This is a very American recipe, salt of the earth and processed cheese. I made it for dinner on Monday and served it with Tomato-Rosemary muffins, completing the transmogriphication of a cheeseburger and fries with ketchup into something more suitable for a cold winter evening:
It’s hearty and warm and uses real ingredients, if not all terribly healthy ones. If you have a food processor for the first step and someone to help peel the potatoes, it can come together fairly quickly. If not, it can still be a relaxing process to do it manually.
When I was taking far too many classes my last semester of undergrad, a professor assigned a weekly “artist’s date” as part of our studio photography class, insisting we take at least an hour off from work to do something personally rewarding. I remember making this recipe and feeling much better about life in general as I chopped potatoes and sat down to eat.
Cheeseburger Soup
- 1/2 lb ground beef
- 1 large onion, chopped.
- 3/4 cup shredded carrots
- 3/4 cup sliced celery
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 4 Tbs butter, divided
- 3 cups beef broth
- 4 cup diced peeled potatoes
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 cups (8 oz.) American cheese (or shredded cheddar)
- 1 1/2 cup milk
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- In a 3 qt. saucepan, brown beef; drain and set aside.
- In the same saucepan, sauté onion, carrots, celery, basil and parsley in 1 Tbs. butter until vegetables are tender, about 10 min.
- Add broth, potatoes and beef; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
- Next, in a small skillet, melt remaining butter. Add flour; cook and stir until bubbly. Add to soup; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low.
- Add cheese, milk, salt, and pepper; cook and stir until cheese melts. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.
Yield: 6-8 servings (2.5 quarts)
If the slideshow below doesn’t work for you, find the photos on my flickr stream here.
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I tried this last weekend, didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped ’cause I left it on the stove a little too long, but it tasted delicious! 🙂
Your recipes are helping me cope with my ‘just learning how to cook’ phase!!
Yay! I’m glad you’re enjoying them. I have many more to post but I’m slow and lazy. 🙂