Beef Vegetable Soup and Pasta (It’s gluten free, too!)

Mmm ... soup. Now that the crisp morning air is kissing our noses, it’s time to transition to “warm me up” foods. In the Gouda household, that means soup time! Mmm, mmm, mmm. Soupy, soupy, soupy! I love the stuff and at the risk of sounding morbid, am pretty confident that Soup Maker could serve as my epitaph. I make a lot of soup. A lotta soup a lot.

For those of us navigating our way through the new world of eating gluten free, we find ourselves revamping tried and true recipes. Now you gluten eaters stay with me, cuz this is really good. Take today’s recipe, for example. Beef vegetable soup over pasta. In our gluten eating days, I would have floured the beef, browned it, etc. as part of the recipe.Now a days, I skip the flouring part and stick with direct, clean flavors. I’m really, really pleased with the end result. Even more so, so is my souper girl who can’t eat wheat. When I made this yesterday, I was after a beefy flavored soup that would be complimented with yet not usurped by vegetables. You’ll not see either peas or green beans in this version. While I LOVE those Kermit colored veggies in my soup, their flavors are more prominent than what I shooting for. I also used V8 juice instead of tomatoes because my littlest doesn’t really enjoy bits of tomato in her soup. Silly girl. I ended up topping my portion with a lovely roasted tomato relish I made a couple days ago. No photo, though, sorry. Next, my older kids were clamoring for pasta, specifically the rice pasta that we enjoy around here. So, I decided to combine the two. Voila ... successful flavor marriage.Let’s make some soup, shall we!

2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 lbs of beef, cubed (I made mine smallish, around ½ to ¾”)
1 onion, diced medium
4 long carrots, sliced ¼ in rounds
1 clove garlic minced
1 celery stalk, sliced thin
1 cans beef broth (I used Swanson’s)
2 cans chicken broth (I used Swanson’s)
2/3 cup V8 juice
1 additional can of beef broth
3 cups of diced potatoes (from my garden garbage-can-potatoes!)
1/2 cup corn
Seasoned salt
Pepper
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon parsley
Cooked shaped pasta, buttered and splashed with a little olive oil – I used gluten free rice pasta - fusilli shapeHeat a large stock pot over medium high heat, and add the oil. Immediately add the beef cubes taking care not to crowd them. Season the beef with seasoned salt and pepper, and saute the beef for a few minutes making sure to brown on all sides. Add the onion, stir to scrape up any fond on the bottom, and sauté for about a minute. Add the carrot and sauté for another minute or two. Stir in the garlic, then the celery. You should be able to smell the garlic right away. Add the 1 can of beef broth, 2 cans of chicken broth, and V8 juice. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 2 hours. After 2 hours, add another can of broth and bring back to a boil. Add the potatoes, corn, and seasonings, and cook for another ½ hour.
Place cooked pasta in a large soup bowl. Spoon soup on top. Make yummy noises.

What foods are you making now that Fall is in the air?