Beef Tomato Stew

Obviously, this isn't a Korean recipe, but I thought I would share it anyway.



The cold weather made me want to make some of my beef/tomato/bean soup. It's just something I started to do when I got married to use up all the leftover veggies in the fridge.



First I drain the blood from some beef stew meat and then sautee it in a pot with oil, minced garlic, and LOTS of herbs and spices, most important is the PEPPER..use it liberally.



I use italian seasoning, oregano, black pepper, seasoned salt, garlic powder, and kosher salt. You can pretty much use whatever you have...you don't have to use these exact things, use what you have and get creative!



Then I add fresh chopped tomatoes and onions and cook until everything is nice and ripe. Afterwards, I pour in a can of canned tomatoes to give it some extra juiciness. At this point you can add a can of beef broth to give it more flavor, or you can skip the broth and just add water. I've tried it both ways and it tastes just as good. Pour water in the pot, just enough so that you have room for MORE vegetables...



After you bring the water to a boil, add beans. I bought this bag of beans that had 15 different kinds of beans in it. I also added a lot of pearl barley. Barley is yummy. Make sure you let the beans soak overnight in water or else it will take forever to cook!



Then add carrots and potatoes and bring to a boil for another 10 minutes.



Then add celery and squash and bring to a boil for 10 minutes. Then add corn, cabbage and mushrooms and bring to a boil (no picture). Then finally add some pasta shells (if you want to) and let boil for about 15 minutes. Total boiling time will be two hours or more.



In the end, you get a nice rich hearty soup. Use sea salt or kosher salt to taste. I probably used 1-2 tablespoons of salt (the pot is HUGE) so it's not really THAT much salt. I called my little bro over last night and gave him half. I have a tendency to make a lot of food at once...



Yummy, yummy soup!

Note: You can pretty much use whatever veggies you have in your fridge and it will come out decent. I had some shallots, carrots, onions, squash, mushrooms, potatoes, garlic, cabbage, celery, and some other stuff. It's a good way to get rid of veggies that might go bad otherwise~ Go cleanse your fridge!! The most important thing is the can of tomatoes because that's where you're going to get the juices.