Brisket Vegetable Soup

This simple soup can be made with meat of your choice. I happen to have left over brisket in the fridge, and love the full flavor a little beef can bring to a vegetable soup. I like to keep store bought chicken and/or vegetable stock in the coffers so that I can always make a quick soup.

With stock from scratch you can infuse more layers of flavor, but this soup tasted like it had simmered for hours after only 730 minutes.

Ingredients

3 cups chicken broth or stock

3 cups water

2-3 celery stocks, sliced fairly thin

1 cup sliced carrots

3 cloves garlic

1 cup other vegetables in the fridge, chopped. Broccoli stems are nice for soups. They have more flavor than the crowns, and often get left behind to wither in the "crisper".

3 cloves garlic

Herbs of your choice

Kosher salt to taste

1 cup chopped leftover brisket. This particular brisket had a little sauce on it, which added a flavor layer. Use a little more tomato paste if your meat is unsauced.

Tomato paste - about 4 tablespoons.

Step-by-step

1. Chop vegetables. Pour water and stock or broth into pot and turn up to medium-high.

2. Add celery and carrots. Turn down so that the soup is just under boiling.

3. After 10 minutes or so, add other vegetables that may take less time, salt, herbs, and garlic. Let simmer.

4. Prep the brisket. Using leftover barbecue meats in soups is wonderful, but you need to trim off the visible fat when cold. For the brisket, I originally trimmed it cold, then made the chopped brisket with sauce. Once it cooled, I removed any visible fat. After I put the leftovers in the soup, I skimmed again for oil on the surface (made me feel like a BP worker).

5. Add brisket and tomato paste. Simmer until ready.