Chill in the Air - Cowboy Soup

October brought a little chill in the air. Having been to the fair and eaten my share of fair food, I was feeling some guilt about the scales and my arteries. The combination of the cool weather and a need to eat something wholesome and healthy led me to make Mama's Homemade Vegetable Soup (Cowboy Soup).

We have been on the go so much that I also wanted a day to regroup. There was a chance of rain in Monday's forecast so I planned to spend all day Monday regrouping at home and making vegetable soup. Actually this soup doesn't take all day. Once you cut up the vegetables and cook for 20 minutes, you just add the rest of the ingredients and it can simmer for a while.

Turns out it didn't rain, but I followed thru with the rest of my plan.

Back in the day, Nishie used to make soup for us at the old house in Lattimore. We didn't love the idea of vegetable soup back then, so Nishie called it Cowboy Soup. Nishie was such a good salesman. She made everything fun.

Miraculously Cowboy Soup was one of our favorite things from then on. I'm pretty sure Nishie didn't have a recipe, but used whatever was leftover from Sunday lunch. It was tomato based and had all kinds of vegetables and always okra.

Mama didn't have a recipe either, but she has made soup so many times that she and Daddy have written down a framework for how she does it. She tweaks it alot with different spices and alternative vegetables and occasionally with beef.

As always, cutting up the vegetables uniformly is a big deal. This is for two reasons - they cook more evenly and they meet Mama's pretty requirement.

This recipe makes a big pot of soup. This week, David and I had it for dinner, then Sister and Mrs. Sarazen and I had it for lunch, and then I put the rest in a quart mason jar to take to Chris for his birthday. I'm sure Daddy has figured out the cost per serving, but I don't have that info at my fingertips. No doubt it is a really inexpensive way to eat something wonderful and healthy.


Mama's Homemade Vegetable Soup (Cowboy Soup)

3 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 onions, peeled and chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
3 cans beef broth
2 Cans diced tomatoes
1 package of frozen corn (for Mom this means 1 pint ziplock bag of homegrown frozen corn but you can use grocery store corn if you don't have your own)

In large soup pot, put carrots, potatoes and onions and some water and 1 can of beef broth to cover. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Remove half of the vegetables and puree, then return to the pot. This makes the soup thicker. I don't do this step sometimes and just go with thinner soup. I like thin soup with cornbread!

Cook 1 package of frozen corn. This is a good time to use corn from years past if you have it. This time, I used 2006 corn and it was great.

Add the corn, rest of the beef broth and 2 Cans of diced tomatoes. Mom's recipe says 1 regular and 1 Italian style tomatoes.

Season with a few drops of Tabasco, oregano leaves, basil leaves, salt, pepper.

For alternatives, she also might add thyme leaves, frozen baby limas, frozen chopped okra. She always cooks her frozen vegetables first then adds to the soup pot. If she wants vegetable beef soup, she adds leftover roast beef or she might cook some stew beef especially for soup.

Simmer the soup and serve with Mama's Cornbread. Soup and Cornbread - all the elements.