Made the usual stew this morning, with my dull knife. Different every time, as must needs be. This time I cut up:

One monster Russet potato,
Tons of organic limp celery that I could save,
Organic carrots were still good, two,
Garlic, 5 crushed cloves,
One cut up black garlic clove dropped in late- savory sweet Gummi-Bizzarro.
Beef chunks cut from my jerky strips now dehydrating outside right now with the same seasonings as in the soup,
Green onions, again lots I had to cut off in the trash from my procrastination.

Some reisi mushroom powder added so the soup is dark colored despite the chicken stock. Trying to up my mushroom intake.

One and a half cartons organic chicken soup stock (what I had, 3 cups[?]), 2 cups filtered water.

Beef bits are sautéed in 2-3 tbls organic olive oil for a minute or two in a deep heavy pot.

Then the chopped vegetables were added, and everything is sautéed two or three minutes more, stirring pretty constantly with a wooden spoon.

Add stock and water, turning heat to High until full boil, then turn down to low boil or simmer.

Add spices, it adds a lot:
Table salt with iodine, fresh ground black pepper, paprika, rosemary, sage, basil, cumin, garlic powder, turmeric. Parsley near the end for electrolytes.

Let it low simmer 45 minutes or so, checking and stirring now and then. It’s done when the vegetables are the right texture.
Anything can be thrown in, but I seldom have leftovers. Except from Carolina’s Mexican takeout place so close by and tasty. And from cooking too many potatoes.

But those usually get reheated with butter & green salsa for breakfast. Or thrown in with pan seared yeggs in olive oil or butter. Or reheated over rice.
Taste it along the way if you’d like to adjust the flavor, though I never do. I like small surprises at my age. And about all you can do wrong with soup is burn it or over salt it. So don’t do that.

Serve it with whatever you like but I still favor Ak-mak Armenian crackers. And lately thin Crunchmaster rice and quinoa crackers, neither using industrial seed oil. Difficult to find in these modern times.

Or yogurt, cottage cheese, sliced tomatoes, relish, salsa, sesame seed oil, tamari sauce, parmesan cheese. Now I’m hungry. It smells good. I mustn’t forget to turn off the beef jerky in about 4 hours.

Yep, it’s tasty. It did need salt which is fine. Now I need to decant it into Mason jars for storage in fridge and freezer, send my pal a pint.

Unless noted, all text and images by todgermanica.com.