My Girl, Paula: Beef Vegetable Soup

This week's My Girl, Paula! dish is "The Lady & Sons Beef Vegetable Soup," a perfect cold-weather meal.  It's a great pick for Thanksgiving week, because your family can eat out of that big pot of soup all week while you save your energy for cooking the big feast!  In need of some fresh ideas for your Thanksgiving spread?  Be sure to check out the other members' blogs for more inspiration; you're sure to find something new and tasty to make for Thursday's meal or any time of the year!  

The recipe is sized to feed an army, so I scaled it down to one-third of the original.  It doesn't make much sense to use all the individual vegetables called for, unless you happen to have them on hand already (the amounts in the scaled down recipe would be 1/3 cup).  Instead, I used a frozen vegetable blend (PictSweet® Old Fashion Vegetable Soup) which included almost all of the vegetables needed: potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, corn, green beans, peas, onion, celery, and butter beans.  That pretty much covers the original ingredients list (besides the black-eyed peas and okra, but I don't think I'll miss them)!  AND it was on sale for $1.00!


Smaller Batch Beef Vegetable Soup (Makes about 2½ quarts)
Adapted from Paula Deen's recipe in The Lady & Sons, Too!

1 to 1½ lbs. beef short ribs
5 cups cold water
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
1 Tbl. dried parsley
2 tsp. beef bouillon granules (or 2 cubes)
1 tsp. garlic salt 
1 tsp. seasoned salt
1 small bay leaf
½ tsp. black pepper
¼ tsp. celery salt (or seed)
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
10 oz. can Mild Ro-Tel® tomatoes, undrained*
16 oz. frozen vegetable blend - PictSweet® "Old Fashion Vegetable Soup"
¼ cup uncooked elbow macaroni
½ tsp. Accent (MSG--optional)

 *Use regular diced tomatoes if preferred.

Heat a large (4 qt.) Dutch oven or soup pot, and add short ribs.  Let brown for a few minutes (no oil needed), then add water, seasonings, and tomatoes to pot.  Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover and reduce heat to low.  Let simmer for 1½ to 2 hours, or until meat is very tender.  Carefully remove short ribs from pot**.  Cut the meat from the bones, discard the bones and fat, and return meat to pot.  Add frozen vegetables to pot, and return the soup to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 25 minutes.  Add macaroni to pot and continue simmering for another 20 minutes.  Add Accent, if desired, and adjust other seasonings to taste.  

**Fat may be skimmed from soup now, if desired.  Or, prepare soup a day ahead of serving.  Cool soup and place in refrigerator.  When soup has chilled, the fat will solidify and be easier to remove.