bridge Soup is the perfect meal to bridge the summer and fall soup seasons. We’re not quite ready for the rib-sticking hearty soups more akin to a cold winter day, but we’re well past the gazpachos and lighter cream soups of spring and summer. The soup was simple, yet delicious, and insanely inexpensive to throw together. When Andy turned to me and asked if I could recreate this soup again, I knew we had a winner.
Speaking of inexpensive… I’ve been catching on my Tweet feeds as of late a $5 dinner challenge, where participants are encouraged to come up with meals for their family that cost no more than five dollars per person. My first thought? Five dollars per person per meal? If I spent that at each meal we’d be in the poor house! The expensive part of this pot of soup was the ground beef- and that I always buy on sale and hide away in the freezer until needed. The frozen ravioli may sound extravagant, but one package in the freezer added to several soups along the way turns out to be a really inexpensive- and tasty- way to stretch a pot of soup. Not to mention make the kids very happy. All told, if I broke down the cost of everything, this is easily a $5 kettle of soup- for everyone- not per person.
The key to the flavorful soup broth here is almost silly, but don’t dismiss the onion powder. I had been reading about a vegetable soup that used a dry onion soup packet as its base. Since that’s not something I’d buy, I decided instead to use beef broth and add a good teaspoon of onion powder. It was fabulous- the onion added a great depth of flavor, but didn’t taste oniony at all (and thus send the kids running and screaming from the table). I think the bell pepper was also key to the flavor in this soup, so don’t leave that out. For the more adventurous, I am also going to suggest adding a chopped jalapeno. I didn’t- but it sure would have made the soup awesome!
Oh- one last note. Use your judgement on adding more liquid at the end. My tomatoes were not very liquidy, so in retrospect, another cup of broth would have been ideal. But sometimes you get a can of diced tomatoes that is really juicy, so just eyeball the broth, and feel free to add more to get the consistency you like best.
Hamburger Bridge Soup
1 pound ground beef 1/2 large onion, diced 2 stalks celery, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes 4 cups beef broth 1 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon dried basil 1/4 teaspoon Italian herb blend (I used Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset) 1/4 teaspoon salt (leave out if broth is salty) freshly ground black pepper to taste 2 bay leaves 2 cups small frozen cheese ravioli 1 cup broken linguini pieces 1 green bell pepper, diced Parmesan cheese for topping (optional)In a large soup pot, brown the ground beef over medium high heat and drain the grease. Add the onion and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and celery and cook for another 2 minutes.
Add the diced tomatoes, beef broth, onion powder, dried basil, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and bay leaves. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for ten minutes.
After ten minutes, check the liquid level, and taste for seasoning. Adjust by adding additional salt and pepper if desired, and adding more beef broth or water to increase the water level.
Add the bell pepper, ravioli and linguini pieces. Return it to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and cover. Cook for another ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve immediately with Parmesan cheese for topping.