This has been my go-to soup for over two decades. It’s my hearty winter lunch soup and my ‘I feel like crap and want something warm and comforting in my tummy’ soup.
I remember the first time I had it in my Auntie June’s kitchen – it was the best soup I’d ever had. I _needed_ that recipe; well my dad needed it so he could make it for me.
I still have the recipe he wrote out in my Auntie June’s kitchen – it’s on a small piece of pink notebook paper that was torn from my super sparkly unicorn note book (good God I was a girlie girl growing up!)
This recipe is a little bit changed from my aunt’s original because it’s me and that’s just how I roll but the basic ingredients still remain the same.
Aunt June’s Hamburger Soup
Ingredients
2 lb. hamburger
1 20 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 medium onions – chopped
3 carrots diced
3 ribs of celery diced
1/3 cup of pearl barley
¼ cup of ketchup or Heinz chili
sauce
2 tbsp. beef bouillon (low
sodium)
2-3 thai bird chilies, thinly
sliced
A handful of chopped fresh
cilantro
2 tsp. homemade seasoned salt
1 tsp. dried basil
1-2 bay leaves
6 cups of hot water
Directions
1.
In a dutch
oven, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, brown the ground beef and drain off
excess fat.
2.
Stir in
the rest of the ingredients and add in the 6 cups of water
3.
Bring to a
boil and reduce to medium low and simmer for an hour
4.
Season to
taste with salt and pepper, remove the bay leaves.
5.
Serve in
individual bowls and top with shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of no fat
sour cream (both are optional)
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Eat!
Enjoy!!
