Since Eve is heading off to camp for SIX WEEKS, she got to request a final meal at home before she goes. She asked for soup. Her camp makes great organic food, but not enough soup for her tastes. And so I thought about what kind of soup I could make that wouldn’t take too long and would satisfy her. Then I remembered that I had some ground elk meat from my friend Christian Berg, Editor of Peterson’s Bowhunting. In fact, I’ve been saving a guest blog post he wrote until I was able to make this soup and taste and test it with my family. His post will appear soon.
In case you don’t have any elk in your freezer, you can substitute any ground meat (organic, please) and it will taste yummy, I promise! But I have to say the elk soup was a great success, eaten voraciously by all—even for breakfast the next morning. I served it with popovers, and those were gobbled up, too. Elk is not gamey tasting at all. In fact, it has quite a mild flavor.
Quick Summer Vegetable and Elk Soup
Ingredients:
1 pound ground elk or other ground meat
1/3 cup olive oil
1 onion
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
2 cobs fresh corn cut from the cob
1/3 cup peas, or as many as you like
2 Tablespoons butter
2 tomatoes
6 medium Yukon gold potatoes
8 cups water
2 Tablespoons salt
Handful of fresh herbs and kale if you have it
Directions:
1. Fry up the meat in the olive oil in a big pot on top of the stove (I use a La Crueset Dutch oven).
2. Chop up all the vegetables and add to the meat.
3. Add the salt and butter.
4. Cook for a few minutes, till everything is glistening and yummy.
5. Add 8 cups of water and let it boil/simmer for about an hour.
6. Right before serving, turn off the heat and chop up some fresh herbs (I used dill, basil, and parsley)—and fresh kale if you have it—and add.
Variations on this abound, of course. But too much corn makes the soup too sweet.
Organic soup for breakfast on a cool summer morn sounds absolutely fantastic. Can’t wait to hear from Christian Berg, he is a good writer and a thoughtful hunter.
Your recipe sounds delicious and I’ll bet it soup would taste yummy with no meat at all! Thanks. Maria.
MyraSaidIt
http://www.healthylivingtodayandtomorrow.blogspot.com
That sounds incredibly delicious!
I think I’d rather eat this on a breezy autumn afternoon or on a cold winter’s day in January after New Year, when life becomes slow again and nothing is going on! I’ll have a side of corn bread or popovers with that please!
Mmmmmm! Going to try this with venison this week.