Homemade Vegetable Beef (or Chicken) Soup

I love making soup! It's so easy to make and easy to store for later use. Here's my recipe for Vegetable Beef Soup. I hope you find it as tasty as I do!

Ingredients: (Add as many or as little veggies as you like. This is just my version)

2 Ears of corn cut off the cobb (or 1 can of corn)
9 Stalks of celery
4-5 Carrots
1 Cooking or white onion
6 Baby potatoes (red or white)
1 Can black beans (rinsed)
2 Cans diced tomatoes
2 Bay leaves
1Tbsp vegetable oil or olive oil
1 32 oz Vegetable stock
1 32 oz Beef broth (or chicken broth)
1 package of Stew beef (or cubed chicken)
Salt & Pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat oil and add chopped carrots, celery and onion. Cover and let these ingredients soften on medium heat, stirring occasionally to keep from burning. If there's browning in the bottom of the pot, leave it! These will be good for flavor later on.

Once carrots, onion and celery are softened and onions look translucent, remove from pot and set aside in large bowl. Combine the diced potatoes, black beans, and corn into this same bowl.

Keep heat on medium and add tiny more vegetable or olive oil. Add stew beef or cubed chicken and cook until beef is browned or chicken is white. Remove the meat into a separate bowl to cool for later use.

Again, if there are any brown bits in the bottom of the pot leave them for flavor. Keep heat on medium and add veggie mixture into pot along with the 2 cans of diced tomatoes. At this time you will want to add half of the vegetable stock and beef or chicken broth to the pot. If you cannot fit all of the stock at once it's ok. Use the remainder later on to make a second batch of broth. At this time your pot should be pretty full. Remember you still need to add the cooked meat back into the pot after chopping up large pieces.

Add cooked meat to soup mixture and cover. Let the soup come to a boil and then let simmer for half an hour. Salt and pepper soup to taste. If you can find them, remove the bay leaves before dividing soup into containers to refrigerate or freeze.